Exhibitions

At the (AV17) gallery Vitalis Čepkauskas exhibition “Conversions/Collection” was held – there we can see everyday objects “modified” by artist which stories and experiences the author constructs through different and unexpected artistic forms of expression.

Vitalis Čepkauskas – an artist who creates sculptures, installations, objects, pieces of painting and photography. The author has held more than 20 personal exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad. In the (AV17) gallery the artist presents an exhibition, where simple everyday objects, turned into sculptural objects and acquired autonomous narratives, will be displayed.

Author was inspired for this exhibition by the video artist Bill Viola piece “Ocean without shore”, in 2007 presented at the Venice Biennale. It is the viewer involving, meditative piece, by which fragility and transience of life, a continuous life – death cycle and the essential human conditions change phenomenon is perceived. Namely these processes and presences are relevant to Vitalis Čepkauskas, whose work explores the “conversion” moment, when the masks fall, and the man becomes himself with his authentic experiences. To Čepkauskas conversion – it is a kind of “insight” – the sudden overflow of strong evidence feeling, physically untouchable, but converting for perpetuity. Pace of change is immeasurable.

Objects created by the author is their own history and memory accumulating daily items, which through transformation gather a new being, a new face. Collection may not have physical form, but have stories that connect it. Items in the hands of the artist reveal their ability to collect life traces and memories. An object is personified in that way visually linking the user’s – the tool’s experiences and presence cycles. Maybe for the artist the perception of an ongoing and every time recurring cycle is a “conversion”? In the exhibition displayed old carved tennis-rackets, knives and other utensils that have a strong remaining relationship with the past and their owners – the memories “collections”. In author’s works also inevitably arise and sacred motives, without which it is difficult to dispense while talking about life cycle and “insights.” In Vitalis Čepkauskas works authentic, almost sacred experiences become motive, creative material and the main theme.