The exhibition “China” by Lithuanian sculptor Mindaugas Navakas at SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY in Berlin 

On October 15 at 6 PM, the exhibition “China” by Lithuanian sculptor Mindaugas Navakas will open at SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY in Berlin. 

Mindaugas Navakas is one of the most prominent figures in Lithuanian contemporary sculpture. His work played a significant role in transforming sculptural practice during the 1980s and the 1990s and in shaping the development of contemporary art in Lithuania. His artistic practice is distinguished by its attention to materiality, scale, and the relationship between the object and its environment. Throughout his career, Navakas has consistently explored the possibilities of sculpture by combining diverse materials, forms, and cultural contexts. Monumental forms, precise construction, and a sensitive engagement with architectural and urban environments remain defining characteristics of his work. The artist’s sculptures have been exhibited extensively in public spaces, with many becoming integral elements of urban landscapes both in Lithuania and abroad. The exhibition marks Navakas’ symbolic return to Berlin, where his monumental outdoor sculptures were installed in the Hellersdorf district in 1998.

In the exhibition “China”, the artist presents porcelain, which has become a significant direction in his recent practice, and continues his exploration of the connections between material, form, and cultural traditions. In Navakas’ works, hard-paste porcelain, historically associated with Eastern ceramic traditions, refinement, and craftsmanship, takes the form of massive structures characteristic of Western industrial life and classical architecture. This tension between the origin of the material and its form becomes the central point of the exhibition, where Eastern and Western aesthetic concepts and the cultural canons they have shaped, collide.

The artist takes an ironic approach to the use of porcelain in everyday Western environments, questioning the supposed stability of aesthetic canons and revealing their inherent fluidity. While Eastern tradition associates the material with decorative vases and luxury tableware, in the West it is often linked to utilitarian and sterile environments. This contrast in Navakas’ works is erased through gilded details and decorative motifs that evoke traditional ornamentation, here appearing in the context of industrial and classical architecture. In the sculptures, the forms, symbols, and values of both traditions intertwine, revealing the continuous transformation of cultures, in which aesthetic canons lose their fixed boundaries and reveal new, yet unrecognized meanings.

Mindaugas Navakas has been actively exhibiting in Lithuania and internationally since 1977. For many years, he worked as a professor in the Sculpture Department at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Among numerous international appearances, his work was presented at the inaugural Gwangdju Biennale in 1995, and in 1999, he co-represented Lithuania, together with Eglė Rakauskaitė, at the 48th Venice Biennale, where Lithuania presented its first official pavilion. Navakas received the Herder Prize in 1995, the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts in 1999, and the Baltic Assembly Prize in 2004. His works are held in the collections of major museums in Lithuania and abroad, including the Lithuanian National Museum of Art and MO Museum in Lithuania, as well as museums and collections in Finland, Latvia, United States, and other countries.

The exhibition “China” will be on view at SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY, Marburger Str. 3, Berlin, until November 14.

The presentation of Mindaugas Navakas solo show is part of an international exchange project between SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY and the (AV17) Gallery in Vilnius.

The project is funded by the Vilnius City Municipality.