Andrius Zakarauskas 'In the Name Of'

One of the most promising and highly regarded painters of the younger generation of Lithuania, Zakarauskas’s work occupies all the gallery exhibition spaces and will include paintings and collages created during the past years. In his work the artist explores the themes of painting as ideology and cult creation with an attempt to (de)construct their correlations. The questions addressed in the exhibition In the Name Of are inseparable from the artist’s earlier work in which he also reflected on painting, the role of the painter, and the suggestibility of painting.

The latest works from Zakarauskas use painting techniques – colour, the stroke of the brush and almost abstract composition structures – to create a certain ‘utopian ideology’” connecting it to painting and the figure of the painter. Quoting and interpreting the rhetoric of propaganda, pathos which is at the same time both insistent and inspiring, the postures and gestures cultivated by the great authoritarian ideologies and religions, the artist makes them subject to painting. Thus a fictional cult-like atmosphere is created highlighting the role of the artist as demiurge (omnipotent creator).

The artist is especially intrigued by the structure and elements of ideology creation, the consistent repetition, intensity of expression and various associations of which become independent and potentially able to influence the consciousness of the perceiver. Zakarauskas keeps returning to the issues of the nature of creativeness and the myth of the divinity of the creator. The title of the exhibition is often associated with faith, religious or some other ideological sacrifice, and serves as the key to the idea behind the exhibition.

- Galerija VARTAI