Photos – courtesy of Mika Savičiūtė and Marius Jonutis ©
“For the twenty-first consecutive spring, I will be exhibiting at the Meno Niša Gallery. Same river, same me, just a different entrance. This time it’s more erotic. So I invite you to take a trip to Heaven. To forget for a moment the horrors and dangers,” says artist Marius Jonutis about his exhibition Out of Heaven. The opening of the exhibition will take place on Thursday, March 28 at 5 pm at the Vilnius City Gallery Meno Niša.
The artist Marius Jonutis has been collaborating with Vilnius City Meno Niša since the very beginning of the gallery. This year, the gallery celebrates its 22nd exhibition season, and M. Jonutis has been organizing solo exhibitions there for 21 years.
As Diana Stomienė, the gallery’s director, said, the artist’s yearly exhibition at the gallery speaks of his productivity and inexhaustible creativity. “Common and topical themes create the narrative of Marius’ work, regardless of material or technique. This time, in Out of Heaven, the artist will probably surprise more than a few people with his choice of erotic themes, but this is what makes his work interesting – the same technique, similar characters, but talking about different topics.”
Speaking about his exhibition Out of Heaven, M. Jonutis said that last year he illustrated the book of Lithuanian erotic fairy tales Adam Missed Eve. This is the sixth book of fairy tales illustrated by the artist and published by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore. “The adventures of Adam and Eve are quite entertaining and fun, they were not boring to draw. I will show the whole collection of forty paintings in this exhibition, hoping that the audience will not be bored either,” said the artist about the forthcoming exhibition.
According to Marius, it was not difficult to come up with a name for the exhibition. “Because other paintings, which I made not for the book, but for the sake of it, could also take place in Heaven, and the title Out of Heaven should perhaps mean a journalistic report of a visit there, not a casting out of Heaven. I don’t feel banished at all,” says Jonutis about the idea of the exhibition.
The exhibition Out of Heaven will feature around 40 canvas paintings of Adam Missed Eve, and will also display a complete and accurate map of Heaven to help visitors find their way around. There will also be a chance to open the book and read the authentic text about any of the paintings, or pick up a colouring book and pencils to find better colour combinations than the artist’s. In the exhibition, the artist will also show wooden illustrations for the book Vilnius Legends, which was published last year for the anniversary of Vilnius.
Jonutis graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts with a degree in graphic arts. He has held more than 50 group exhibitions and more than 60 solo exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad. The artist mainly creates sculptures, painted wooden reliefs, paintings, graphic works and illustrated books. During his 30-year career, M. Jonutis has created over 1,000 works of art, most of which have found their audience and new homes. Due to the topicality of his themes and the simplicity of his expression, his work is of interest to a very wide range of art lovers and collectors, and his works have been acquired by a large number of Lithuanian and foreign collectors.
Vilnius City Gallery Meno Nišais sponsored by Vilnius City Municipality.
