Lutum Magnum

 

Lutum magnum is Latin for “fine clay” or “great mud”. Clay is an inexpensive, durable and environmentally-friendly material easily available to all creators. It is a soft and convenient-to-use three-dimensional pencil that conveys the artist’s idea, through hand, into shape. Wet clay reveals and preserves the artist’s every touch, yet when left to dry or fired in the oven, it can suddenly feel left to its own devices and create shapes beyond the creators’ control.

 

In a sense, clay is also a clear reference to the soil on which we walk and off which we live, and can even become a vessel for containing life – after all, golem was created from clay. From it came pots, bricks, shelter, and a possibility of food production. Clay is a primary raw material that can take many forms and change almost magically in different contexts: mythological, literary, historical, symbolic, magical and artistic.

 

The exhibition Lutum magnum is about the connection between clay and art in Lithuania, aiming to reveal the diversity of ways in which the materiality of clay is expressed in contemporary art. The works comprising the exhibition have been created in different periods by artists from different fields, yet are characterised by harmony between material, process and concept. From a clay dish to paintings, graphics, installations and visual art, clay has been used here in many different ways by artists belonging to different generations.

 

Moreover, clay is touched and perceived daily, both as a sanitary functional element indispensable in our lives and as a decorative object. The search for that relationship – functional and non-functional, single-time and unique – is the core theme of all the pieces in this exhibition. From clay sketches by Antanas Vivulskis to this year’s clay hacking by Jurga Barilaitė, clay offers artists a myriad of ways in which to experience a unique relationship with creativity.

 

The exhibition features works by Robertas Antinis (junior), Robertas Antinis, Jurga Barilaitė, Nora Blaževičiūtė, Arturas Bumšteinas, Adomas Danusevičius, Tomas Daukša, Eglė Einikytė-Narkevičienė, Nerijus Erminas, Monika Gedrimaitė, Ona Grigaitė, Ieva Bertašiūtė-Grosbaha, Evaldas Jansas, Audrius Janušonis, Rasa Justaitė-Gecevičienė, Aistė Kisarauskaitė, Vincas Kisarauskas, Saulė Kisarauskienė, Julija Klevinskaitė-Gleixner, Agnė Kondrataitė, Agnė Kučerenkaitė, Sigita Maslauskaitė-Mažylienė, Nicholas Matranga, Antanas Mončys, Mindaugas Navakas, Napoleonas Petrulis, Rafalas Piesliakas, Rimantas Sakalauskas, Aldona Jonuškaitė-Šaltenienė, Mykolas Sauka, Alberta Saukaitytė, Remigijus Sederevičius, Birutė Stulgaitė and Antanas Vivulskis.

 

 

Exhibition will run until 11 September, 2022.

 

 

Exhibition curator Rokas Dovydėnas

Exhibition architect Mindaugas Reklaitis

Exhibition coordinator Jurgita Ludavičienė

Media partner Media Traffic

Project is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture

Project partners: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Antanas Mončys House-Museum

Project organiser Lithuanian National Museum of Art

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