Unexpected Amber: Strong Feelings

26 September, 2025 – 19 April, 20256

Amber comes upon us unexpectedly; you never know when the sea will wash a little piece out by your feet. But ever since the earliest times, no one has been left unmoved upon finding even the tiniest particle of amber on the seashore. Artists’ relationship with these fossilised resins is also complex: it is a complicated material, one that is not so easy to work with – due to the history of amber, its origins wrapped up in legends, and for its symbolic capital. After all, having cut through a piece of amber, thinking about the work yet to be, unexpected things may also lie ahead. Amber is full of surprises, not all of them being so pleasant. It cannot not arouse emotions – when encountering amber, strong feelings wash over both artists and audiences alike.  

 

Unexpected and intensive feelings are hidden in the very legends of the origins of amber too. According to the Ancient Greeks, Phaeton, the son of the Sun god Helios, wanted to equal his father but lost control of the fiery chariot and fell from the sky into the sea. The tears of his sisters, the Heliades, turned into stone, becoming drops of amber. So amber is associated with jealousy, grandeur and mourning? The Lithuanian legend about the goddess Juratė, who lived in an amber castle on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, fell in love with a mortal fisherman that ended up costing her a shattered castle and a broken heart, talks about unrequited love and loyalty.  

 

It’s astounding how much passion these fossilised resin pieces arouse: love, hate, jealousy, mourning, disobedience and pride. The artists participating in this exhibition face amber so as to show it their love, or to try to overcome it, all while being open to the unexpected. Twenty-one creators from eight countries – artists who have been working with amber for a long time, and those who have avoided it up until now. Various artistic traditions, different experiences and different relationships with amber are revealed in this exhibition through forms and narratives, through materials and their combinations. In any case, the unexpectedness hiding in amber opens up a whole spectrum of emotions in each one of us: enchantment, wonderment, admiration, hope… and whatever else you might add. 

Jurgita Ludavičienė 

 

 

Curators Jurgita Ludavičienė, Heidemarie Herb 

Architect Vladas Balsys 

Coordinator Regina Makauskienė 

Graphic designer Lina Bastienė 

The project is funded by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania  

Media partner  Palanga tourism information centre  

Sponsors: UAB „Gintaro pasaulis“, UAB “Sweet Art”, Palangos parko festivalis 

 

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