Merging Dreams. Adomas Danusevičius, Eglė Gineitytė, Eglė Kuckaitė, Alina Melnikova
20 November 2025 – 26 April 2026
Nature and culture have long been acting as opposites, with people wanting to control the elements, but for a while now, this relationship has been getting a major rethink. In the work of four well-known Lithuanian artists with very different styles, nature and humans are inseparable. They are attracted, guided, beaten, and caressed by the same force that grows mushrooms, runs wild the vegetation, makes animals dance, or watches vigilantly in human form, hushing in the moonlight.
There were two stimuli for the exhibition. First, there was a desire to evoke the colorful vitality of nature like a dream during the dark time of year, to stir up feelings with undefined identities, to delight the eyes with diversity, and a flair of adventure. Second, a desire to once again reflect on the concept of the contemporary exile.
If we perceive the migration of Lithuanian people associated with world wars as severed roots and expulsion, contemporary exiles are different. They circulate the world and constantly return. These are connections that we want to imagine as our common bloodstream with Europe and the wider world.
Even though we are settled, we all travel much more, and images from afar flash across our screens uninvited. Our reservoirs of images are filling up and gaining more variations, so when we see something, we are increasingly struck by the feeling that we have already encountered it somewhere before. So, those who have emigrated are a little bit at home, while those who have settled down have one foot out the door.
The selected authors are from different generations, contexts, and circumstances: Eglė Gineitytė and Eglė Kuckaitė work in Lithuania, Adomas Danusevičius here and in Denmark, Alina Melnikova in Catalonia, Spain; three of them studied painting, one also studied graphic arts. All work in different styles, but they are united by a post-humanistic worldview, and we can also identify connecting motifs (vegetation, a more attentive gaze, ears, a turned back, hybrid characters), forms of attentiveness (indeterminacy, the tension of the moment), and techniques (painting and clay, mixed media). Looking at these artists in one space, one might get the feeling that they are sharing common dreams.
The authors of the exhibition are characterized by mixed, individual techniques, not limited to one form of expression. Adomas Danusevičius draws with colored markers, creates clay objects, and paints with oil paints. Alina Melnikova also works with an airbrush. Eglė Kuckaitė draws with ink markers, combining painting with monotype prints and authored stamps, while Eglė Gineitytė blends oil paints with chalk, printing inks, and other media.
A large part of the works on display are related to the circumstances of travel, trips, and visits. Eglė Kuckaitė was inspired by a trip to the Philippines, Eglė Gineitytė was impressed by a visit to the botanical garden, Alina Melnikova’s works are dominated by the dazzling light, and Adomas Danusevičius’ characters find themselves in a public situation.
Dreams are important in the exhibition not only as a metaphor for a fluid image and meaning: Eglė Gineitytė sometimes dreams of herself with long hair („The Miller’s Son“), Adomas Danusevičius is visited in his dream by his aunt’s dog Mikis, and the spaces and characters in all of the authors’ works are dreamlike in their own way.
Adomas Danusevičius (born in 1984) studied painting at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, obtained a PhD in 2017, and completed an internship at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. After making a striking debut in the Young Painter Prize competition (2010), the artist has remained memorable for his talented and sensitive exploration of themes of identity. His achievements are marked by a long list of solo and group exhibitions in Lithuania and other countries.
Using exaggerated imagery strategies and camp aesthetics, the artist seeks to deconstruct and expand upon culturally entrenched images of masculinity to reveal their artificiality. His paintings are characterized by masqueradeness, the potential for metamorphosis, and the motif of a deceptive mask. It combines the insights into the theory of gender, political and confrontational aims with personal narratives, and a tendency to provoke is replaced with an intimate atmosphere and erotic connotations.
Alina Melnikova (born in 1983) lives and works in Barcelona. She studied painting at Miguel Hernandez de Elche University (Elche, Spain) and Vilnius Academy of Arts, and completed an internship at the Center of Curatorial Studies in Berlin. She has exhibited her works in Lithuania and other countries (Spain, Austria, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Poland, Finland, etc.). She made her debut in Lithuania as a prominent performance artist („Don’t Kiss Me, I Can Do It Myself„, 2027; „Non-monumental„, 2008) and was awarded in the Young Painter Prize competition (2009).
Her paintings focus on the relationship between humans and the dictates of their environment, nature, instincts, and their cultural aspects. Using various media, such as drawings, installations, ceramics, performances, and especially oil painting, the author creates visually and semantically multi-layered works that are not easily defined.
Eglė Kuckaitė (born in 1969) studied graphic art at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and obtained a Master’s degree in painting from the same institution in 2013. The artist was awarded the Grand Prize at the Tallinn Graphic Art Triennial „In Exile“ (2004) and the Grand Prize at the International Triennial „Transfers“ in Prague (2007). Since 1992, she has participated in exhibitions in Lithuania and other countries (Argentina, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States).
She is consistently interested in the perception of human and female identity and its transformation, using the possibilities of hybridity and paradox. Her creative work reveals an attention to the poetics of images and the potential of metaphor. Spree and shift are keywords in her work.
Eglė Gineitytė graduated in painting at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, studied at the Salzburg Summer Academy in 1993, and has been participating in group exhibitions in Lithuania and other countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, and New York, USA). She has held more than 10 solo exhibitions.
Her paintings and drawings constantly approach the realm of abstractness, but rarely cross the line into it. However, it is precisely this nuanced proximity to the viewer that best reveals the explosive power of her imagination and the potential of painting as a medium for extracting the essence of an image.
Curator Monika Krikštopaitytė
Architect Ieva Cicėnaitė
Designer Marija Jablonskytė
Coordinator Birutė Pankūnaitė
Organizer Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art
Partners: MO museum, THE ROOM, Institut Ramon Llull, dailininkams.lt
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1 Goštauto st, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 261 6764.
kasiulio.muziejus@lndm.lt
