Artist statement

Here presented works have been painted during quarantine. These artworks are the result of self-isolation, sense of restriction and soaking in my own juice. In the compositions, I touch the notion of lost sense of time, an obscure concept of the upcoming future. Rather grotesque motives of auto-portrait head in a medical specimen jar, vintage medical gear and an old looking wall calendar showing a yet to come date, show my interest in present turning to relics. 

I seek to engage in dialogue between personal and global themes, exploring the contexts of art history, mythology, places of memory and contemporary media through painting. Experiencing a sense of uncertainty and confusion in contemporary reality and doubting the significance of a work of art leads me to mixing contexts of chosen motifs, jumping from one theme or image to another, creating unexpected, tragicomical encounters and visual connections. I use the same strategy when painting by mixing the technique of traditional oil painting with naive, mimetic, synthetic expression. The pictorial materiality of the objects I create refers to questioning the painting medium itself and its power and obligation to represent. 

My paintings show traces of magical realism and Quodlibet trompe l’oeil (French for “deceive the eye” - a painted three-dimensional visual illusion). I often combine the genres of landscape and still life, creating compositions of collapsing logic, inhabited by fragments of private life and bitterly familiar images. These are modern cabinets of curiosities - the present morphing into a relic. 




CV 

Eglė Norkutė (b. 1993)                   www.eglenorkute.com         eglenor93@gmail.com


Eglė Norkutė was born in Kaunas, 1993. In 2016 she acquired a Bachelor's degree from Vilnius Academy of Arts, Painting Department. Continued studies at the Kocelova23 Painting Studio in Bratislava, Slovakia, led by lector Mgr. art. Claudia Kosziba, ArtD. In 2019 acquired a Master's degree in painting at Vilnius Academy of Arts.

Eglė Norkutė is an active participant of group exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad since 2016. Notable exhibitions: "Zimný Prieskum 2017", Kocelova23, 2017, Bratislava, Slovakia; Two-Author Exhibition with Genevieve Cohn, 2018, Seville, Spain; "Receptive Barrier", "Speaking in Dog Tongues" Porto, Portugal. E. Norkutė had her first solo exhibition - "Before Resuming | Thoughts on Happiness" at Kaunas Artists' House in 2017. In 2019 The artist organized her second solo exhibition "Art and Collectibles" at the gallery of Užupis Art Incubator. She has participated in Kaunas Gallery Weekend 19’ program and was included in 4th Lithuanian Quadrennial of Contemporary Art “Memorabilia”. Eglė Norkutė was shortlisted for Young Painter Prize Finalists in 2018 and 2019. In 2019 she won the Rooster gallery prize in the Young Painter Prize competition. 

Egle Norkute has participated in A.I.R.GENTUM Hoja de Ruta (Castilblanco de los Arroyos, Spain) and De Liceiras  18 (Porto, Portugal) art residencies. In 2018 and 2019 Eglė Norkutė was awarded educational grants of the Lithuanian Council of Culture. Since 2019 Eglė Norkutė is a member of Lithuanian Artists' Union and LATGA association. Artist's work was published in "# 30 New Lithuanian Painting” album, representing the best contemporary painting in the youngest generation of Lithuanian artists. 


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Eglė Norkutė