SetP Stanikas Lithuanians, b. 1961 and 1962

ARTISTIC PRACTICE

Working collaboratively across multiple media, Svajonė and Paulius Stanikas build exhibitions in which sculpture, drawing, photography and film function as interconnected parts of a single installation. Rather than assigning a fixed role to each medium, they allow images to circulate between them. A sculptural figure reappears in a photograph, a photograph becomes material for a film, while recurring characters and motifs unfold across the exhibition.

The body occupies a central place throughout their work. Frequently using themselves as protagonists, the artists stage carefully constructed scenes that draw on religious painting and cinema while introducing images of desire, violence, vulnerability and mortality. Their works resist stable interpretation, allowing contradiction to remain active rather than resolving into a single narrative.

Across four decades of collaboration, the Stanikas have developed a practice that unfolds most fully at the scale of the exhibition. Individual works gain meaning through their relationship to one another, as repeated images, recurring figures and shifting viewpoints transform each installation into a single, continuous composition.

TEACHING

2003–2004 – Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing (France)

2005 – Goldsmiths, University of London, London (United Kingdom)

2013–2014 – École supérieure d'art des Rocailles, Biarritz (France)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 – Origins, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, Paris (France)

2021 – Jūros / Les mers, Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre, Klaipėda (Lithuania)

2018 – Art Cologne, Cologne (Germany)

2018 – ArtVilnius'18, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2017 – Spring / Le Printemps, Galerija VARTAI, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2017 – Code Art Fair, Copenhagen (Denmark)

2016 – Hurricane Theresa, Prospekto Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2015 – Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, Sobering Galerie, Paris (France)

2015 – viennacontemporary, Vienna (Austria)

2014 – Voyage vers Mars, Malonioji 6, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2014 – Lit Double, Marija and Jurgis Šlapeliai Museum, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2014 – And I Don't Know How To Slow It Down, ArtVilnius Special Project, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2013 – Day.Night, In Situ, Lublin (Poland)

2012 – L'Ouvrier, la Paysanne et l'Aigle, Nuit Blanche, Jardins du Trocadéro, Paris (France)

2011 – Accordion and Fortepiano, Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdańsk (Poland)

2011 – Altars, Other Gallery, Shanghai (China)

2010 – S&P Stanikas / Jesper Just: Artscape, Galerija VARTAI, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2009 – Films and Drawings, Linq, Ghent (Belgium)

2009 – Magda Goebbels, Vilnius Art Fair, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2007 – Queen of the Peace, Volitant Gallery, Austin, Texas (USA)

2007 – S&P Stanikas, Clay Studio, Philadelphia (USA)

2005 – End of a Millennium, White Box, New York (USA)

2005 – S&P Stanikas, Konstepidemin, Gothenburg (Sweden)

2004 – Inferno, Galerie Vu, Paris (France)

2003 – World War, Palazzo Fortuny, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice (Italy)

2003 – Rencontres d'Arles, Arles (France)

2001 – S&P Stanikas, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2001 – S&P Stanikas, Kristianstad Landsmuseum, Kristianstad (Sweden)

2001 – Observatory, Molėtai Sculpture Park, Molėtai (Lithuania)

1999 – Sketches. Winter 1999, Art League, Vilnius (Lithuania)

1998 – Your Father, Your Sons and Your Daughter, Lietuvos Aidas Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)

1998 – 7th Sense, Cinema Nova, Brussels (Belgium)

1997 – Giedrė Bartelt Galerie, Berlin (Germany)

1996 – Visions, Jutempus Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)

1996 – Change of Rules: Frames, Västerås Art Museum, Västerås (Sweden)

1996 – Wyspa Gallery, Gdańsk (Poland)

1996 – Will-o'-the-Wisp, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (Lithuania)

1995 – 2000 of Angels, Pamenkalnio Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)

1995 – Fire Poems, Jutempus Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)

1994 – Sonnets, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (Lithuania)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020 – Spectrum, Galerija VARTAI, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2019 – Rūšių atsiradimas. 90-ųjų DNR, MO Museum, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2019 – Signs Taken for Wonders, Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2016 – The Enemy Within, Área Lugar de Proyectos, Caguas (Puerto Rico)

2016 – Žilvitis, Galerija VARTAI, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2016 – Acts of Sedition, White Box Art Center, New York (USA)

2016 – Inferno, Pristine Galerie, Monterrey (Mexico)

2014 – Time:Code, White Box Art Center, New York (USA)

2013 – The Name, The Nose, Museo Laboratorio, Ex Manifattura Tabacchi, Città Sant'Angelo (Italy)

2013 – Looking at the Fire, Akademija Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2013 – Mindwalk, Galerija VARTAI, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2012 – Paris–Vilnius, Chapelle des Petits-Augustins, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (France)

2012 – Body Snatchers, White Box Art Center, New York (USA)

2012 – Under the Volcano, Andromeda Contemporánea, San José (Costa Rica)

2012 – Prestige: Phantasmagoria Now, Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre, Klaipėda (Lithuania); Other Gallery, Shanghai (China)

2012 – Aesthetics vs Information, Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre, Klaipėda (Lithuania)

2011 – The Fourth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow (Russia)

2010 – City Without Walls, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool (United Kingdom)

2010 – The Metamorphosis, Other Gallery, Shanghai (China)

2010 – Ars Homo Erotica, National Museum, Warsaw (Poland)

2010 – The Wasteland, White Box, New York (USA)

2010 – Ese Oscuro Objeto del Deseo, Pristine Galerie, Monterrey (Mexico)

2009 – Beijing 798 Biennale, Beijing (China)

2009 – Never Dance Alone, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing (France)

2009 – Tout l'univers..., Galerie Vu, Paris (France)

2009 – 80+80, Photo Graphisme, Pavillon Carré de Baudouin, Paris (France)

2008 – Traces du Sacré, Centre Pompidou, Paris (France)

2008 – Oriente Dessin, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris (France)

2008 – Garden of Delights, Yeosu International Art Festival, Yeosu (South Korea)

2008 – Dans la nuit, des images, Grand Palais, Paris (France)

2008 – Vilnius Art Scene After 2000, Exhibition Hall Arsenāls, Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga (Latvia)

2007 – Theater of Cruelty, White Box, New York (USA)

2006 – MRKS and SPNCR, Delfina Studio, London (United Kingdom)

2006 – Apocalypse Now, White Box, New York (USA)

2006 – Body Double, Warsaw, Kraków and Poznań (Poland)

2006 – My Mother, the Nazi, Artist Network, New York (USA)

2006 – Galerie Vu, Paris (France)

2005 – Los Retratos de Dorian Gray, Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City (Mexico)

2005 – Langhans Gallery, Prague (Czech Republic)

2005 – Paris Photo, Paris (France)

2004 – Panorama 5, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing (France)

2004 – Un Inventaire Contemporain II, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris (France)

2004 – DFoto 2004, San Sebastián (Spain)

2004 – European Space, Riga Quadriennial, Riga (Latvia)

2004 – EU Positive, Akademie der Künste, Berlin (Germany)

2004 – Rencontres d'Arles, Arles (France)

2003 – Paris Photo, Paris (France)

2003 – Public Relations, Art Moscow, Moscow (Russia)

2003 – Airborne, Midlanda Konsthall, Timrå (Sweden)

2002 – Paris Photo, Paris (France)

2001 – Model.Modelles, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg City (Luxembourg)

2001 – Self-respect, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2000 – Innocent Life, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2000 – Articulation, O.K Center for Contemporary Art, Linz (Austria)

AWARDS/GRANTS

2017 – Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts

2005 – Delfina Foundation Prize, United Kingdom

2005 – ArtsLink Award, United States

2003 – Government of the Republic of Lithuania Prize for Culture and Arts