Vytenis Jankūnas Lithuanian, b. 1961

ARTISTIC PRACTICE

Vytenis Jankūnas approaches photography as a medium capable of exceeding its own documentary limits. Rather than isolating a single instant, his images are built through the accumulation of multiple moments, allowing time itself to become part of the photographic surface.

Much of the work begins with ordinary situations encountered during daily life, particularly within the New York subway. People and urban movement become the raw material for photographs that are later digitally layered into single compositions. These interventions do not abandon documentary observation but expand it, suggesting durations and relationships that cannot be contained within a single exposure.

Throughout his practice, Jankūnas has consistently moved across artistic disciplines while maintaining a single underlying concern: how images construct reality rather than simply record it.

The resulting photographs occupy an ambiguous position between document and construction. Familiar urban scenes remain recognisable while quietly exceeding photographic description, inviting viewers to reconsider the relationship between observation, memory, and time.

EDUCATION 

1985 – Sculpture (BFA & MFA), Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius (Lithuania)
1979 – National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art, Vilnius (Lithuania)

RESIDENCIES

1995 – Nordic Arts Centre (HIAP), Helsinki (Finland)

(SELECTED) SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 – 800 Portraits of the People I Don't Know, SLA Art Space, New York (USA)
2021 – Nocturnal Creatures / Dance with Me, Prospekto Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2020 – Stories from J 2 Manhattan, Undercurrent Gallery, New York (USA)
2016 – Stuck on the Train / Rongis kin, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn (Estonia)
2016 – Stuck on the Train, Delegation of the European Union to the United States, Washington, D.C. (USA)
2015 – Stuck on the Train / Pakeleivis, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2015 – Stuck on the Train, Embassy of Lithuania, Washington, D.C. (USA)
2001 – Where Is My Fucking Experience, Anthology Film Archives, New York (USA)
1994 – Bricks, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (Lithuania)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023–2024 – Try to Make It Real. But Compared to What? Contemporary Art from Lithuania, MOCAK, Kraków (Poland)
2022 – Parallel Time, Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2022 – Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens (Greece)
2021 – Time of Changes: Theatre, Music, Cinema and Art 1985–1995, Centre for Civil Education, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2020 – Living in the Negative Space, ArtVilnius Special Projects, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2020 – Spectrum, Galerija VARTAI, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2019 – In Other Places II, Kaunas Photography Gallery, Kaunas (Lithuania)
2018 – In Other Places II, Prospekto Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2017 – J2 Manhattan & Back 24-7-365 in HD, ArtVilnius Special Projects, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2016 – Random Rapid Heartbeats, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn (Estonia)
2012 – Occupy!, Governors Island, New York (USA)

AWARDS

2021 – Finalist, Sony World Photography Awards (Street & Architecture)
2020 – First Prize, Self-Published Books, International Photography Awards (IPA)
2000 – Gregory Millard Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts
1995 – Annual State Grant for Young Artists, Ministry of Culture of Lithuania
1995 – Fellowship, Nordic Arts Centre (HIAP)

National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (Lithuania)
MO Museum, Vilnius (Lithuania)
Noewe Foundation, Vilnius (Lithuania)
M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Kaunas (Lithuania)
Private collections in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Hong Kong, France, and Canada.