Linas Jusionis: Horizon Loop

Galerija VARTAI is delighted to present the exhibition Horizon Loop featuring the latest paintings by artist Linas Jusionis. Most of those interested in contemporary Lithuanian painting will recognise the ambient, freeze-frame-like scenes characteristic of the artist’s work, and the recurring elements or situations that echo the prevailing cinematic logic in his creative practice. The limited field of vision in his paintings is often used as a deliberate strategy to emphasise the lack of knowledge and perception, polemicising against the purified and aestheticized image. This duality activates the relevance of observation, making the latter more interesting and problematic. This way of constructing the image, together with the philosophical methodology, are enabled in the painting as a kind of cultural guidelines or tools for self-reflection.

When I get up early in the morning and walk out of the door of my studio, standing almost in the middle of Antakalnis and looking at the forest, I can hear a train humming in the distance. Far away trains passing by. This phrase from the title of Ulrich Schnauss’s album, deeply engraved in my mind, keeps haunting me. Stagnation, silence, no significant observable action, just everyday life, passively unfolding somewhere in the distance. That kind of moment of stillness and transparency.

I can’t completely detach myself from the objects. The very moment I start to draw, my gaze or my thoughts unintentionally turn to some object or several, to some interior or landscape situations. I don’t want to say anything specific with them, I make them obscure. It really fascinates me how an object that has lost its specificity begins to act much more through its form and plastic qualities, to create new sensations. But at the same time, it retains some contextuality that complements the plastic effect with experiential and cultural associations. The aim here is not to construct any meaning, only the painting itself. Without saying anything and focusing solely on sensuality–the inner tensions of the painting, the meditative aspects, the melancholy. Without taking it all too seriously and sometimes looking at it with a certain irony and humour.

At the end of the day, I sit and look around, waiting. But in fact, I’m not really waiting for anything. It’s waiting as a state. Actually, nothing significant can happen anyway. It is both an inner feeling and an appreciation of the world around me. My gaze turns back to the horizon, stumbling over something insignificant. Both the movement and the view repeat themselves like a loop.

Linas Jusionis

Linas Jusionis (b. 1986) studied at the Vilnius Academy of Arts from 2007 to 2011, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree, and in 2011 completed his Master’s studies in Fresco and Mosaic. Since 2009, the artist has been participating in both group and solo shows with this being his sixth solo exhibition at Galerija VARTAI. Since his debut, Jusionis’s paintings have gained many admirers in Lithuania, and his works have been acquired by the MO Museum and the Lewben Art Foundation, as well as private collectors in Lithuania and abroad.

The exhibition was part of the SU-MENĖK cultural route in Vilnius, 2023. 

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Patron: Renata and Rolandas Valiūnas

Gallery supported by: Vilnius city municipality, Lietuvos Rytas, Vilma Dagilienė, Roma Puišienė, Rasa Juodviršienė, Romas Kinka, Ekskomisarų biuras, MailerLite, Plieno Spektras.

Graphic design: Taktika Studio