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14 October – 17 December, 2010. Lithuanian Embassy in London is pleased to present Drawing, Lithuania. Looking at an important role of drawing in current practice, the exhibition features over 30 works on paper by some of the most significant Lithuanian artists working today. Preview of the exhibition is on 14th October, from 6 to 8pm. Please RSVP: culture@lithuanianembassy.co.uk.

Birutė Pankūnaitė, curator: „Social and political upheavals are fertile soil for artists. On the other hand, geographical boundaries, as we know, do not limit anyone: the whole world is open. It is true to say that in this exhibition of Lithuanian drawings one can discern critical interpretations of national symbols, stereotypes being played with and the search for identity. However, infinite reality, which does not recognize cultural barriers, conquers all. That is why next to the “national heritage” and Lithuanian heraldry we can see a homeless Parisian, world famous personalities and film stars.

Gintaras Makarevičius. Red Bricks Game, 2009, watercolour

"Once upon a time Jean Paul Sartre waded across the Baltic dunes (a quotation from the classic Lithuanian photographer Antanas Sutkus) and met with a mentally unstable art terrorist from Lithuania, who was later to attack Rembrandt’s Danaë. Different worlds exist in permanent confrontation but never provoke aggression: culture and degradation, different economies and currencies, women and men, symbolic living beings and civilization. Live flows along a river bed with no defined contours and leaves spray behind in its wake.

Linas Jablonskis. Without Title. 2010, coloured pencils

"All those taking part in the exhibition – Ray Bartkus, Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė, Arūnas Gudaitis, Linas Jablonskis, Dainius Liškevičius and Gintaras Makarevičius – graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Art where they variously studied graphic art (Ray Bartkus), sculpture (Arūnas Gudaitis and Dainius Liškevičius), painting (Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė and Gintaras Makarevičius), art history and theory (Linas Jablonskis). Some of them still paint large-format expressionist works, others are engaged in video or conceptual art, photography, a third group design sets for plays. However, all of them do drawings from time to time. The exception would be the arts researcher Linas Jablonskis, who draws all the time and as an artist only does drawings.

"The drawing is a particularly fragile and receptive art form, absorbing all the twists and turns of artistic fantasy. It does not acknowledge any hierarchy and defies genre classification. Hence, it shamelessly discloses even that which one would like to conceal. And that is why it should not be defined as "Lithuanian" or something else because drawing is open and endless. It rejects the laws of migration or politics and is ruled by other laws: those of fantasy, intuition, mood, taste, and style. We are not talking here about the classic definition of drawing as a supportive practice; the drawing here is understood as inhabiting an independent space of expression, sometimes bordering on painting or graphic art.

"Here we can find allusions to doodling, but no traces of, say, the automaticism of surrealism since the works of the artists are never abstract: the image and its link to reality always remains real. Macabre, involved and expressive. And that is why we are able in these drawings to track the footprints of a life lived without boundaries in Lithuania.“

Exhibition produced in collaboration with Meno avilys and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in London, supported by the Culture Support Foundation.

Exhibition open from Monday till Friday, from 10 am to 5 pm. Continues until 17 December. Free entrance.

14 October, 6pm – 8pm, exhibition preview, with participation of the artist Linas Jablonskis. Lithuanian Embassy in London, 84 Gloucester Place, W1U 6AU Londone. Tube: Baker Street. RSVP: culture@lithuanianembassy.co.uk