The Secrets of Lithuania

From 25. 02. – 19.03. Gallery Birkenfelds ( Rūpniecības ielā 3) invites to artwork exhibition of two well-known Lithuanian artists.
   
Presumably, the contradictory circumstances of the soviet time in 1980-ies created preconditions of the appearance of the Lithuanian artist Henrikas Natalevičius (1952) on the stage of art. Small and big, grotesque figures of human beings and beasts are depicted in everyday life episodes and unreal mass scenes. The artist feels comfortable working both with miniature and big format artwork. Each format, certainly, has its own conditions. The miniature images live in their own small format limits, while in big format works the artist avoids using small details and only slightly reveals the shapes of things and images. The artist’s works contain the feeling of encoded message or even enigma, that is especially charateristic for the creative works of Eastern European rebels- noncomformists during the period between 60-ies and 80-ies of the 20th century.

    Vaclovas Straukas (born in 1923)* takes an especially honoured position in Lithuanian photography. His life and creative work is closely linked to Klaipeda – the city by the Baltic Sea. The exhibition will display the photographs of the unique nature phenomena Curonian Spit – the site of the artist’s long-term exploration and inspiration. For your information – Curonian Spit is the vastest moving dune in Europe. Its average height is 35 m, but the height of the highest points reach 60 m. The sensitiveness and nuanced observation of nature of Vaclovas Straukas works closely relate to the aesthetics of creative work of the well-known American photographer Edward Weston (nature reserves of Pacific Ocean, California coast) and Ansel Adams (Josemite Park).
* ( EFIAP) International Federation of photographic Art awarded the artist the title of Excellence.