“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return…” -Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3

Kestutis Vasiliunas is an artist and independent curator of the International Artist’s Book Triennials, having curated 40 International exhibitions in Lithuania, Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, Korea, USA.

Vasilunas´oeuvre lends itself to a multifaceted analysis, as it contains multitudinous cultural and multicultural layers, as the artist’s work relays a distinct non-conformist attitude making his creative production stand out against the sometimes straightforwardly perceived, commonplace or merely “beautiful” context, the tradition of a trivial understanding of an artist’s mission.

The artist is among a few in Lithuania, consistently employing genuinely archaic woodcarving techniques, making carvings in a large-scale format, combined structure, depicting complex and, at the same time, simple plots (printed from the cliché on the canvas using the most ancient and reliable technique, that of the spoon).

Seeking to emphasize idiosyncratic and unique character of the artist, it must be said, in the first place, that he is a highly positive person who shuns both ethical and esthetical compromises, banality, that the artist is vociferous against aggressive and well-disguised commercialism, institutionalism, homogenization, levelling and uniformity of the arts, the craving to cater to any fads, trends, current intellectual and political manifestations.

The creative work of Kestutis Vasiliunas incorporates images for which the artist invokes manifold sources of inspiration, iconography from different cultures, civilizations, and epochs, by juxtaposing routine impressions, impressionistic images from travels on which, now and then, glance and thought are focused (iconographic images and plots embrace impressions from the travels in Italy, China, South Korea and many other countries) with interpretations of fragments of classic artworks, cues and replicas, rebuses or puzzles of the word-image interplay.