EGMONTAS BŽESKAS

Egmontas Bžeskas (b. 1974 in Kaunas) in 1992 graduated from the Kaunas Art School. In 1992-1998studied at the Department of Graphics of the Vilnius Academy of Arts and obtained a master’s degree.Since 1999- Member of the international graphic art center “Grafiken Hus” in Sweden. He organized many personal exhibitions: in Lithuania, Sweden, Belgium and group exhibitions: in Lithuania, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, etc.

The artist has created a new graphic technique – using all graphic technologies, he created works of art on canvas (wood carvings are printed on canvas). In 1998 his artwork was included in the Lithuanian record book by the agency “Factum” for the largest graphic work “Labyrinth” (311 x 449 cm) and was awarded with a diploma. In 1999 the artist was awarded a scholarship by the Ministry of Culture of Lithuania.

“The graphics of Egmontas Bžeskas are a completely different example of symbolic art. In the large formats of his canvases (record 14m2), one or two objects are usually placed, but even these hardly fit in the reserve of space. The laconic structure and evocative works resemble giant witty logos: they flaunt poster like form and clear drawing, are informative, evocative, radiate optimism, actively signal to the viewer and energetically engage the environment.

Bžeskas arsenal of tools is limited to predatory empty space and a few symbols. The most popular images are the icon of a human and the spiral. Both blatantly ignore their historical origins in their desire to resemble cartoon characters. The artist willingly helps them, giving them the possibility of reincarnation and elastic snake like plastic form. Man turns into a spiral, a spiral into a snail, a snail into a man, a man into a labyrinth, the latter into a stone, etc.

Bžeskas behaves like a superstitious primitive artist (who cared about depicting only the most important parts of the body), but now the scale of values has changed: mouths and supporting limbs prevail. The reverse process is visible in the plastic of these surrealist new creations: a sign does not turn into a living character, but reduced anthropomorphic forms turn into a sign (by the way, preserving bright characters. (…)

– Nijolė Adomonytė