TOMAS KIAUKA

Tomas Kiauka was born in 1968, Šilutė, grew up in Vilnius. He graduated from the J. Vienožinskis art school, later attended private painting lessons. He studied theology and philosophy in Germany at Heidelberg University and defended doctoral thesis there. He teaches philosophy and art theory at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, writes articles on theology, philosophy and art topics. He is a member of Lithuanian PEN club. Together with the pianist and painter Viktoras Paukštelis, organized an exhibition of paintings in Klaipėda (2011), Vilnius (2012) in Kėdainiai (2014), a personal exhibition in the Baroti Gallery (2018) in Klaipėda and in the M. Valančius Public Library, Kretinga (2019). Participates in the creative plein air events of Paliesis Manor. Since 2018 is a member of Klaipėda County Artists Union; 2018 – 2021 chairman of the association “Klaipėda culture community”.

Tomas Kiauka words about painting – a possibility to stop: “…while painting the line between me and not me disappears, I become transformed into looking and action, a gesture, and this frees me from the structure of rational perception which is common in Western culture, that divides the world into subject and object. It is a state of timelessness, a mystical experience, one might say, that frees us from the slavery of the linear flow of time in which we are all trapped lately. What I am formulating so nobly here is actually very simple: a child, playing by the sea, dreamer staring at the clouds, “crow-catching”, so to say, absent-minded person experiences exactly the same. The only difference is that I overcome that state with paint on canvas, although certain painting skills are also involved, without them nothing would be achieved either.”