AUŠRA KLEIZAITĖ
December 14, 2018 / December 30, 2018
DraWWing Blue
At the exhibition "DraWWing Blue" the artist Aušra Kleizaitė exhibits drawing cycles "Drawing Blue. Serie Portuguesa” (2018) and “Love Story” (2017), which are connected by travel, the color blue and human emotions and feelings.
Aušra Kleizaitė has always had a unique field of expression, quite distant from the usual Lithuanian drawing tradition. Although the author has graduated from textile art studies, drawing has always occupied an important place in Aušra's creative process. In her work, she chooses simple means of expression: charcoal, pastel, paper. Her drawings are expressive, the images speak not only of worldly but also spiritual matters. Aušra borrows creative themes and plots from life. The drawings are dominated by people's feelings, emotions, stories - this is the artist's engine, which forces her to add charcoal or pastel to paper and give intangible things visible clothing. Aušra's work stands out for its clarity, she prefers naturalness, richness of colors. Her manner is expressive, intuitive and energetic. The compositions involve the viewer in the story, weave them into a relationship with the depicted figures, or envelop the viewer with color. In the cycle “Drawing Blue. Serie Portuguesa" created by Aušra in 2018, in Portugal, human figures and faces dominate the drawings.
The most important thing here is the relationship depicted between the created figures or the ones created by the viewer himself, following the lines of faces, profiles, and silhouettes with their eyes. In addition, the decorative symbols of Portugal are visible in the drawings - azulejos, ceramic tiles printed with various patterns, which are used to this day for both interior and exterior decoration of buildings. The blue-white azulejos depicted in Aušra's drawings merge with the figures and their emotions. Blue floral patterns sometimes hide, obscure, protect from the voyeuristic gaze of the viewer, and in other places open the way to the soul and its story. Triptych "Little Waves" tells a slightly different story. Here the waves separate, but at the same time bring together and unite two souls drifting to different parts of the world. Flowing water is a symbol of life, rebirth, purity of spirit. The axis of the whole cycle is an elastic interconnection. In the series "Love Story", created in 2017 during the visit to Sakartvelo, abstract elements dominate, and the blue color is rich, energetic and fruitful. In the drawings, the horizon line of a wide lake or majestic mountains timidly emerges before the eyes, then the eyes turn to the wide space of the sky, and finally return to the rushing river running nearby. Everything around is clean and calm. In Sakartvelo, nature is untouched by man, it is fabulously beautiful and enchanting.
Aušra chose to interpret her love story with nature in the color blue. As the author herself states, "I don't even know how the blue came, it's just there." As if following me, appearing from the sky, from water and from people. And if from people, then also from Gods. Blue is the royal color, the most expensive. It was once the most expensive paint in Europe. It is a magical color, which expands the space. And about that "blue" feeling, it also means about love." - Curator Neringa Stoškutė
