Valdas Kurklietis: Selected works, 2021-2024
Kurklietis has realized himself as a kind of artist-scientist, a ceramicist-surgeon. His personal experiences are interesting only as a kind of object of research, allowing him to look at himself in a broader context, i.e., as a social animal, dependent not only on the community in which he lives physically but also on the societies of other countries, which influence the whole system of the world organism. This is precisely why Kurklietis’ work is rich in global social, biological, and political themes, exploring issues of climate change, industrial activity, science, pandemics, war, and local communities. Equally important are the explorations of personal identity, manifested in themes of loneliness, virtual communication, alien influences, and the search for meaning.
The head is not just a motif; it is a symbolic format and a site for creative experimentation. It is covered by the impersonal, laconically smiling face of the mannequin. It is a mask, a marketing trick, a survival strategy in the social games of human beings, allowing chameleonic adaptation to almost any environment. This is precisely why Kurklietis’ most interesting artistic solutions are located in the various cavities of the head – where the eyeballs, the brain, and the ears should be. Each artwork looks like a separate medical operation as if the heads were stone monuments to humanity, a scalpel attempting to cut through the existential layers of identity and to peer into the mysteries that lead to the various movements. The artist makes extensive use of provocative contrasts, the grotesque, personal, and cross-cultural symbolism, and is fond of combinations of the absurd, the repulsive, and the witty, which at times give way to figurative poetics of tenderness. The associative nature of various ceramic sculptures, mosaics, and even functional vessels makes Kurklietis’ artworks extremely universal and timeless as if we were looking at puzzles reminiscent of Rubik’s cubes, which can open up with their meanings in new ways, depending on the changes in the personal and global context.
Excerpt from a text by art critic Kamilė Pirštelytė Virbičianskė.
On the edge, 2021-2024
Heads, 2021-2022
Modified, 2021-2023
Captions
- Balance I, 2023, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, wood, 50x20x32 cm.
Balance, 2022, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, 26x50x32 cm.
Dance, 2024, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, 37x23x38 cm.
Heavy clouds, 2023, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, 34x27x20 cm.
Hormones of happiness, 2024, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, metal, 20x27x19 cm.
Ice, stone, water, concrete, 2022, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, concrete, 28x48x30 cm.
On the edge I, 2021, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, 32x27x23 cm.
On the edge, 2021, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, 25x40x29 cm. - Hole II, 2021, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, 22x27x20 cm.
Hole III, 2022, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, mirror, 20x24x12 cm.
Immersion, 2022, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, 19x24x16 cm.
Reconstruction, 2022, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, 19x31x21 cm.
The heart, 2021, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, 35x25x10 cm.
The scream, 2022, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, 20x26x21 cm.
Virtual reality VI, 2021, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, 20x32x25 cm. - Fullness I, 2021, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, 30x26x16 cm.
Fullness III, 2023, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, pigments, 30x34x31 cm.
Nest II, 2023, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, cables, 30x24x32 cm.
Nest, 2023, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, cables, 30x24x32 cm.
The changed snowflake, 2022, Stoneware 1250°C, glazes, 32x40x7 cm.
