KĘSTUTIS STANAPĖDIS EXHBIITION ENAMELING
Kęstutis Stanapėdis exhibition Enameling
2024 06 20 – 08 02
At the Enamel Art Gallery of the Goldsmiths’ Guild (Vilnius, Šv.Stepono str. 10) from June 20. until August 2 the personal exhibition of Kęstutis Stanapėdis will be open (curator – gallery manager, well-known Lithuanian enamel artist Marytė Dominaitė). Since the beginning of the second decade, the personal exhibition of the participant of the Vilnius International Biennial of Enamel Art, jewelry exhibitions at the Amber Trip fair, international biennials of enamel art in St. Petersburg, and jewelry exhibitions in Lithuanian galleries is named Enameling.
The name draws attention to the importance of the technological process and to the creative freedom that opens up to those who have mastered the mastery of enameling. The stories of objects and jewelry created by Stanapédis are full of humor. Well-being clichés and rituals are ironized. In the brooch created a decade ago, we see a hand of a repulsive form with lacquered nails and an abundance of flowers, the exaltation of food culture is mocked by an object – a canning box, from which fish with pink tongues stick out its head or a piece of cake decorated with cherry, realistically covered with chocolate, imitating the dream of a sweet tooth. That not everything is as significant as they try to show us is suggested by the screw-on dog-shaped object “I”, as well as the smiling worm with a crown on its head in the “Dragon” brooch. Concerned matters are spoken about with ingenious visual images.
In the object “Pagal Eimantas Nekrošių”, the whole life of a person – house, tree, land and water – is placed on a cart, one of the four wheels of which is broken and larger than the rest. The characters of the “Pora” poster, resembling grotesque cartoon characters, are depicted on a milky white plane that pleases the aesthetic senses. There is less irony in the works of recent years, they evoke ambiguous associations. In the pendant “Where I want, there I live” the artist who has mastered metal casting perfectly placed a miniature human figure next to the inkel depicted on the plane with muted color strokes. The connection between the relief of an almost abstract form and the award sign in the work “Order” is a hint. The exhibition includes semantically neutral jewelry based on decorative expression.
The personal exhibition, which allows an overview of the entire creation, provides an opportunity to get to know the artistic worldview of Kęstutis Stanapėdis. And smile, and concentrate, and just admire.
Art researcher, dr. Pille Veljataga
