More Chinaware

Porcelain is frequently associated with luxury, aesthetics, sophistication and gracefulness - aspects that here are tested in massive artist's sculptures. The structures harbor elements of Western culture, while the material embodies longstanding Eastern chinaware traditions. Fearlessness in confronting irony and the collation of luxury with the heavy, everyday usage of porcelain in the Western world, emphasizes the aesthetic and cultural differences between East and West. Unexpected sculptural choices produce tensions which reveal a sense of metaphysical and existential moods. The forms and materiality of the sculptural objects presented in the exhibition complement and expand the limits of the sculptor’s boundaries. Mindaugas Navakas is one of the most significant Lithuanian sculptors, his large-scale sculptural objects have become a major part of urban spaces both in Lithuania and abroad. The work of Navakas has greatly contributed to the renewal of sculptural expression in the 80s and 90s, with the artist still retaining an integral position in the contemporary art scene. Among other exhibitions, the artist's works were shown in the first biennale of Gwangju in 1995, he was also the first (together with artist Egle Rakauskaite) to represent Lithuania in the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999. In 1995 he received the Herder Prize.