Genius loci
Solveiga Gutautė (Lithuania)
Genius loci is a sensory space where shadow, silence, and the fragile tremor of light become an experience in themselves. It speaks not of a real place, but of an inner one – a presence unseen yet palpable, existing at once in reality and in memory.
Solveiga Gutautė
In her recent paintings, Lithuanian artist Solveiga Gutautė turns to the image of the shadow as a metaphor for the human inner world. She seeks liminal spaces – thresholds between light and darkness, consciousness and the subconscious, the visible and the unseen. Here, fledgling form is just beginning to take shape, time seems to pause, and something deep within starts to unfold.
Importantly, for Gutautė, the shadow is neither darkness, nor despair. It is the substance from which form is born, the stillness between an inhale and an exhale. Her painting is not a picture to be looked at, but a presence to be entered. It asks not that we look, but that we see; not that we understand, but that we are. With that, it offers a quiet moment of repose for those who feel the modern world has grown too bright, too fast, too easily explained.
The works in “Genius loci” draw inspiration from the music of Ryuichi Sakamoto, where joie de vivre entwines with the quiet acceptance of its passing. Guided by his compositions, Gutautė has developed her own method of “shadow painting”, grounded in the patient observation of nature – the ceaseless dance of light and shadow in the trees. On canvas, this endless movement becomes structure: each tone a breath that draws near, pauses, and recedes.
Ultimately, “Genius loci” resists narrative and reason. It returns the viewer to a state of sensing, where perception becomes intuitive. Not trying to explain, her art seeks to allow – a quiet, finely tuned experience on the edge of existence. Above all else, these paintings are not stories; they are states of being, where silence takes part as an equal in the act of seeing.
The exhibition is a soft yet powerful reminder that art does not need to be understood. It is enough to let it happen and – and to linger, for a while, within its quiet breath.
Solveiga Gutautė (b. 1978, Lithuania), member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association (Ceramics Section) since 2018, holds a Master’s degree from the Painting Department of the Vilnius Academy of Arts (2010), where she previously earned a Bachelor’s in Ceramics (2001), following initial training at the Kaunas College of Applied and Decorative Arts (1997).
Represented in public collections, including the National Museum of Art of Azerbaijan (Baku, 2024), the Valdis Bušs Collection (Viļaka, 2022), and the Rothko Museum (Daugavpils, 2021), she is an active participant in international art festivals, symposiums, and quadrennials. Besides exhibiting in Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Finland, she has co-authored and curated several international projects, including the Unpredictable Futures Triennial in Molėtai (2021) and “Gardens of Attractions” at the Palanga Resort Museum (2023).
Curated by Māris Čačka
On view at the Rothko Museum from 5 December 2025 to 8 February 2026
Publicity image: Solveiga Gutautė. Untitled. Oil on canvas. 200 × 286 cm. 2025
