ONE SIZE
Eglė Einikytė-Narkevičienė (Lithuania)
The current theme of my work is a human being and their environment. In my exhibition, One Size, I want to talk about an individual, about people and about their different experiences. My essential concern is revealing the inner conflicts of an individual – their complex spiritual state that is always affected and shaped by the environment. I am curious about how the environment shapes an individual, what kinds of experiences we gain, how they persist and how they impact our future lives. What helps us grow and what destroys us?
The visual and technical part of my work is as important to me as its conceptual frame. I pay close attention to the technology of ceramics and its subtleties. I want to emphasize the possibilities and plasticity of the ceramic material.
For example, in one of my latest sculptural compositions, I compared a One-Size person to a piece of modelling clay. On the outside, the individual pieces are similar only in the initial stage – whilst lying untouched in their box, all smooth and tidy, different only in colour. A human being, somewhat like modelling clay, is very pliable and can be easily damaged or deformed. Humans readily absorb environmental effects and reflect their environment. It reminds me of a handful of grain, where individual seeds do not differ from each other until they are planted into the soil, which marks the start of their life. But you never know for sure what will grow out of the seed once it is planted. As Voltaire once famously said, “For a human, the environment is destiny.” This begs the question of what would become of us if we were planted in one type of soil instead of another.
Therefore, in this exhibition, I want to convey the impact of the environment not only through the means of plasticity, deformation and contrast but also through colour. As in my previous exhibition, I will pay very close attention to colours and their harmony. With that, I will try to analyze Mark Rothko’s paintings and apply some of his colour combinations and composition methods to my work. I find it somewhat symbolic that I have been invited to organize my solo exhibition at the Mark Rothko Art Centre because he has had a huge impact on my sense of colour. In 2017, when I stayed here for an art residency, I spent a lot of time with his work. What made this stay even more special was the opportunity to rediscover Rothko’s texts, which point not only to his visual language but also to a deeper understanding of art.
In my current work, I want to combine large ceramic sculptures with a certain message to achieve a comprehensive composition. This way, I want to convey the symbolism of social environment. Therefore, I strive for a play of form and colour, texture and plane, figure and abstraction. I want to shape and compose my sculptures whilst looking for a dialogue with content and form. In some works, I will try to express the image through abstraction. In others, I will go for highlighting the silhouette.
Eglė Einikytė-Narkevičienė was born in Klaipėda, Lithuania in 1972. Alumna of the Vilnius Academy of Arts, which she graduated from with a Master’s degree in Fine Arts (Ceramics) in 1998, she holds membership in the Lithuanian Artists’ Association (since 1999) and the International Academy of Ceramics in Geneva, Switzerland (since 2019).
Einikytė-Narkevičienė’s creative record, consistently growing since 1995, extends to participation in more than 60 group exhibitions and 20 symposia in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. She has won multiple awards, such as the “Sleipnir” grant for young artists from the Nordic Council of Ministers Information Centre (2002-2003); the national individual grant for artists from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania (2014); diploma at the 3rd Vilnius Ceramic Art Biennale (2014); Best Painter, Best Vase and Viewer‘s Choice Awards at the Zvārtava International Porcelain Painting Symposium “Together 15”, Latvia (2015); Third Prize at the 10th Baltic Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramics “Spring 2016” in Kaunas, Lithuania and Second Prize at the 4th Vilnius Ceramic Art Biennale (2016); Third Prize at the International Ceramics Contest CICA’2018 in Spain (2018); Honors Diploma or Winning Prize at the Korean International Ceramics Biennale (2019); Third Prize at the 6th Vilnius Ceramic Art Biennale (2020); Winning Prize at the international online exhibition “Distant Ceramics” (2020); and Merit Prize in the International Coffee Cup Competition in Taiwan (2020).
She has been selected to participate in numerous juried exhibitions, such as the 1st Latvia International Ceramics Biennale organized by Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, Latvia (2016); International NVK Ceramics Triennial 2018, organized by the CODA museum in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands (2018); 2nd Latvia International Ceramics Biennale, organized by Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, Latvia (2018); 10th Korean International Ceramic Biennale in Gyeonggi, Korea (2019); 4th International Cluj Ceramics Biennale, Romania (2019); 14th International Biennale of Ceramics in Manises, Spain (2019); 14th International Biennale of Artistic Ceramics in Aveiro, Portugal (2019); and 16th International Award for Contemporary Ceramics CERCO in Zaragoza, Spain (2019).
Eglė Einikytė-Narkevičienė is the co-curator of the small-scale ceramics exhibition “Puodukas” in Vilnius, Lithuania (2017–2020). She has lent her expertise to the Vilnius Ceramic Art Biennale and the 7th International Ceramic Art Symposium “Ceramic Laboratory” in Daugavpils, Latvia (2018) by evaluating the applications as selection committee member for both events.
