Abstract Reconstructions

Jurgita Gerlikaitė – a professional art critic encouraged by graphic artist Žibunas Mikšys, has left the meadows of art history and theory, and moved to the great reaches of graphics. The case is rare as art critics are often reproached for not being able to do something by their own hands. Therefore, sometimes it is pleasant to gloat and point to authors of the texts and graphics who cannot be labelled and about whom the same thing cannot be said: such is the case of Jurgita Gerlikaitė, whose exhibition "Metaphysical reconstruction" is exhibited in Vilnius art gallery "D'arijaus papuošalai". This is the thirteenth exhibition – the artist creates and exhibits works demonstrating perseverance and productiveness. A logical consequence of this has been a recent publication of catalogue summing up the creative way of twelve years. As an author of Lithuanian graphics the education has been untypical in a way that calls for curiosity: studies in the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts in Reykjavik, digital graphics and non-toxic intaglio studies in Copenhagen, Denmark. However, in the creations of the digital graphics that are exhibited in the gallery, we will not find dour landscapes of the exotic Northern countries, trolls and other personages of the Northern mythology. The artist is more interested in the inner world of man and his relation with environment rather than the re-creation of recognizable motifs or the telling of fascinating stories. Starting her creative way by decoratively "retranslating" fragments of art works into graphical prints and playing with changing their contexts, Jurgita Gerlikaitė is currently on the road of abstraction in the search of the dialog between the abstract and the specific.

Metaphysical Reconstruction IV

Transparent and abstract images make it possible to see recognizable indications of the subject: a moving or motionless human figure, a face remindful of Čiurlionis or the Renaissance, a graphic ascetic drawing of veins of a leaf. Clouds, boughs, grass or a sunlit window. However, all subjects that can be distinguished and recognized are covered with delicate textures separating and dividing the image into many small fragments – each one deserving a separate meditation. This emphasis by the author on meditation space is not by accident: concentration, clarity of thought, inner peace – are the necessary assumptions to see and experience Jurgita Gerlikaitė's artwork. I do not say "to understand" as that is not entirely possible, neither is it necessary. The reconstructions of feelings and thoughts digitally transferred by the author to the canvas are intended for the creation of a mood, not for conveying information. To forming a metaphysical plane but not for telling stories. The specific and abstract levels cover each other – sometimes intertwining gently, sometimes separating for a moment – to perform an almost impossible mission: to reconstruct the metaphysical plane. Who knows what it actually looks like – maybe it is just as reflected by Jurgita Gerlikaitė? Lyrical, even elegiac, feminine and reserved. In the world that is reconstructed by the author (or more accurately: is constructed anew) a bit of everything is present: a bit of poetry, a bit of another space and another time, a bit of an oddity and a bit of something ordinary – so that we do not get lost. In order for us to quietly look at the attempts to reconstruct something whose reconstruction would not seem to be possible.

– Jurgita Ludavičienė, Nekonkrečios rekonstrukcijos // Literatūra ir menas, 2009