Girmantas Rudokas’s collage exhibition “EPISODES”

From December 19, 2025 to January 17, 2026, Girmantas Rudokas’s collage exhibition “Episodes” will be on view at the Šiauliai Art Gallery.

Opening: Friday, December 19, at 5:00 PM.
Admission is free during the opening event.

SOLO COLLAGE EXHIBITION “EPISODES”

My name is Girmantas Rudokas, and I am a native of Panevėžys. For this reason, the past and present history and imagery of Panevėžys live within me and encourage my interest in the changes that have taken place and continue to take place around me. My childhood home stands next to the city’s main square—today’s Laisvės Square—so many memorable moments of my life unfolded alongside the Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre, the Senvagė lagoon, the bus station, and the banks of the Nevėžis River. I witnessed the construction of the Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre and the shaping of the present-day appearance of Senvagė.

The city center was once home to many bars and cafés: Aguonėlė, Pavasariukas, Grill Bar, Nevėžiukas, Seklyčia, and Ąžuoliukas. The bustle of the city center shaped my mentality as a citizen of Panevėžys. I lived—and continue to live—within this urban commotion.

Currently, I work as a lecturer at Panevėžys College and curate exhibitions at the Panevėžys Cultural Centre, so once again Laisvės Square and the surroundings of Senvagė have become the main space of my present-day life. I walk here daily and drink coffee in cafés that now bear new names. I believe that both the changing and modernizing central city square and the people who lived and worked here in the past have, in one way or another, shaped—and continue to actively shape—the face of my beloved city.

This transformation affects me in a personal way: I observe the city’s changes, the lives of familiar and unfamiliar residents, the daily urban bustle, while being a part of it myself. I realize that my observation is only episodic, as the transformation of the city is ongoing and will continue.

I titled the cycle of works created for this exhibition “Episodes.” My works are composed—both philosophically and physically—of fragments from the flow of my own life and that of my native city. In my collages, I relied on historical photographs of Panevėžys and, interpreting them in my own way, developed artistic solutions. I sought to convey subjective visions of the past, the present, and perhaps the future.

For the collages, I used pages from damaged, timeworn books, prints of unsuccessful graphic works, and paper intended for recycling. My collages are saturated with architectural imagery that interacts with figures of people who once lived and who live today, as well as allegorical animals.

I would like viewers from the city of Šiauliai—and beyond—to look more often at the buildings that bear the memory of their city’s history, to protect and cherish them, and to remember both the city’s image and the people who have shaped and continue to shape its identity. I also hope they will recall their own hometowns and cities. Through my collages, they are invited to become acquainted with the city of Panevėžys as well.

— Girmantas Rudokas