Group Exhibition “Meeting at the Corner”

April 17 – May 9, 2026 – the group exhibition “Meeting at the Corner” is on view at the Šiauliai Art Gallery.

The exhibition opens on Friday, April 17, at 5:00 PM. Admission is free during the opening event.

Participating artists: Raimondas Gailiūnas, Konstantinas Gaitanži, Jonas Gasiūnas, Maja Kačerauskaitė, Jolanta Kyzikaitė, Ričardas Nemeikšis, Gabija Pritkovaitė, Eglė Ulčickaitė, Tomas Valeika.

Curator: Jonas Gasiūnas

The exhibition will run until May 9.

Meeting at the Corner

In one of his short stories, J. D. Salinger recounts a children’s conversation: one asks the other, “What does one wall say to another wall?” and the reply is, “We’ll meet at the corner.” This simple, almost anecdotal dialogue conceals within it the essential structure of all creative development, including painting. The first wall is a statement, the second a negation; the first is a thesis, the second an antithesis. In the history of culture, this opposition becomes evident when one style replaces another, when one artistic direction transforms into another. The same principle can be observed in nature: the alternation of light and darkness, the coexistence of warm color patches and cool shadows testify to a constant clash of opposites.

However, contemporary painting seems suspended on such a wall whose length and height stretch into infinity. This unsettling condition has arisen not only from artists’ inexperience or uncertainty about what and how to change. It has also formed because, in painting, nothing truly new has occurred for quite a long time. By contrast, in the early 20th century, during the period of the Paris School, styles would replace one another almost every half year.

Of course, uncertainty often accompanies the creator. In itself, it is not a flaw – on the contrary, it is a necessary condition for creativity. Every genuine discovery is born out of an exciting unknown. But how can anything be discovered if nothing new is created? A certain inertia, it seems, is also encouraged by European civilization itself: today, there is pride in invincible military technologies, yet no one wishes to wage war. Similarly, painters often take pride in technical innovations without always attending to the quality of the painting itself – except in those rare cases where the value of the work is determined by inner necessity, by the language of the heart. And that is already something.

In this exhibition, the question of opposing walls arises naturally, as different walls are represented here by artists of different generations and their works. Yet the participants also propose remembering a simple rule: one wall can imperceptibly transition into another. The history of painting offers many such transitions. It is enough to recall El Greco – in his work, one can recognize the influence of Byzantine style, yet at the same time he emerges as a distinctive representative of Renaissance painting. Meanwhile, Luc Tuymans, observing the complex interplay of light and flashes in his works, even detects traces of a Hollywood-like aesthetic.

Thus, returning to the metaphor of walls – the fear they evoke can be transformed into a creative possibility. What matters is not to fall into a Kafkaesque situation, where the painter turns into a spider and spins its web on a smooth, cornerless surface, without seeking the points that would allow the threads to be stretched and give direction to the activity. The infinite atrophy of walls should not poison, but heal.

– Jonas Gasiūnas

_ _ _

Dear visitors, by attending exhibition openings, you agree that they may be filmed or photographed, and that images may be published on the Šiauliai Art Gallery website, in the media, or on social networks.