On 31 August 2016 MENO NIŠA gallery opens ‘A landscape with galoshes’ exhibition by painter Gustas Jagminas (born 1979). It is the third solo exhibition of the artist consisting exclusively of landscapes – quiet, burning and drowning, full and empty, apocalyptic and romantic.

‘I am interested in culture’s sinking into the nature, as was with painting ‘A landscape with galoshes’. And so I paint, soaking in the subjective dregs of a brush until a landscape emerges out of the vanishing objectivity’, says Gustas Jagminas about its recent exhibition.

‘He is a good colourist who likes painting in a ‘raised’ gamut of colours and contrasts, neatly using drawings and figuratives. He relies upon nature, experiences, observations, without aiming at a cheap, commercial result. He knows how to analyse nature, how to deconstruct and construct it’, says art critic Dr. Viktoras Liutkus.

Art critic Kęstutis Šapoka characterises Gustas Jagminas as an outsider who is at the same time the nurturer of the ‘Lithuanian’ painting art. ‘A line between outsiders, primitive art and Lithuanian ars tradition. ‘Pigeonholing’ seems hardly possible at this line. It is namely balancing on the line that creates an intrigue.’

Gustas Jagminas was born in Daugai. In 2010, he graduated Vilnius Academy of Arts with a master’s degree in painting. Jagminas is a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association and a teacher at Alytus Art School.

Jagminas was taking painting classes from Arvydas Šaltenis, Henrikas Čerapas and Ričardas Nemeikšis. His emotional and genuine painting works raises associations with Povilas Ričardas Vaitiekūnas’ landscapes; formats and colouring remind of Ina Budrytė’s works.

Gustas is not hiding his admiration for Lithuanian painters, actively participates in current art processes and exhibitions, and is engaged in writing. According to art critic Viktoras Liutkus, this is a sort of dialogue between the artist and viewers, art critics and colleagues.

When asked about his links with Lithuanian painting art during the interview with Robertas Gritėnas, the artist said: ‘… I’ve never considered about being or not being a ‘Lithuanian’ painter. Of course, there are excellent Lithuanian painting artworks which have impressed me and still are still influencing me, but not more than the German ‘raw art’, Art Brut or simply paintings by children that cannot even claim to be artworks… As for continuation of the Lithuanian painting art, I think I am interested in developing the potential of colourism. I think it is far from being exhausted…’

Figurative, colourist canvases by Gustas Jagminas always contain landscapes, whether as main or secondary character. The latest exhibition ‘A Landscape with Galoshes’ will also offer more horizons, borderlines and landscapes than galoshes.

The exhibition is on show until 23 September.