"Eva and Apple"
Internationally acclaimed artist Kestutis Vasiliunas will bring a wealth of experience and history of art to Fredonia during a two-week residency, Sunday, Oct. 16 to Oct. 30, in the Department of Visual Arts and New Media, working with students in relief printing workshops and presenting a lecture and exhibition of his work.
Erasmus Visiting Professor Vasiliunas has taught at Vilnius Academy of the Arts in Lithuania for nearly 30 years, is a founding member and director of the Book Arts Triennial Vilnius and has participated in visiting exchanges with institutions in China, Japan, Korea and Europe.
His artwork is described as “amazing” by Professor Timothy Frerichs, who considers Mr. Vasioliunas to be “approachable, intellectually engaging and an incredibly interesting individual.” The residency could easily be a highlight of a students’ art education at SUNY Fredonia, Mr. Frerichs suggested.
Vasiliunas will work directly with 16 students enrolled in ARTS 330: Relief Printing Making to create four large-scale woodcut prints in a workshop setting. “Students participating in the workshop will be introduced to color printing, large-scale printing and new conceptual approaches to artmaking as well as techniques from a master printer,” Frerichs explained.
In his lecture on Friday, Oct. 21, Vasiliunas will cover his artmaking, life and experiences as an artist and professor in his native Lithuania, and also include references to growing up in the former Soviet Union. The lecture will be held in McEwen Hall Room 209, from 4 to 5:30 p.m.
“The Lily & the Bird,” an exhibition of Vasiliunas’ art that includes new prints inspired by Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher and cultural critic, will follow his lecture in the Emmit Christian Art Gallery in Rockefeller Arts Center Room 229. The exhibition title is derived from Kierkegaard’s book, “The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air.”
Both the lecture and exhibition are free and open to students, faculty, staff and members of the public. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The SUNY Fredonia Vasiliunas exchange is being funded through an Erasmus Plus Grant, a European Union academic exchange grant, and held in a partnership between the university and Vilnius Academy of Art.
