Plant Object

The artist Gediminas Endriekus (b. 1982) is tempted to be called a jongleur (French: jongleur), a term referring to the traveling actors and musicians who emerged in medieval France. Music played an important role in Endriekus’s youth, and the lifestyle of a wandering artist is not unfamiliar to him either—born in Plungė, studied in Telšiai, and now living in Vilnius. This mirrors the multicultural perspective often acquired through performing. After defending his graduation project (at the Academy of Arts, Telšiai branch), the artist spent a long time not creating any visual works. The creative void in the visual media field was filled by making music. The emotional experience accumulated through playing music and encouragement from close people eventually pushed the young artist to return to visual expression.

With a vivid imagination, Endriekus soon realized that his creativity is "nourished" by a liberated subconscious—dreams and visions seen in childhood, the powerful magic of the altars and decorations of Samogitian churches. It is precisely this energy of dreams and visions that gives the artist's unique style a certain eerie intrigue, akin to the impact of surrealist art.

Two main motifs dominate Endriekus’s sculpture: animal and human. Through his sculptural animal figures, he expresses the impulses of his visions. These are creatures born of imagination—usually headless, non-existent in reality, reflecting dreamlike visions. Often, they can be perceived as spiritual amulets protecting against the "evil eye," or perhaps echoes of nightmares, or visionary inventions of otherworldly beings wandering on some unknown planet. The elongation of animal limbs, body perforations, and zoomorphic fragments—hallmarks favored by Surrealist “classics”—can all be traced in Endriekus’s bronze mini-sculptures.

The busts created by the artist are visual enigmas. Mystery is the cornerstone of their visual language. This is achieved through the decorative forms of the sculptures' eyes, the openings that emerge, and instead of facial features, the placement of chip-like plates—schematic representations. It is a contemporary and mysterious image of a programmed human, a habitat of artificial intelligence. The person here is portrayed in stillness, as if detached, gazing into eternity—an image both unsettling and aesthetically captivating.

Gediminas Endriekus’s painting and graphics continue the theme of visions and mystery. The combination of abstract forms on a flat surface suggests that what is seen is only the first impression; a second one requires contemplative effort—inviting the viewer to simply admire the composition of form and color.