Mykolė Ganusauskaitė
Mykolė Ganusauskaitė, artist name Mykolé (b. 1987) studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. From 2015 till 2017 she lived and worked in Copenhagen and in 2017 moved to Vilnius. She has organized over 20 solo exhibitions and participated in dozens of group projects in Lithuania, France, Denmark, USA and elsewhere. One of the winners of the Baltic Art Competition Young Painter’s Prize 2013 and a member of Lithuanian Artists’ Association since 2016. In 2017 Mykolé resided at The Saari Residence in Mynämäki, Finland. Works owned by MO Museum, Vilnius.
“Contemporary painters were becoming interested in the landscape genre again in the late 90s. Writing about this phenomenon, critic Robert Fleck notices the impact that the changed nature has on their landscape paintings. According to him, “Landscape today is imagined only as artificial. In Europe, industry, agricultural farming and spatial planning have long shaped nature to the most remote regions. It is an advantage for painting – the landscape no longer evokes nostalgia.”
For Mykolė, the landscape is also always a reflection of cultural and economic relations, but for her that does not extinguish the longing for nature, the need to admire the landscape. The artist depicts landscapes transformed according to human needs, places that can be approached and accessed.
Mykolė’s range of vision contains landscapes at the approaches to cities, penetrated by unstoppable urbanization. The roads are laid with asphalt, paths paved with tiles, water bodies surrounded by strips of concrete slabs, the groups of trees, bushes and meadows are shrinking, the balance between natural and artificial is being lost. In search of less affected nature, the artist travels to lakes, river valleys, forests and marshes. All these landscapes are empty. Not even tiny human figures (staffage) can be found. However, even here we find traces of “invasive” human activity: old car tires dropped at the edge of the forest, building structures that have lost their functions. In her paintings, Mykolė does not leave such findings out of romantic landscapes. A concrete beam stuck in an amazingly beautiful blooming marsh is not an immediately noticeable foreign body. However, the sight disturbs the viewer for a long time. Such landscapes changed by human activity, in turn, change the person herself.
There is nothing threatening, dangerous or mysterious in Mykolė’s landscapes. She doesn’t threaten with ecological catastrophes but simply reflects on the landscape as a break between nostalgia and consumption.”
“For Mykolė, landscape painting is a way of learning about both her locations and herself. The recognisability of the location plays an important role in the series. However, in reality, it is impossible to see the same landscape twice. The landscape is never the same due to the changing seasons, time of the day, light, weather, cloudy constellations. For that reason, Mykolė uses the principle of seriality and repetition. This way she reveals her entire creative process from the sketches in plein air, to the finished canvases in the workshop.”
Dr. prof. Raminta Jurėnaitė
CURRENT AND UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
2024.09.12 – 2024.10 .04 – DISSONANCES / DISONANSAI . POUSH, Aubervilliers, Paris, France
2024 – Sounding canvases/ Skambančios drobės. Ignalina Regional Museum, Lithuania
2024 – Sounding canvases/ Skambančios drobės. Nalšia Museum, Švenčionys, Lithuania
2025 – Wispers of the Land/ Žemės šnabždesiai. Meno Parkas, Kaunas, Lithuania
PAST SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Autumn in the Park / Parko ruduo. VAA (Vilnius Art Academy) Faculty of Kaunas gallery, Lithuania
Promenade in the Park / Promenada parke. Mykolas Oginskis Palace, Plungė, Lithuania
Photogenic landscape/ Fotogeniškas peizažas. Permanent Representation of Lithuania to the European Union, Brussel, Belgium
2022 Flooded forest/Apsemtas miškas. Antanas Mončys house-museum, Palanga, Lithuania
Photogenic landscape. M.K.Čiurlionis house-museum, Druskininkai, Lithuania
2021 Beam in Marsh / paintings, drawings. curator Raminta Jurėnaitė. Gallery Arka. Vilnius, Lithuania
2020-2019 Five regions/Penki regionai. Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Vilnius, Lithuania
2019 Landscape/ Gamtovaizdis. Gallery XX. Panevėžys, Lithuania
Landscape/ Gamtovaizdis. Šiauliai art gallery. Šiauliai, Lithuania
2017 Landscape/Gamtovaizdis. Klaipėda Exhibition Palace (Klaipėdos Parodų Rūmai). Klaipėda, Lithuania
2017 Landscape/Gamtovaizdis. DSG / Artists‘ Association Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
2015 NBeX project. Galleri NB, Viborg, Denmark
2015 Mykolė. French Institute, Vilnius, Lithuania
2013 Master degree show. D. Gauthier studio, ENSBA, Paris, France
2011 Bachelor degree show. D. Gauthier studio, ENSBA, Paris, France
PAST GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 ArtVilnius’23 art fair (solo show). Litexpo, Vilnius, Lithuania
2022 Baltic Bridges, International Watercolour Biennial, Art gallery Drobė , Kaunas, Lithuania
Art without roof/ Menas be stogo. Art reproductions exhibition. JCDecaux. Old town of Vilnius, Lithuania
2021 ArtVilnius’21 art fair (solo show). Litexpo, Vilnius, Lithuania
Art Compensa art fair. Compensa concert hall, Vilnius, Lithuania
2020 Art without roof/ Menas be stogo. Art reproductions exhibition. JCDecaux. Old town of Vilnius, Lithuania
2019 Recomendation/ Rekomendacija. Klaipėda Exhibition Palace. Klaipėda, Lithuania
Literary scrolls/ Literatūrinės slinktysArtistic collition across the mountains and seas. UMI gallery Kalnas, Vilnius, Lithuania
Quadriennale 2019: Memorabilia. Stored in memory. Pamenkalnis gallery. Vilnius, Lithuania
2018 LDS century collection 2018/ LDS 100-mečio kolekcija 2018. Taras Shevchenko National Museum. Kiev, Ukraine
The show of younger generation Lithuanian artists. Exhibition Spaces of BSAA (Выставочные залы БГАИ). Minsk, Belarus
2018 Awakening Lithuania/Bundanti Lietuva. Grodno Exhibition Hall (Гродненский Выставочный Зал). Grodno, Belarus
2018 VNO-NYC. Sla307 Art Space, New York, USA
2017 Application/Pareiškimas. Shch gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
2017 Baltic Way. National Museum of Liepaja, Latvia
2017 Wild cultural plant. Trakų Vokės manor house. Vilnius, Lithuania
2017 Colours for the Planet – 2016. Headquarters of UNESCO in Paris, France
2017 Inspired by the City. Lithuanian museum of art, Lemont, Illinois, USA
2016 Inspired by the City. Consulate General of the Republic of Lithuania in New York, USA
2016 XVI Vilnius Painting Triennial. Nomadic images. Kauno paveikslų gallery, Lithuania
2016 Installation NorthEastNorth (archive). Galleri Q, Copenhagen, Denmark
2015 Tas pats matymo/mąstymo būdas. DSG gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
2015 Muzikavimai. Artillery bastion of Vilnius defensive wall, Vilnius, Lithuania
2015 Space odyssey /SMD. VDA exhibition hall Titanikas, Vilnius, Lithuania
2015 (Plat)Forma’15. Gallery Meno forma, Kaunas, Lithuania
2015 Nostalgic stories. UMI gallery Kalnas, Vilnius, Lithuania
2014 Quadrennial 2014 – Art on a flagpole. Artillery bastion of Vilnius defensive wall and Arka gallery, Lithuania
2014 Center – IX international media arts and music festival. Kaunas Central Post, Lithuania
2014 Mimicry of Landscape. Juškus gallery, Lithuania
2014 Translation part 2, Menamos istorijos. Manor palace of Užutrakis, Lithuania
2014 Take a bite of Vilnius. DSG gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
2014 Lithuanians days in Denmark. Godsbanen Center of Culture, Aarhus, Denmark
2014 Young Painter Prize exhibition of finalists. Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania
2013 Esama nebūtis. Kaunas Fluxus Ministry, Kaunas, Lithuania
2013 Micro salon. Gallery L’Inlassable Galerie, Paris, France
2012 Horizons. Gallery Right, ENSBA, Paris, France
2012 Misty solution. Gallery Espace des Arts Sans Frontières, Paris, France
2012 Trampoline. Gallery Espace des Arts Sans Frontières, Paris, France
PRIZES, RESIDENCES, ART CAMPS, OTHER:
2020 Valdis Bušs plein air, curator Māris Čačka (Mark Rothko art center), Viliaka, Latvia
2019 “Artistic collision across the mountains and seas”, China
2017 Granted Residence in “Saari”. Mynämäki, Finland
2016 “Grande Semaine de Fontainebleau”, France
A series of paintings were given as a LEPERON magazine prize to the very best horse riders in France. 2016 UNESCO Art Camp. Andorra
2016 Member of Lithuanian artists association
2014-2016 Art lessons and workshops in the Lituanistic school, Kopenhagen, Denmark
2013 Young painter prize, second place
2011 Intership in “The Fillm Gallery”, the gallery of experimental cinema, cooperate with Jonas Mekas, director Pip Chodorov, Paris, France
2011 Jonas Mekas and his friends concert “Musique plastique” for the gallery Agnès B., Bellevilloise, Paris
2006 Pravda one minute – short film festival, finalist
EDUCATION
2008-2013 National School of Fine Arts in Paris (Beaux-arts de Paris) ENSBA, France.
Professor Dominique Gauthier. Jury: Enrico Lunghi (Mudam – Musee d’Art Moderne Grand Duc Jean), Cécile Beau, Damien Deroubaix, Larissa Dryansky (Université Paris IV-Sorbonne)
2007-2008 Prep’art, preparatory school of arts, Paris, France
1999-2006 National M. K. Ciurlionis Arts School, Vilnius, Lithuania
BOOKS AND CATALOGS:
2023 “Promenade in the Park” Catalog of solo exhibition
2022 “Flooded forest” Catalog of solo exhibition
2021 “Beam in marsh”. Catalog of solo exhibition
2020 “Nemunas Selected pictures 2017-2020” Nemunas editions
2019 “Literary scrolls 2019. Works of young writers and artists” Scrolls editions
2018 “Saari residence 10 years” Saari residence editions
2018 “Memorabilija” Lithuanian Artists’ Association editions
2014 “Diplomés 2013”, Beaux-art de Paris editions
2013 “Young painter prize” Young painter prize, editions