Kris Paltanavicius ’11 – This past summer I was given the Dill Grant to go back to Lithuania where I had my artwork dislplayed at The Ministry of FLUXUS–the biggest avant-garde art center in the country. The display was called “Higgs Boson” in which a number of different aesthtics and mediums merged together into over twenty large collages. My experience of putting an exhibition together as well as observing audiences’ reactions to my artwork inspired me to start working on my next series of arworks. I decided to continue to work with the concepts of collage and portrayl and make this exhibition a narrative about fifteen different emotional stages. My portrayls focus on different layers of thoughts and emotions which is why I called the display 15 Dimensions of My Mind. In my collages, I combined the concepts of mandalas, medieval paintings of the noble and some Renessaince art aesthetics.
15 Dimensions of My Mind mostly consists of my drawings and photographs that I never thought I would use. The display was a challenge for me, as an artist, to look back at my previous sketches and reinvent them. It means that all the cllages really reflect on a number of inspirations that I had at different times of my life. I did most of the drawings while still in high school, and some of them are more recent, thus, the exhibition also reflects on my own growth and changes of ideas. It also resonates with the idea of the exhibition being the journey of the protagonist—me–seen in all the portrayls. The character in all the collages discovers himself exploring different emotional states and delibaretly taking it to the extremes. The monochromaticity of all the pieces opens a surreal space where the protagonist of the exhibition experiences contrasting emotional and mental states.
I was really happy when the Lilly Library agreed to host my exhibition which allowed many people on campus to see my artwork. After I displayed 15 Dimensions of My Mind at the library, I felt compelled to share my art with more people. Thus, I started communicating with Kim Van Arsdell at “The Athens of Indiana” where they are currently showing seven of my collages. I feel really honored to have an opportunity to show my art at a professional art gallery while still in college. I am the first undergraduate artist to display artwork at the gallery which makes it very special to me. I would like to invite everybody from Wabash to see my collages at the Athens of Indiana. Also, I hope that it will inspire more Wabash students to make art and have it displayed at the gallery.
