In 2025 January 24 - February 16 The Šiauliai Art Gallery will host the exhibition "Immersion" of Rimantas Plungė's work.

Exhibition opening event on Friday, January 24 at 5:00 p.m. During the opening of the exhibition, visiting the exhibition is free.

WHAT IS BEHIND THE CANVAS PAINTED BY RIMANTAS PLUNGĖ REFLECTION / REVIEW OF THE EXHIBITION „IMERSION”
prof. Dr. Remigijus Venckus (Vilnius TECH – Vilnius Gediminas University of Technology)

The beginning of the year 2025. As with any New Year, many of us start this year by promising ourselves changes. Many try to change their routine and start a different life. It is hoped that the New Year will be marked by a new direction of personal development and a different experience.

Art creators are the most receptive to these novel experiences. They instantly respond to new configurations of reality, geopolitical turns, cultural and technological innovations. A different year 2025 is also starting for media artist, Vytautas Magnus and Vilnius TECH University professor life of Rimantas Plungė. Most of us know him as a creator of experimental photography and video. We rarely remember his early painting, which attracted the attention of foreign art curators and collectors (mostly in Denmark and Japan). Now we see R. Plungė as if returning to his artistic origins – painting. However, this remark of mine should not be perceived as a negative criticism that the artist repeats his previous stage of creation.

The new canvases created by the artist R. Plungė are as familiar, but completely different. They are characterized by a particularly bold and expressive stroke, contrasting color, obvious and special layering of paint, minimal and evocative insertion of collage and drawing. The artist himself speaks about this, reflecting on his work in text:

[…] the color of my painting is unexpected, the strokes are impulsive, […] I use gold and silver. As if I give a certain sacredness to medieval paintings, I raise the boring everyday life to the heights of transcendence[1].

The composition of R. Plungė’s paintings is such that it can be called a sequential register of traces of a spontaneously occurring act of painting. Abstract (images) contain what can be called a reflection of the author’s personal reality, raising many questions about personal mythology. Visible (seen) motifs, changing landscapes, and philosophical reflections seem to permeate the painting[2]. Thus form and content intentionally and associatively communicate with each other. Painting (sight at a glance) takes on both sensory and intellectual significance.

On the one hand, the abstractions created by R. Plungė require an attentive and scrupulous communication process from the viewer (i.e. the viewer must „subjugate” his creative imagination, which allows him to experience the immersiveness of the work by connecting the form with the content); on the other hand, painting, being spontaneous, also requires the viewer’s imagination to react spontaneously. Here, spontaneity can stand for ordinary language, which we construct with words and sentences and control with strict rules. Often the primacy of spontaneity and immersion in art communication is shown by such (self)reflective expressions of users as: I look at the picture and I really feel, but I can’t say what I feel, I can’t say anything in words…

One thing is clear, that R. Plungė’s painting is an art of colors, where sensations, allusions and understanding are given priority. Only later (after a not tangible, but perceptible sensation) can „follow” the text constructed with words and sentences. Therefore, it can also be said that R. Plungė’s painting is also a wide map of feelings!

Although R. Plungė’s painting is abstract, it is not characterized by frivolity. Reading it requires a lot of intellectual effort. Complete cycles of works form a certain hint of a structural system. The author says about it:

[…]the works are like a battlefield between structure and chaos, between imagination and reality […][3].

Artist R. Plungė’s long-term digital art creation, as well as his current return to painting, actualize the paradoxical relationship between traditional analog and new digital creation. They are very well known to the author. Lev Manovich has observed that the traditional concept of art emphasized the physical properties of materials and their representational potential, while the digital era offered a new approach that focuses on the user experience[4].

Maybe it’s a bit bold, but it can be said that R. Plungė is successfully trying to transfer the user experience from digital media to painting created on the basis of physical material. Both analog and digital media become a handy tool in the development of the artistic language developed by the artist, as a conceptual basis that allows innovative grounding of the perception of reality and its structures.

Liv Hausken observes that often in the field of artistic creation, media can be treated both as a tool and as a conceptual basis for understanding, not only for developing the analysis of the world around oneself, but also when talking about the other, who also participates in the same, relevant and to explore in compelling reality[5]. Moreover, R. Plungė’s extensive creative biography shows that the act of creation (like meditation) operates between the work and technology, between cultural practices and historical circumstances, between personal experiences and collective knowledge.

The case of R. Plungė also shows us that works of art, especially those created in the digital era, often become objects of reflection and conceptual analysis. The works encourage discussions about aesthetics and technology, about the relationship between reality and illusion. The artist himself writes about this:

[…] reality does not disappear in the works, it is not covered, not decorated with layers of oblivion […], it is painful and open. In the paintings, we see all periods of humanity, reflections of creativity of all times. Therefore, to the viewer, these paintings may seem like an art history textbook […][6].

However, it should be noted that the latest canvases created by R. Plunge are not banal and direct imitations or copies of the past. During the painting process, the artist immediately thinks about the wide, interesting, ambiguous evolution of art and his own relationship with it. Emerging objective observations merged with personal experiences and experiences. Maybe it is not a gift in the case of a scientist’s activity, but it is a real advantage in creating art. It seems that the work and the artist become one and the same monolith, where the process of becoming is revealed to be not a simple but a magical process of intense and deep thinking. This is what allows the act of artistic creation to be associated with a philosophy of high quality.

Those who know the artist and follow his activity on social networks have probably noticed him not only as a university professor, teacher of art experiments, creator, but also as an active traveler. Undoubtedly, it can be said that travel has a great impact on the themes developed by the artist and on seeing his place in the world. This makes the artist much more objective than any other traveler. As when visiting new lands, R. Plungė behaves like a geographer when painting. He discovers new relationships between the form and content of the work.

During the act of creation, as if intentional deconstruction, the artist evaluates the landscapes he has noticed and discovers new connections between the former, existing environment and his own and other cultural contexts. R. Plunge has a difficult task. He must create a representation that conveys not only the visible reality, but also its essence and meanings. Here, the heterogeneity of reality, subjective assessment and the pursuit of an objective narrative, matter and idea clash. Therefore, we can naturally notice that R. Plungė’s experiential and experimental artworks are often a form of reflection and discussion about the relationship between aesthetics and possibly distorted objects of reality; it’s like a cartography of the creator’s emotional and cultural context.

The artist also has a responsible task – to interpret the environment in such a way that it reflects his own relationship with the world as authentically as possible, as well as the complex relationship between reality and illusion that deconstruction is constantly trying to avoid; and this presupposes a corresponding connection with the history of art in the work of art. This is what the creator considers in his text [7].

The inclusions of drawings and collages that emerge episodically through the layer of paint allow R. Plungė’s work to be treated as a journey from figure to abstraction. Painting opens up for us a place of marking the reflection of cultural and historical layers, where everything can surprise us with newness. R. Plungė’s own statements about this in the case:

I allow the viewer to enjoy a unique interpretation of reality and to see the world around us in a new way [… ] I think that after viewing the exhibition, even everyday images of the environment will acquire a new uniqueness, will ring new notes […][8].

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[1] Plunge, R. (2025-01-13). Letter about painting to R. Venck.

[2] Claimed based on the same source.

[3] See ibid.

[4] Manovich, L. (2001). Post-media Aesthetics. Available online: https://manovich.net/index.php/projects/post-media-aesthetics (viewed 2025-01-15).

[5] Hausken, L. (2013). Thinking Media Aesthetics: Media Studies, Film Studies and the Arts. Berlin: Peter Lang GmbH, p. 31-34.

[6] Plunge, R. (13/01/2025). Letter about painting to R. Venck.

[7] See the excerpt from R. Plungė’s letter quoted earlier

[8] See ibid.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Rimantas Plungė (b. 10 June 1971, Šiauliai) – has been teaching future students of modern media, creative industries, communication, information technology, art pedagogy for twenty-four years. Since 2001 Dr. R. Plungė regularly gives lectures at universities and high schools in Austria, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Latvia, the United Kingdom, the USA, Estonia, Poland and other countries. Dr. R. Plungė’s activities are not limited to teaching at universities and high schools, but he is well known for his activities as an art organizer. He did a lot in revitalizing the artistic activities of the universities of Šiauliai and Kaunas, organizing festivals, exhibitions and international art exchanges. He organized and curated international festivals: Media Art Days (2010-2015), Daxma (2005-2010). The exhibitions he organized, the trainings he conducted, the lectures he gave, the visits of the most famous Lithuanian and foreign artists, discussions and competitions he organized have left a clear mark on the Lithuanian media art space. Special mention should be made of Dr. R. Plungė’s activities in the Union of Lithuanian Artists. In addition to academic and organizational activities, dr. R. Plungė is well known as an experimental artist and a scientist who publishes scientific articles. He has participated in more than sixty group exhibitions (in Lithuania, United Kingdom, Holland, Austria, Croatia, Italy and elsewhere), many artistic projects and organized twenty-five personal exhibitions and video screenings (in Lithuania, Denmark, United Kingdom, USA, Croatia). He constantly popularizes studies of modern media, media art studies and conducts seminars for employees of contemporary art, communication, IT sector, and marketing. It can be said that dr. R. Plungė’s activities are significant as a contemporary teacher, contemporary media artist, media researcher and shaper of contemporary Lithuanian culture.

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The opening event of the exhibition is open to the public, filming and photography can be done. By participating in the event, you agree to be seen in photos and videos of the event and are informed that these photos and videos may be published publicly.