VYTAUTAS KUMŽA (* 1992, Lithuania) visual artist based in Amsterdam.
My work exists in a universe governed by an ambiguous, fantastical logic that elevates the banality from everyday life into an oddity. The content of my work holds an obsessive looking for meaning: staging conversations between objects that remain mute, anticipating a space where things activate each other through performativity, between the realms of the animated and the lifeless. While my work positions itself primarily under photography, its content is often constructed as a sculptural installation that either doubles or antagonizes the spatial presentation of the images. I create an embodied experience for the audience using sculptural elements and presentation displays. The installations become an unfaithful encyclopedic archive where the displayed elements leave visible marks to photographs, showing sources of inspiration as well as the processes for their production.
I construct situations that problematize the limitations of photography as a medium by making visible the artificial nature of staging. My installations operate as a vocabulary constructed by artists’ trickery —visual illusions, spatial constructs, inverted colors, and exaggerated scales. These are techniques that allow a reappraisal of mundane and familiar objects. I arrange the images to highlight similarities between genres and point out to structural parallels between the outside and the inside, organic and inanimate, natural and artificial. The imagery includes interruptions in landscapes, logic, ironic reversals of what is unexpected, illusion and magic, and ironic commentaries on photography and art. It also shows my desire to remind the audience that we are looking at a photograph, not the thing being photographed.
Contact
- vkumza@gmail.com
- +31 6 17 96 80 31
- Des Présstraat 3 (studio 32), 1075 NT Amsterdam
Represented by
- Galerie Martin van Zomeren, Amsterdam
Education
- 2014 – 2017 Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2014 Royal Academy of Arts (KABK). The Hague, The Netherlands
- 2011 – 2014 Vilnius College of Design. Vilnius, Lithuania
Prizes and scholarships
- 2024 Mondriaan Fonds Artist Project Grant
- 2024 Lithuanian Council for Culture Stipendium
- 2023 Mondriaan Fonds Publication Grant
- 2023 Mondriaan Fonds Artist Project Grant
- 2022 Winner of NN Art Award
- 2021 Mondriaan Fonds Grant
- 2020 Lithuanian Council for Culture Stipendium
- 2019 Winner of Sybren Hellinga Kunstprijs
- 2019 Mondriaan Fonds Emerging Artist Stipendium
- 2019 Lithuanian Council for Culture Stipendium
- 2018 Nominee for Rabobank Dutch National Photographic prize
- 2018 Nominee for Riga Photography Biennial award
- 2017 Nominee for StartPoint Prize
- 2017 Winner of Ron Mandos Photo Talent Award
- 2017 Winner of HvA photographer in Residence award
- 2016 Nominee for European Photography Prize
Books
- 2024 Hollow, published by Free Pony Press
Solo exhibitions
- 2023 E C H O at CODA Museum Apeldoorn. Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.
- 2023 Unseen photo fair (Galerie Martin van Zomeren). Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2023 Objects in the mirror are closer, then they appear at Galerie Martin van Zomeren. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2023 Art Dubai (The Rooster Gallery). Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
- 2022 After the day, The Rooster Gallery., Lithuania.
- 2021 Shifting presence, Prospekto Gallery. Vilnius, Lithuania.
- 2020 Half empty, half full, The Rooster Gallery. Vilnius, Lithuania.
- 2019 Half empty, half full, Museum Villa Mondriaan. Winterswijk, The Netherlands.
- 2018 Desire and destruction, Wibauthuis. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
(permanent installation commissioned by HvA) - 2016 Trust it, use it, prove it, si:said gallery. Klaipeda, Lithuania.
Exhibitions
- 2024 Upcoming Art Antwerp (Martin van Zomeren). Antwerp, Belgium.
- 2024 On view CIRCULATE - Proposals for the Museum Collection 2024 at Stedelijk Museum. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2024 On view Fragile at CODA Museum Apeldoorn. Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.
- 2024 UNFAIR at Gashouder. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2024 Editions – Dubai (The Rooster Gallery). Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
- 2023 News from nowhere at (nelly&) theo van doesburg foundation. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2023 Art Rotterdam (Martin van Zomeren). Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2022 ENTER Art Fair (The Rooster Gallery). Copenhagen, Denmark.
- 2022 UNFAIR at Gashouder. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2022 June Art Fair (Martin van Zomeren). Basel, Switzerland.
- 2022 Art Rotterdam (Martin van Zomeren). Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2022 Art Dubai (The Rooster Gallery). Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
- 2022 Hypernuit at Galerie Martin van Zomeren. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2021 Uncoverings at MoPS The Museum of Photography. Seoul, South Korea.
- 2021 ArtVilnius'21 (The Rooster Gallery). Vilnius, Lithuania.
- 2021 The Fountain Show II at SUNDY Gallery. London, United Kingdom.
- 2021 Foto Tallinn (The Rooster Gallery). Tallinn, Estonia.
- 2021 ENTER Art Fair (The Rooster Gallery). Copenhagen, Denmark.
- 2021 Prospects at Art Rotterdam. Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2021 Lost Time at Odessa Photo Days. Odesa, Ukraine.
- 2020 Openings at The Rooster Gallery x Skalvija. Vilnius, Lithuania.
- 2020 Nieuwe Ruimte(s) at Holland House Brussels. Brussels, Belgium.
- 2020 Lost Time at Mala Gallery, Mystetskyi Arsenal. Kyiv, Ukraine.
- 2020 ArtVilnius'20 (The Rooster Gallery). Vilnius, Lithuania.
- 2019 Sybren Hellinga Art Prize 2019 at Kunsthuis SYB. Beetsterzwaag, The Netherlands
- 2019 Eyes on Robert at Melkweg Expo. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2019 Smeared States at MaMA. Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- 2019 Fotofestival Naarden 2019. Naarden, The Netherlands
- 2019 Material world, Show Off. Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- 2018 Dead Darlings auction, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2018 Rabobank Dutch Photographic Portrait Talent 2018, Rabobank HQ. Utrecht, The Netherlands
- 2018 Binary / Non-Binary, Geste. Paris, France
- 2018 3Dvs2D, Prospekto gallery. Vilnius, Lithuania
- 2018 UNFAIR 2018, Westergasfabriek. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2018 STARTPOINT PRIZE 2017 SELECTION, Arti et Amicitiae. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2018 UNFAIR x Christie’s Fundraiser auction, Arti et Amicitiae. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2018 ART ROTTERDAM represented by Young Blood Gallery. Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- 2018-2017 Young & Promising, Villa Mondriaan. Winterswijk, The Netherlands
- 2017 Party of Ruin, NEST. The Hague, The Netherlands
- 2017 Bougie Art Foundation 2017, CBK. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2017 Nieuwe Oogst 2017, Galerie Bart. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2017 STARTPOINT PRIZE 2017, National Gallery. Prague, Czech Republic
- 2017 UNSEEN represented by Ron Mandos gallery. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2017 Nieuwe Oogst 2017, Galerie Bart. Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- 2017 Outside the Wall, Nida Art Colony. Nida, Lithuania
- 2017 Best of Graduates 2017, Ron Mandos Gallery. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2017 Graduation show, Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2017 In the place who likes it in your face at Eighteen 29, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2016 Antik, HGB Galerie. Leipzig, Germany
- 2016 European Photography Award, Fondazione Fotografia. Modena, Italy
- 2016 Again, anew, afresh, anon & once more, Punt WG. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2016 Again, anew, afresh, anon & once more at Studio 47, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2016 Immersionsgehege at Kunstverein. Siegen, Germany
- 2015 Guerilla show, Vrysodepseio / Tannery. Athens, Greece
- 2015 Happy Sad, UNSEEN festival at Prinsengrachtziekenhuis. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2015 What if we discovered something? Amstel park (Glass pavilion). Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- 2015 // lines, gallery ‘Meno forma’. Kaunas, Lithuania
WORKS IN COLLECTIONS
- Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (NL)
- CODA Museum (NL)
- LAM Museum (NL)
- Noewe Foundation (LT)
- MO Museum (LT)
- NN Art Collection (NL)
- KPMG Art Collection (NL)
- SEB bank Art Collection (LT)
- Various private collections
PRESS
- Article / MetropolisM (NL)
- Article / UNSEEN (EN)
- Feature / ArtNews.com (EN)
- Feature / Artforum (EN)
- Article / Bird in Flight (RU)
- Feature / EEP Berlin (EN)
- Interview / 370 (LT)
- Review / Literatura ir menas (LT)
- Interview / LRT (LT)
- Interview / Paper Journal (EN)
- Interview / Echo Gone Wrong (EN)
- Interview / Artnews.lt (LT)
- Artist-feature / Der Greif (EN)
- Review / Hard//hoofd (NL)
- Review / NRC (NL)
GENEROUS SUPPORT
- Mondriaan Fonds and Lithuanian Council for Culture