Kestutis Zapkus. Drawings

On Thursday, 3 of September, at 6 p.m., you are welcome to attend the opening of artist Kęstutis Zapkus’s exhibition Drawings at Meno Parkas Gallery (Rotušės sq. 27, Kaunas). Kęstutis Zapkus is one of the most important Lithuanian painters based in the United States and a major figure in abstraction. Zapkus was born in Lithuania in 1938. In 1944, he left for the West with his mother, and in 1947 emigrated to the United States, where he studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Syracuse University, later continuing his studies in Paris. In 1989, he held the exhibition Children of War at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius. In 1992, Zapkus came to teach at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Although he taught there for only half a year, the reputation of that period remains alive to this day. In 2014, he was awarded the title of Honorary Professor of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Over several decades, Zapkus has critically examined painting as a non-hierarchical, semiotic field, emphasising the structural complexity of the image, the simultaneity of the concept and the depth of its experience. His works have been shown in major international institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago and the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. In 2014, a retrospective of his work was presented in Lithuania for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius. In 2023–2024, Meno Parkas Gallery presented Zapkus’s works at the Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń, the Art Academy of Latvia in Riga, the contemporary art fairs Artissima in Turin and Vienna Contemporary in Vienna, and the 9th World Samogitian Art Exhibition in Plungė. In 2025, works by the artist entered the collection of the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art. Throughout his life, Zapkus has maintained a rigorous commitment to abstraction, using a pure visual language without representation, while the structures of his works often recall musical composition. His paintings draw the audience into complex layers of colour, space and movement. Zapkus’s approach to painting remains highly individual: he refuses to align himself with dominant artistic tendencies, while drawing inspiration from music, architecture, and historical and cultural events. For Zapkus, painting is an intellectual experience that comes into being through an intense engagement with form. Following his previous exhibitions at Meno Parkas Gallery in 2023, at the Artists’ Association Gallery in 2025 and at the Gallery “Baroti” in 2026 and considering the continued development and relevance of his work, we are continuing our collaboration with the artist. The later works presented in this exhibition return to themes that have been central to Zapkus’s practice for decades. Through this exhibition, as well as future presentations, Meno Parkas Gallery aims to gradually reveal this body of work and offer an opportunity to become acquainted with Kęstutis Zapkus’s most recent artistic research. — Dovilė Morkūnaitė-Žilinskė The exhibition is part of Meno Parkas Gallery‘s project „To Believe in Painting“. The project is financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture . The exhibition will be open until October 25. Read more Toggle Drawing