The surrealist world of the painter Indra Grušaitė in the exhibition “Land of Dreams” | Culture

Today, it takes just a few minutes to “paint” a picture and you don’t even need paint or brushes. Only a computer or other smart device and the Internet. You virtually go to the “workshop” of an artist who knows all styles and genres and place an order.

Visually describe the idea and format of the desired work, and leave the rest to the imagination of the genius. You press a button and wait impatiently for a new AI masterpiece to be generated. Art production with the help of artificial intelligence is a fun game, a new, bright direction of contemporary art, and a constant accompanying hesitation.

Is the work seen on the Internet or in an art gallery real or artificial? Was it created by a human or a computer? Similar hesitancy and questions inevitably arise when you see the surrealist canvases of Indra Grušaitė presented at the exhibition “Land of Dreams”.

AP gallery photo/Indra Grušaitė. “White Night”

A painter is like a time traveler

Comparing the works with the images generated with the help of artificial intelligence makes the painter herself laugh. The artist, who has been called a girl from the 19th century since childhood, does not like modern technology and, as she says, uses only her hands and head in her works.

I. Grušaitė, disillusioned with the modern world and art, digs into her work and looks for inspiration in the past. Just as artificial intelligence uses the works of other artists, I. Grušaitė uses genres and styles of various periods.

The painter, as if traveling through time, combines the 12th century on the canvas. Gothic mysticism and strange creatures, XIV century. the philosophical thought and idealized artistic language of the born Renaissance, the 16th century mannerist expression and the 17th century. dark, pure, baroque theatricality, 19th century. ideas of symbolism and the Pre-Raphaelite search for inspiration in the works of the old masters, 20th century magical scenes characteristic of surrealism and finally the 21st century. the fantasies that visited her.

AP gallery photo/Indra Grušaitė. Land of dreams

Like a berry on a centipede, by boiling different contexts on the canvas, the artist creates a unique “land” that is not subject to the categories of time and space.

Dreams in paintings are protected by dream men

I. Grušaitė fills the empty territory with dreams. Running away from the boring everyday life, the artist recreates in her paintings the memories she visited during her sleep – the garden of her beloved grandfather, where she is always greeted by red-colored apples hanging on the branches and cat friends (“Garden of Memories”), or she visualizes the night visions of other artists, which inspired their most famous works (“Aria to the Moon. Dvořák’s Dream”).

Following the surrealist tradition, she is interested not only in the content of dreams, but also in the process. The so-called “dream men” in I. Grušaitė’s canvases carry, protect and care for dreams with the lullabies of stringed instruments, and when unable to fall asleep they count sheep together or stop the endless flow of thoughts.

The dream world created by the artist is also reminiscent of baroque performances with scenographic props. Lace, jewels, flowers, synthesis of different cultures, combination of allegories, hidden symbols, metaphors. These are the attributes of the sleep god Hypnos – poppy stalks, the flowing river Leto – or fluttering butterflies in a frequent painting – symbols of the soul of a dreaming person who has left the body and the inability to fall asleep.

AP gallery photo/Indra Grušaitė. Winter

Time, the clock is also a symbol of existential anxiety, power and new beginnings

The concept of magical, fantastic realism is also suitable for describing I. Grušaitė’s work. The forest floor drowned in fog, bare hills and tree branches, mysterious swamps, lakes and their inhabitants remind not only of dreams, but also of childhood bedtime stories. About the enchanted forest and its magical inhabitants, Sleeping Beauty, Little Mermaid or Alice in Wonderland.

The artist’s canvases, like fairy tales, stimulate curiosity, open the imagination to create: one’s own environment, new species of animals or plants, fantastic stories. They also contain a lot of wisdom and lessons on how to appreciate not wealth, luxury, or power, but everyday miracles of nature and life.

I. Grušaitė’s works invite us to reflect on the category of time, which can slow down or, conversely, speed up in dreams. The clock is here also a symbol of existential anxiety, the modern world, power, death and at the same time a new beginning, a fresh morning start.

Combining different times in her work, the artist invites us to stop at least for a moment and find balance. Between the rush of the modern world and the slow rest. Among the sayings “Remember that you will die” (lat. Memento mori) and “Enjoy every moment” (lat. Carpe diem).

Combining different times in her work, the artist invites us to stop at least for a moment and find balance.

Indra Grušaitė (b. 1964) – comes from Skuodas, studied art in Klaipėda, later studied and finished painting studies at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. She began her creative career by continuing the canons of Lithuanian expressionist painting, creating abstract, colorful compositions, landscapes.

According to the artist, around 2005, following visiting the Louvre Museum, she was reborn and converted to another creative religion. I.Grušaitė began to study the art of the Renaissance, Baroque, and old masters and eventually created a unique drawing characterized by decorativeness, thoroughness and respect for the past.

The artist has presented this work in personal exhibitions at Vilnius Castle Gallery (2014), “Kitapus upės” (2020, AP Gallery). At the “Land of Dreams” exhibition, the painter presents the latest canvases, mostly created in 2022-2023.