Vaida Mikliušienė Portfolio - 2024

P a i n t i n g

2 0 2 4 - 2 0 2 5

I Will Turn Into Soil

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

Exhibition view, Haus für Kunst Uri

I Will Turn Into Soil 1

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

I Will Turn Into Soil 2

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

I Will Turn Into Soil 3

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

I WILL TURN INTO SOIL, oil on canvas, stretched on wooden panels, 7 paintings, each 30 × 24 × 2 cm, 2025. Created during the project of Luzern University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Design Film Art, in the Canton of Uri as part of the intervention Ecofeminist Landscaping, within the exhibition THERE IS A SUN by Talar Aghbashian and Maya Hottarek at Haus für Kunst Uri, Altdorf. I decided to mount the paintings on wooden stakes that I found in the museum’s storage. Once the works stood on these wooden “legs,” they became connected to the ground and gained an additional layer of meaning. They strongly reminded me of the post-mortem grave markers on the Baltic coast in Lithuania, the so-called krikštai. These markers were placed in cemeteries at the foot–end of the deceased and included sculptural, plant-like, or cosmological elements.

I Will Turn Into Soil 4

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

I Will Turn Into Soil 5

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

I Will Turn Into Soil 6

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

I Will Turn Into Soil 7

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

The following painting series is titled “It’s a...”. The concept of the 7 small paintings invites viewers to reflect on how gender roles shape a life from the very first moment. The title refers to the first words spoken after a person is born: “It’s a girl” or “It’s a boy.” With these words, the baby’s fate is already influenced—or even pre-shaped. Each painting has its own title and was created with a specific person in mind: someone from real life, the biblical world, or mythology.

1 Lion Cub

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

2 Jane

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

3 Kasandra

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

4 Monika, Forest Sister

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

5 Victorine

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

6 Lilith

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

7 Jocker

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

It is a...

4/7 x oil on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 cm, 2025

Exhibition view, marytwo, Lucern

She is Me 1

oil on canvas, 100 x 120 cm, 2024

She is Me 2

oil on canvas, 100 x 120 cm, 2024

She is Me 3

oil on canvas, 100 x 120 cm, 2024

She is Me

3 x oil on canvas, 100 x 120 cm, 2024

Exhibition view

HSLU, Lucerne School of Design, Film and Art

In this series, I focused on moving the oil paint across the surface and using its material qualities to create a transparent, almost transcendent image in which all unnecessary details have been worked away. While developing the concept, I imagined a contemporary space – something like a modern temple for women, a present-day sanctuary for the Great Goddess. The paintings bring together all the central elements of my current interests.