HELLO
My name is Jonas Valatkevičius.
I live in Vilnius, Lithuania.
I write, paint, take photos.
EVL RABID is one of the few names I have been using during years since the Internet came to my country. It doesn’t have any special meaning, except the obvious ones.
I’ve been making painted images since 1994. You can get the whole story in a long text bellow.
THE START: 1994-2001
Originally art critic and curator (5 years at Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) of Vilnius), I turned to painting around 1994. The first little work was done on a scrap of paper after reading a Nesweek article on Balkan war. I still remember the photo of a bony man from concentration camp. There was blood and more bony people. My little work depicted a yellow stickman with red blob sticking of his body.
Sometime later I did the first larger scale painting. It depicted a red and white man on acid yellow background. The man was cut into 7 pieces.
The painting was done on construction cardboard with tempera. Extremely bright palette was influenced by limited availability of paint in Lithuania. The tradition of Lithuanian painting demanded usage of dark colors – brown, black, dark green and blue. Thus for the starting painter like me who could get into the shop only after official painters bought their paints, not a lot of colors were left.
But I liked bright colors (mainly, red, yellow and green) and materials from construction shops. Later I also use old cardboard boxes from supermarkets – you go to the shop, collect boxes nobody needs, tear them apart and have plenty of surfaces to paint.
The first phase of this trash art lasted until 2001. I produced loads of brutal and bright images, dealing with all sorts of destruction. I did huge cardboard pieces, I did small trash box pieces. I had some exhibitions, although it was not so easy to get into the shows because of my position in the art world – I still worked in CAC and was on of the leading local curators and art critics.
Most of the stuff I did before 2001 is gone. Some went to friends, some I threw away (didn’t have space to keep them), some I left in different places where I had shows. You can see some of the examples in the ‘Very Old’ section”.
THE MIDDLE: 2001-2016
I moved from CAC to advertising agency in 2001. I haven't had a lot of connections with local art world since then. The painting style also changed.
I tried to use better materials. Like canvases. I also switched to acrylic paint as it appeared in local shops. The subject matter also evolved. I still did a lot of brutal stuff, but some other themes appeared. Like love. Or meditation.
Some of my works went to friends. I even sold few of them. May be 10 or 15. I didn’t ask a lot of money, it was more of a symbolic gesture. Once I exchanged paintings into food using Facebook as a means of communication.
I had a space problem again. Painting on canvas may look fancy, but it takes a lot of space. I tried to switch to smaller formats, but it didn’t really work. I’m not a small format guy. I tried paper. Well, it was too thin.
THE NEW: 2016-2020
Things changed at the end of 2016. An old-time friend, art critic and curator suggested I do the show. I said ok. Than I thought I should do some new things for the show, even if I had enough stuff at home to fill the small gallery space.
I struggled. Didn’t want to use canvas. Actually it takes longer time to cover canvas with paint. Canvas resist more the brush as if saying ‘You should not hurry. You should take your time’.
But I didn’t like to take my time. I still wanted bigger surfaces and faster process. Like doing 3 paintings during one night.
So I picked a piece of white cardboard that was sitting behind a cupboard at home. I pondered a moment and then did a manifesto piece in one day.
‘I can’t properly draw’ was a perfect statement. Smooth surface of cardboard let the brush fly. And it allowed me to forget the background. Bright colors on white – perfect. So it was funny, it was bloody, it was fast as lightning. And it started.
In couple of weeks I had a full collection for the show. Some 15 pieces. At the end of the year I had another show. In one year I did as much as during the last 20 years. But that was enough for a moment. I stopped again for 3 years.
The last piece in 2017 was the begining of a new stage that started after 3 years, in 2020.
It was the first wave of pandemic. We all stayed home for many months. We were anxious, we were worried. We had loads of time. The word “Amazing” was a good way to resist the negative emotion. A detailed ornamentation was a perfect way to use time that was slowly moving somewhere.
I did a series of mandala like images, moving to images of faces and strange creature and then – towards almost abstract patterns. And then I stopped for couple of years again.
THE NOW: 2022
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So, here you go. Thank you for reaching this point. Enjoy the images. Live your life. Resist the urge to turn yourself into a blind machine. This could be a meaningful world. But it all depends on our wish to make it into one.