Kriste Stan (Kristė Stankevičiūtė, b. 1993, Vilnius) obtained her BA in London Middlesex University in 2015. In 2009, she became one of the first Lithuanians to start a fashion and style blog, Feed Your Fashion Animal, and has been actively participating in the fashion world for over a decade now. After graduating, Kristė rediscovered herself in graphic design and started expanding her clientele by creating linear drawings Inspired by her experiences in Los Angeles, where she was introduced to previously unknown ideas of light and architecture, Kriste Stan fell in love with Californian culture and lifestyle and embarked on new forms of expression, particularly painting on canvas. Black and white compositions were then enriched with colour, strict geometric shapes and stains. In her creative process, the artist pays major attention to colour and the relationship between lines and stains. Somewhat paradoxically, even when depicting emotionally heavy narratives, her works are based on different impressions of lightness and colour. The canvases become stop-motion shots, filling up with silhouettes suspended in moments of love, despair and fury. Seemingly comfortably curled up, the bodies lean against the ceiling, not fitting into the rooms they have delineated themselves.
About the project
“Since my school days, I have been interested in the extinction and depopulation of the authentic Lithuanian countryside and its villages. By developing my project, I aim to produce paintings that speak about the antipode between the countryside and the city, nature, and technology. At the centre of each artwork, there are only traces of the disappearing human figure, and its contours are left alongside the symbol of the countryside, the woven basket. It is deformed, symbolising the loss of traditions, alienation, signs of an ageing society, rejection of the past, and idealisation of the future. Next to the basket, footprints of urban glamour could be found, references to our everyday lives touched by industrialization and other social processes.”
