I will pretend to be Asleep

Rimvydas Pupelis Muta

Rimvydas Pupelis (a.k.a. MUTA) was born in 1965, Obeliai, Lithuania. In 2006 he graduated from the University of Fine Arts and Technologies of Siauliai in Lithuania. Nowadays, R. Pupelis is a well-known artist. In the background of Lithuanian art, the artworks have a highly recognizable painting manner – brightness, playfulness, provocative, enrichment of colors and emotions. The art of R. Pupelis can be compared to the co-founder of cubism movement – Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973). As one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, R. Pupelis creates figurative compositions, where human beings are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form; the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints. This method, according to the artist, allows to convey the diversity and complexity of human relations and differences between personalities. Meanwhile, colors are bright, contrasting and expressive, representing the amplitude of personal emotions. By using the cubism manner, the artist speaks about people and their relationships, full of irony, humor and absurd situations. He seeks to portray close environment with a grotesque approach and slight erotic.

According to R. Pupelis, the profound interest in masterpieces of Rococo and Baroque have formed his attitude to art as an entirety of coloring, composition and feelings. On the other hand, cubism enables him to experiment and lets one feel the correlation between colors and sensations. Through colors, R. Pupelis seeks to express his feelings, whereas by drawing – to purify them.  

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

• First solo exhibition at the central library of Siauliai city, Lithuania, 1988;
• Participation in the international biennial – “Contemporary Graphics Exhibition", Ploiesti, Romania;
• Took part in the international art symposium - "Kraslava 2012", Latvia, 2012;
• Solo exhibition at the Palace of Culture of Kraslava, Kraslava, Latvia, 2014
• Solo exposition of photographs at the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2015;
• Group exhibition, held in M.A.D. Gallery, Milano, Italy, 2016;
• Group exhibition - "DADA", Vilnius, Lithuania, 2017;
• Group exhibition - "Art Meets Charity" at Art Centre Basel, Switzerland, 2017
• Group exhibition at the art gallery "Tet' de l'Art", Forbach, France, 2018;
• Participation in the International Contemporary Art Fair “Art3F”, Cannes, France, 2018

• Solo exhibition - "Language of Colors" at the art gallery AP, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2018

OTHER INFORMATION

• In 1999 R. Pupelis arranged the artistic project - "Threshold" in close cooperation with John Mekas (New York, USA) and Arunas Kulikauskas (Berlin, Germany);
• In 2000 he participated in the International Symposium of Artists, Italy;
• In 2013, 2014 and 2015 the artist sponsored the International Symposium of Fine Arts -“Only painting”
• In 2015 R. Pupelis was mentioned in the art book – “(In)Dependent Contemporary Art Histories 1987 – 2014", volume II;
• In 2015 R. Pupelis created and released the reconstruction project of the central square of the Obeliai town in Lithuania;
• In 2015 he obtained an official status of a professional artist-painter from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania;
• The name of R. Pupelis was included in the catalogue “Osten Biennial of Drawing Skopje 2016”.