The year 2020 will certainly go down in world history not because of the VIII International Biennial of Enamel Arts taking
place in Vilnius that year. The pandemic enveloped the entire world, eclipsing not only social and political events, but, clearly,
cultural events, too – by closing museums and galleries, breaking plans, terminating contracts, postponing exhibitions. Therefore, every project taking place in this context is an achievement in itself – just because it happens and illuminates a piece of gloomy-looking reality. Thus, the VIII Biennial of Enamel Arts in Vilnius is also a significant achievement due to the very fact of its existence. Looking back at the first biennial, which took place at the Meno Niša gallery back in 2005, it is clear that this beginning has become an impetus, an ongoing project and an honourable claim for the future.
Enamel has since then been an integral part of the gallery, its calling card and an object of pride. This whimsical, yet highly picturesque, ornate, engaging, and mysterious material again rediscovers its inexhaustible potential at the VIII Biennial. Artists know that the effort and time invested in enamel always pays off by at least two hundred percent: the effect of surprise, gleaming colours and lines that bring enamel works closer to painting art enchant both the authors and
every viewer. This time, the geography of the Biennial of Enamel Arts VILNIUS 2020 is narrower for understandable (pandemic) reasons.
Among participants, there are authors from Latvia, Georgia, the United Kingdom, Spain, and, of course, Lithuania. However, the narrower geographical scope does not mean a dimmer result. Artists obviously maintain a connection with a tradition that dates back to the first millennium BC and remains unforgotten over the centuries. On the other hand, the tradition would be difficult to forget it – the luxury, beauty and demanding nature of this technique remain in the memory for long.
Then again, artists use enamel to create contemporary conceptual works. Works exhibited at the VIII Biennial clearly
demonstrate the subtlety of this technique, its unfading appeal, and its conceptuality in addressing a variety of themes. 
No matter how technically complex enamel can be, it seems that this complexity is what attracts the authors most of all. It’s a kind of a competition with oneself, an attempt to overcome oneself, and joy when this is succeeding. Tadas Deksnys (Lithuania) demonstrates the virtuosity of the technique on a convex surface, creating jars with shiny surfaces in Japanese-like moderate style. Dovilė Žydelienė (Lithuania) subtly combines the pattern of cloisonné enamel with amber, fusing metal and amber so organically that it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. Šarūnė Žygienė uses enamel
as a background to highlight a silver figure. Vita Pukštaitė-Bružė floods circles with transparent enamel, which, as if morning
turning into evening, leads us through the most subtle colour nuances towards darkening or lightening – it depends on
how you look at it. Nikoloz Gamkhitashvili (Georgia) paints the eyes of intricately shaped rings with enamel like a pencil,
turning enamel art more into graphics than, as usual, painting. However, there are also more pictorial works, such as enamels by Dina Dubina (Latvia) that, being arranged as a mosaic from individual fragments into one whole, more resemble cubist paintings. Aivars Riekstiņš (Latvia) positions enamel paintings like a study of colours and lines, layering the geometry of coloured lines and dots into one whole.
Enamel is undoubtedly suitable for applying to both flat and convex surfaces,and volumes. The impressive monumental
bowl of Natalia Araya (Spain) glows in all shades of dark red, reminiscent of blood and sunset, velvet curtains and red candle
light - so deep and rich that red is. Aušra Jasiukevičiūtė (Lithuania) uses enamel to create a heavy sculptural object, Edvinas
Busarovas (Lithuania) – to create a witty anthropomorphic figure. However, there are works where enamel is not just a decorative element. Sometimes it is a part of the concept, as in Marytė Dominaitė’s open work structure or in Neringa Poškutė-Jukumienė’s bright work carrying a high visibility warning to respect the limits. It is good that enamel has got no limits.Neither has it got masks. It is immediately apparent how much concentration, scrupulosity and virtuosity of craft each
author bestows. And how much courage they have to head on the enamel adventure despite the intricacy of the technique. The VIII Biennial offers the greatest variety of enamel forms: sculptural and graphic, massive and fragile, water-coloured and decorative, conceptual and ironic.
Dr. Jurgita Ludavičienė

VIII International Biennial of Enamel Arts

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