Mantas Daujotas painting exhibition "Exhale"

EXHALE

Nature breathes. The passage of time is marked by cycles - tides, bloom and decay, the circulation of water into the air and back into the earth. As part of nature, I breathe too. And not just air with my lungs - I breathe to create. First I take in what I see, what moves me and what I care about - I breathe in - then I pass the image I see through my sensory lungs and release it onto the canvas - I breathe out.
This is the necessary circulation to sustain my creative ecosystem. In order to breathe a new breath, I have to say goodbye to the old.

 Exhaling is also my motive. I exhaled them in my ecocirculation, but they are also exhaled in that they seemingly no longer exist, as if they have been abandoned by the vital breath. Sometimes it's a literal abandonment, where the man-made infrastructure is no longer in use, but sometimes it's more of a metaphorical abandonment, as I depict places, things and corners that we don't usually give the care of a glance. These motifs are like the released sighs of humanity that are no longer needed.

.When my limb goes numb, I get signals that there is no blood flow here and there, and I need life there because the circulation is cut off. It is amazing that the body sends us these messages - it is nature taking care of us. It also takes care of the numb urban limbs, flooding them with life - all sorts of shrubs, moss and bugs.

.I don't have a fetish for nostalgia, I am able to enjoy the present time and its circumstances, and most of my work is based on capturing special moments, the eternal work. Overall, this exhibition is a manifestation of the ability to enjoy simple things - peace, laughter, greenery and air. But the old, dilapidated walls and infrastructure that no longer works hold an intriguing mystique. So just as abandoned, decaying backstreets contain beauty and life, so every fresh, bright blooming thing carries the threat of tension and disaster that will culminate when it is over.