On Wednesday, July 22, at 6 p.m., the Nisinė Gallery, located within the Ieva Simonaitytė Public Library in Klaipėda County, will host the opening of Agnė Matulionytė’s solo exhibition, “Unread Current.” In her latest series of graphic works, the artist explores the relationship between text and image, where words lose their legibility and become visual material. In these works, typography becomes not only a form of text but also a means of creating images—letters transform into rhythmic lines, layers, and textures reminiscent of the sea’s surface. Traces of letters undulate, flow in a stream, rage in dark waves, or shimmer in the sunlight. In the exhibition, the sea is revealed not as a landscape, but as a constantly changing system of signs, in which the written language gradually transforms into an abstract image.

This series of works was created during the “Malmö–Klaipėda” residency. Even before leaving, the artist sought a connection between the two coastal cities and an opportunity to visually interpret a work by the Swedish writer Bengt Adler. “Both Klaipėda and Malmö are coastal cities, so the sea became a natural connecting motif between the text, the place, and the image,” explains A. Matulionytė.

Her first works began as small sketches, as she attempted to illustrate the piece and convey its atmosphere. However, upon returning from her residency, the artist decided to develop the idea further—to experiment with larger formats, color, and a wider range of graphic techniques. This gave rise to a cohesive series in which the repetitive process of hand printing becomes the most important creative tool.

“This series explores the relationship between typography, rhythm, and natural forms. Using a repetitive manual printing process, textual elements are transformed into abstract landscapes reminiscent of water surfaces, currents, or atmospheric phenomena,” says the artist. In these works, the sea is constantly changing—it can be stormy or completely calm, merging with the sky, shimmering with reflections, or quietly rippling. In this transformation, language gradually loses its legibility and takes on a new—visual—form.

The maritime theme here is not merely illustrative. According to the author, it unfolds as “a shifting, uninterrupted system of signs and rhythms, in which the sea is not depicted directly but is perceived as an abstract language.” Letter stamps become not a means of conveying text, but rather as material for creating images—the signs lose their semantic meaning and transform into textures reminiscent of the movement of waves, the rustling of the water’s surface, or fragmented currents.

The visual language in these works is based on layering, repetition, and fragmentation. “Instead of conveying information, letters become a medium through which the sea’s surface is modeled as a constantly shifting image. This creates a boundary between text and landscape, where the sea becomes not an image but a process,” the artist summarizes her creative principles.

The exhibition “Unread Current” at the Nišinė Gallery will run through September 5.

About the author:

Agnė Matulionytė was born in Klaipėda. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the Klaipėda Faculty of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. She has been holding solo exhibitions since 2009 and participating in group exhibitions since 2006. She has been a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Union since 2013. She lives and works in Klaipėda.

Gallery hours: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed on Sundays and national holidays. On days before holidays, the gallery closes one hour earlier.

Photographs and videos will be taken during the event. Please be advised that participants may appear in photographs and videos that are published in various media outlets for the purpose of promoting the event.