Inge Gecas
I am a visual artist, originally from Vilnius, Lithuania, living and working in NYC.
I began studying art at the age of 11. Starting art school at a young age is bound to shape a person who will see the world in a different way. I loved doing stuff with my hands – whether working with clay in sculpture or ceramics classes, drawing on the sidewalks of the Old Town, or making pen-and-ink drawings of roots and leaves in the park. Attention to detail was considered very important. The school was housed in a huge neoclassical, post-war building in my native Vilnius and it had an abundance of art resources available for our use. It was as a second home to me. We spent our summers in sleepaway camps spending days practicing art outside.
In college I studied architecture.Though it wasn’t my first choice at the time, I now appreciate the skills those studies gave me: three-dimensional composition, light, color theory, perception of objects, architectural spaces. After the college, I experimented with painting techniques and mixed media and showed my work in a few exhibitions. I’ve always been interested in learning new media and technologies. When I moved to New York, I began working with print graphic design and photography. All my studies and practices have had a great influence on what I am today as an artist. I am grateful to have this variety of tools and techniques at my disposal and to be able to express my ideas using any media I choose for the project.
I experiment with a myriad of materials—pencils, paints, brushes and inks, found objects, and natural light, exploring the collaborations and tensions between the natural and the artificial. I embrace botanical materials, inviting viewers to follow nature’s patterns, forms and textures. My favorite objects are often on the verge of leaving or taking another form—wilting and transforming—the signs of their coming and going made visible, both beautiful and impermanent.
To me art happens by sharing it. That’s why art speaks to political, racial, gender and environmental issues. In my art, I address these issues organically by conceptualizing and abstracting the happenings of this world as I go through changes and struggles along with everyone else.
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All images on this site are copyrighted © by Inge Gecas.