The artist’s book-album Portraits encapsulates Darius Žiūra’s creative ideas over the past two decades, offering an exploration of his diverse, multifaceted relationship with portraiture. The book features images from key projects such as Gustoniai, Portraits, Screentests, Monument for Utopia, and Ukraine, alongside texts by cultural researchers, curators, and writers Jurij Dobriakov, Agnė Narušytė, and Anders Kreuger, as well as a conversation between the artist and art critic Jogintė Bučinskaitė. The publication is funded by the Lithuanian Science Council.

Darius Žiūra’s work combines visual expression, documentary cinema, and literature. He has held over ten solo exhibitions in Lithuania and internationally, focusing on long-term projects that evolve over decades, gaining new relevance with time. In 2024, he published Diseris, an autobiographical prose book based on his artistic PhD dissertation. His creative work has been awarded the Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize.

Darius Žiūra (b. 1968, Joniškėlis, Lithuania) is an artist working at the intersection of visual expression, documentary cinema, and literature. He studied painting at the Vilnius Academy of Arts (1991–1997) and earned a Doctor of Arts degree in 2017. Žiūra has held over ten solo exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad and has participated in numerous international contemporary art and cultural events. His practice revolves around long-term projects that evolve over decades, gaining new relevance with time. In the summer of 2018, he organised the cultural and arts festival Gustoniai Art Days in the village of Gustoniai, Pasvalys district, Lithuania. There, he presented his ongoing project Gustoniai, which he has been developing for 18 years, to both project participants and the art audience. Footage from the festival later became the basis for the documentary film Gustoniai in Gustoniai. His solo exhibition Portraits at the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius (2022–2023) encapsulated Žiūra’s creative ideas over the past two decades, offering an exploration of his diverse, multifaceted relationship with portraiture. In 2024, he published Diseris, an autobiographical prose book based on his artistic PhD dissertation. Žiūra’s creative work has been awarded the Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize.

Jurij Dobriakov is a curator, critic, PhD in art criticism, associate professor at Vilnius Academy of Arts, member of the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association, and president of AICA Lithuania.

Agnė Narušytė is an art and photography critic, curator, and author of monographs. She is a professor at Vilnius Academy of Arts, researcher at the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, and editor-in-chief of the weekly 7 meno dienos.

Jogintė Bučinskaitė is a cultural journalist, art critic, researcher, and communication curator. She produces and hosts television and radio shows, writes texts, reviews, and critiques, and oversees the publicity of art projects.

Anders Kreuger  is a Swedish curator, writer, editor, and educator with close ties to Lithuania. He is Director of Kohta, a private kunsthalle in Helsinki, and was previously senior curator at M HKA in Antwerp, Belgium.

Photo by: Mindaugas Meilutis