The artist’s book-catalogue Portraits brings together the creative ideas Darius Žiūra has developed over the past two decades and reflects his multifaceted, multilayered relationship with the portrait genre. The publication features images from works such as Gustoniai, Portraits, Video Studio, Monument to Utopia, and Ukraine, among others, alongside texts by cultural researchers, curators, and writers Jurij Dobriakov, Agnė Narušytė, and Anders Kreuger, and a conversation between the artist and art critic Jogintė Bučinskaitė. The publication of the book was funded by the Research Council of Lithuania.

In his artistic practice, Darius Žiūra brings together visual art, documentary filmmaking, and literature. He has held more than ten solo exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad and has participated in numerous international contemporary art and culture events. His work focuses on long-term projects which, developed over decades, acquire renewed relevance over time. In 2024, the artist published an autobiographical prose book Diseris, a work of autobiographical prose based on his art dissertation. Žiūra’s work has been recognised with the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts.

Bio

Darius Žiūra (b. 1968, Joniškėlis) brings together visual art, documentary film, and literature in his work. He studied painting at Vilnius Academy of Arts from 1991 to 1997 and obtained a doctorate in fine arts in 2017.

He has held more than ten solo exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad, and has participated in numerous international contemporary art and culture events. His practice centres on long-term projects which, developed over decades, acquire new relevance over time. In the summer of 2018, in the village of Gustoniai in the Pasvalys district, he organised the Gustoniai Art Days culture and art festival, where he presented his ongoing project Gustoniai to the project participants themselves and to the general public, eighteen years in the making at that time. Footage filmed during the festival became the narrative axis of the documentary film Gustoniai Gustoniuose (Gustoniai in Gustoniai). Žiūra’s solo exhibition Portraits, held at the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius in 2022–23, brought together two decades of creative ideas and reflected the artist’s multifaceted, layered relationship with the portrait. In 2024 he published Diseris, a work of autobiographical prose based on his doctoral thesis. Žiūra’s work has been recognised with the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts.

Authors:
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.

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.

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