Antanas and Snaigė Šileika in Lithuania
This summer, Toronto artist Snaigė Šileika and author Antanas Šileika are enjoying acclaim and a whirlwind of appearances and exhibitions in Lithuania – with a side trip to Italy.
Snaigė was the moving force behind an exhibition of her art and that of her colleagues ”The Gibson Girls”, which took place on May 5 at the Marija and Jurgis Šlapelis Gallery in Vilnius. “Together and Apart – A Conversation in Art” was open until May 29, showing a collection of “postcards” reflecting experience of place, physical and psychic, by this group of artists who have been together for 30 years here in Canada. The exhibition was a complex installation of postcards and individual art installations by each of the artists – Yael Brotman, Karen Curry, Liz Parkinson, Snaige Šileika and M.J. Steenberg.
Snaigė will also have a personal show for a month at Vilnius City Hall, beginning on July 1. Originally scheduled for 2020, it was postponed due to COVID. This will be a joint event with the Canada Day celebration hosted in Vilnius each year by the Canadian Embassy. Snaigė will be showing a “ribbon of landscape” that will encircle the main gallery, and the exhibition will include three of her other series: The Expressway, the In Place series (drypoints) and the series From the Fallow Fields.
In the meantime, she accompanied Antanas on his book tour in Italy, where one of his early books, Buying on Time, has been translated into Italian, titled Tempus Fugit, and was warmly received by Italian readers.
As the Lithuanian Canadian Community representative on the Joint World Lithuanian Community-Lithuanian Parliamentary Commission, Antanas presented a paper on Lithuania’s image in the world today at its spring session earlier this month.
Snaige and Antanas were also snapped up for an interview on the lrytas.tv program Nauja diena (New Day) in Vilnius on June 2, when they spoke about their respective creative activities and, to their surprise, were asked about their reaction to the war in Ukraine. Like many Lithuanians, they had both been following the news closely and provided some interesting insights from the point of view of the Lithuanian diaspora. (Available in Lithuanian at https://tv.lrytas.lt/laidos/nauja-diena/2022/06/02/news/-nauja-diena-2022-06-02-23553756/ at minute 13:45 of the segment).
Antanas will also be participating in the Lithuanian Santara-Šviesa academic society conference from June 24-26 in Molėtai, where he’ll present his work, and the second World Lithuanian Writers’ Conference on June 28-30 in Vilnius.
We will be sure provide our kind readers and fans of Snaigė and Antanas with an update about their busy summer once they return to Canada.
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