Valentyn Odnoviun, artist based in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Visual research has been mainly linked to historical or socially engaged events and problems through the "abstract"-looking image, working with the viewer's imagination to create more concrete communication through interpretation and conceptual thinking.
Photographs in the projects question the relation between what we see and perceive in advance of the act of recognition. These photographs, as patterns and traces, emphasise the borders not only of human perception but also the border where the consequences of human action meet reason.
The main series:
Surveillance (2016-2018), Horizons (2018), PW44 (2016-till present), The Process (2017-2018).
"Artist Creator" status granted by the Ministry of Culture of Lithuania.
CURRENT POSITIONS
- Curator - Šiauliai Photography Museum, Lithuania
- Expert - Lithuanian Council for Culture, Lithuania
- Lecturer - Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania
ARTWORKS IN COLLECTIONS
Lithuanian National Art Museum, Vilnius, Lithuania
The Tatra Museum, Zakopane, Poland
NOMUS New Art Museum, Gdańsk, Poland
AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Menų Zona, Klaipėda, Lithuania
Lithuanian Art Photographers' Association, Vilnius, Lithuania
AWARDS (Selected)
2024:
- Nominee - Prix Pictet, nominated by Anastasia Chaguidouline, Geneva, Switzerland
2021:
- Nominee - FOAM Paul Huf Award, nominated by Adam Mazur, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2019:
- Winner - Photolux Award, nominated by Lydia Dorner (Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne), Lucca, Italy
2018:
- Laureate - Lithuanian Art Photographers Association Award, Lithuania
- Winner - Krakow Photomonth Portfolio Review, Krakow, Poland
- Laureate - DEBUTS, Warsaw, Poland
- Finalist - Riga Photography Biennial Awards, Riga, Latvia
- Honorary Mention - PIC Förderpreis SELECTED, Neuss, Germany
2017:
- Winner - World Biennial of Student Photography, Novi Sad, Serbia
- Grand Prix Award - INTERPHOTO GRAND PRIX 2017, Bialystok, Poland
- Finalist - Walter Koschatzky Art Award 2017, Vienna, Austria
2016:
- Winner - Debiutas Award for Emerging Art Photographers, Vilnius, Lithuania
PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2024-2025:
- Echoes of the Unseen, PALACE Museum, Zakopane, Poland
2023-2024:
- Echoes of the Unseen, NOMUS New Art Museum, Gdańsk, Poland
2022:
- PW44, Thomas Mann Festival, Nida, Lithuania
- Consecutive Fixation, in frames of the ENTER'20 Media Festival, Šiauliai Art Gallery, Šiauliai, Lithuania
- Action Signs of Solidarity with Ukraine, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius and Kaunas Departments, Raudondvaris mansion, Lithuania
2021:
- Consecutive Fixation, KCCC Exhibition Hall, Klaipėda, Lithuania
- Surveillance, Kranj Foto Fest, Kranj, Slovenia
2020:
- PW44, Prospekto Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
2019:
- Horizons, INTERPHOTO 2019 Festival, Bialystok, Poland
- Architecture of Evidence, Fotografie Galerie, Prague, Czech Republic
- Surveillance, SRO Art Gallery of TTU, Lubbock, Texas, USA
- In the Dark, Latvian Museum of Photography, Riga, Latvia
2018:
- The Process, Flandernbunker Museum, Kiel, Germany
2017:
- Surveillance, Cesis New Castle Exhibition Hall, Cesis, Latvia
- Surveillance, gallery for art photography Stikliu, 4, Vilnius, Lithuania
2016:
- Traces of Memory, Art gallery Akademija, Vilnius, Lithuania
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2025:
- Between Dawns, Acquisitions of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, 2015-2025, National Gallery of Art (NDG), Vilnius, Lithuania
2023:
- (Un)told. What Lies at the Basis of Photography and Memory, Academy of Fine Arts, Gdansk, Poland
- Two Centuries of Lithuanian Photography, MCK (International Cultural Centre), Cracow, Poland
2022:
- Tracing the Outlines of Ukrainian History: Louder, Radvila Palace Museum, Vilnius, Lithuania
- UKRAINA, Titanikas Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
- Panoptikon, Långholmen Prison, Stockholm, Sweden
2021:
- Lost Time, Odesa Photo Days Festival, Odesa, Ukraine
- Ästhetik der Überwachung, Kunsthaus Raskolnikow, Dresden, Germany
2020:
- Lost Time, Month of Lithuanian Photography in Kyiv, Ukraine
- Photography Festival W Ramach Sopotu, curated by Adam Mazur, Sopot, Poland
- Heterotopia, Experimental Visual Practices from Lithuania, EEP Berlin Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2019:
- Museum of Now, Contemporary Art Exhibition, Berlin, Germany
- Unseen Photography Fair, by Martin van Zomeren Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Second Biennial of Young Art, Kharkiv, Ukraine
- Dub Toasted Time, Martin van Zomeren Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- NUIT de la PHOTO, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
2018:
- MONUMENTA. The Intelligence of Many, Leipzig, Germany
- Chronometers, Klaipėda Culture Communication Center, Klaipeda, Lithuania
- Tam Gdzie Teraz, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland
- MyEstonia?, ArtVilnius'18 Contemporary Art Fair, Vilnius, Lithuania
- The Vivid Unknown, Refugee Week Berlin, Germany
2017:
- World Biennial of Student Photography, Museum of Contemporary Arts of Vojvodina, Serbia
- INTERPHOTO 2017 Festival, Bialystok, Poland
- Auckland Festival of Photography, Auckland, New Zealand
- Walter Koschatzky Kunstpreis. HOFSTALLUNGEN, by Rotary Club Albertina, Vienna, Austria
RESIDENCIES
2024 - PALACE Museum, Zakopane, Poland
2020 - W Ramach Sopotu Photography Residency, Sopot, Poland
2020 - ISSP Riga Residency, Riga, Latvia
2018 - Docking Station, Photography Residency, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2016-2017 - RUCKA Artist Residency, Cesis, Latvia
ARTWORKS IN CATALOGUES/MAGAZINES (Selected)
2024:
- The War in Ukraine. Understanding Western Tools Short of War, editor Egle Murauskaite, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024, cover image, p181, ISBN 9783111338941
2023:
- Litwa. Dwa stulecia fotografii. Lithuania. Two Centuries of Photography, MCK, 2023, p.222-227, ISBN 987-83-66419-51-3, Cracow, Poland
2021:
- Photographies magazine (by Routledge). Research Article. The Architecture of Lingering War In Everyday Life: Photography at the Double Time of Military Apparatus. Agnė Narušytė. p. 241-242, Volume 14, Issue 2 (2021)
- Ästhetik der Überwachung, exhibition catalogue, Tomasz Lewandowski, Kunsthaus Raskolnikow e. V., Gedenkstätte Bautzner Strasse Dresden und Autoren, p. 5-31; 62-63, ISBN 978-3-9816421-5-5, Dresden, Germany
2020:
- Fotograf magazine, #37/2020, Volume 19, p. 88, ISBN 771213-961006, Prague, Czechia
- Outlaws and Spies, book by Conor McCarthy, Edinburgh University Press, cover photo, ISBN 978-14-744559-3-0, Edinburgh, Scotland
2019:
- European Photography, magazine, No106, p72, ISBN 9-770172-702002, Berlin, Germany
- Opera national de Paris, catalogue for the 2019-2020 season, p53, Paris, France
- Photolux 2019, "New Worlds," magazine, p136-137; 156-157, Lucca, Italy
- Museum of Now catalogue, p46-49, ISBN 9-783000-640001 Berlin, Germany
- Second Biennial of Young Art catalogue, p.70-73, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2018:
- OSMOS Magazine, No16, November 2018, p54-59, New York, USA
- HANT Magazine, November 2018, Erfurt, Germany
- MONUMENTA. Intelligence of Many catalog, p32-33, September 2018, Leipzig, Germany
2017:
- Lithuanian Photography'17 – Part II, Lithuanian Art Photographers Association Foundation, Vilnius, Lithuania
- Walter Koschatzky Art Award 2017 catalogue, p. 39-41 Vienna, Austria
ONLINE ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS (selected)
2022.11.28 - FINANCIAL TIMES, In Pictures: A Snapshot on Lithuanian Photography by Alan Knox
2022.03.08 - OSMOS magazine, Valentyn Odnoviun: Surveillance, by Ksenia Nouril, originally published in the fall of 2018
2021.04 - Museum of Now, MON Studio Sessions. Interview by Jan Gustav Fiedler, Vienna/Vilnius 2021
2019.03.06 - WIRED Magazine, Laura Mallonee, article, "Think These Are Planets? They're Something Far More Sinister"
2019.01.22 - Lensculture.com, Jim Casper, article, "A typology of abstract images leads to a visual meditation about surveillance, control and state security"
