Marija Reikalas is a Lithuanian interdisciplinary artist. Her work investigates the emotional connection between the individual and nature. Born and raised in an urban setting, Marija Reikalas holds a special place for nature-inspired reveries, which in her artistic practice depicts an image of a romanticised, slightly whimsical realm, which she paints in vibrant hues of green. She uses various mediums, but at this moment oil painting is the preferred one in her practice, used to portray the shapes and textures of the plants as ‘flesh-alike’ as possible to personify them and to switch their role inside the artwork from background elements to the lead protagonists. The artist aims to address the longing and nostalgia for the presence of a lush green, growing wilderness in an urban dweller’s life. She invites the viewer to engage in a metaphorical, archetypal conversation induced by hermetic memories, that all humans carry inside. She urges the spectator to long for these memories, to dream about them, and to develop a closer personal relationship with the natural surroundings, in order to care for and protect them as an inseparable part of ourselves.
Inspired by gentle romantic outcasts from the past like Henri Rousseau and Martin Johnson Heade, Marija Reikalas paints her world of awe and wonder, filtered through her own dreams and recollections. With a playful twist of childlike exuberance, she shares her non-verbal narratives in canvases, linocut prints and videos.
Graduated from Visual Culture at IADE Creative University (MA, Lisbon, Portugal) and the Art Academy of Vilnius (BA, Vilnius, Lithuania), she now conducts her studio practice in Porto, Portugal. Her body of work consists of oil and acrylic painting (canvas, paper, murals), linocut printing, analogue photography and video.
