Teaching period: 16/11/2025 – 22/11/2025
Location: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Kaunas faculty, Muitinės St.2, Kaunas, LT-44280, Lithuania
Teacher(s): Gideon Rubin, Petras Lincevičius
ECTS: 2
Number of available places for KUNO students: 8
Level: BA /MA
Application deadline: November 6th, 2025
How to apply: Please fill out the online form.
Course description
Embodied Identity: Painterly Gestures and Visual Thinking invites participants to explore identity as both a visual and conceptual field within contemporary painting. Led by artists Gideon Rubin and Petras Lincevičius, the workshop examines how memory, perception, and personal storytelling shape the painterly process. Through studio practice and discussion, participants will investigate how surface, layering, and erasure can embody the fluidity of identity and reveal new visual meanings.
Blending theoretical reflection with hands-on experimentation, the course encourages participants to create a personal visual narrative through idea generation, material exploration, and critical dialogue. Renowned contemporary painter Gideon Rubin, one of the leading figures in figurative painting today, will introduce his subtle, anonymous approach to portraiture, exploring how absence and ambiguity shape identity in art. Petras Lincevičius, artist and Associate Professor at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Kaunas Faculty, will guide students to reflect on their personal painterly color palette and how it can convey narratives of identity.
Participants are encouraged to bring a personal object, photograph, or memory as a point of departure for their artistic investigation. The workshop culminates in a public presentation at Panemunė Castle, offering an opportunity to reflect on identity, memory, and self-expression within both local and international art contexts.
Petras Lincevičius is a visual artist, lecturer, and organizer of cultural projects. His work is rooted in exploring specific geographical locations, observing everyday life, and its relationship to the flow of virtual information. The author defines the theme of his research as the (in)significance of local identity in a global world. The conservation of Time, Memory, and Experiences are of utmost importance to this painter. https://www.petraslincevicius.com/
Gideon Rubin is an internationally acclaimed artist whose subtle, anonymous figurative paintings have captivated audiences worldwide. Born in Tel Aviv in 1973, he studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and earned an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he now lives and works. Rubin’s works are held in major collections and have been exhibited at prestigious museums and galleries such as the Herzliya Museum for Contemporary Art, the Freud Museum in London, and Galerie Karsten Greve. His distinctive style blends introspective portraiture with abstraction, inviting viewers to explore themes of memory and identity. Through muted tones and delicate brushwork, Rubin creates a profound emotional resonance that transcends cultural boundaries, focusing on faceless figures that evoke universal human emotions and personal reflection.
https://www.gideonrubin.com/work
Financial Support by KUNO:
Travel support between countries: 330 € (except 660 € to/from Iceland)
Subsistence: 250 € -1st week (5-7 days).
Eligibility:
- only BA and MA full-degree students from the KUNO network schools can participate;
-exchange students from other institutions, which do not belong to the KUNO network, studying at one of the KUNO network schools, CANNOT participate;
- full-degree students from the KUNO network schools, currently on exchange at another institution, CANNOT participate (neither with nor without the KUNO grant).
Further information on the course: petras.lincevicius@vda.lt
