Penguin Evolution Print

Salvinija Bentke (1976) was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in a family of mathematicians. She studied architecture in Stuttgart University and Vilnius Technical University where completed her PhD in Architecture with the topic on the Image of the City. “My path to the colourful expression started so many years ago, when my now-a-grown-up daughter was just a baby. We rolled out a huge sheet of paper on the floor and draw whatever came on our mind. My baby loved it best if it was some bright familiar things, so I contoured thick the pieces of success and added some shading to make them even more visible and outstanding. Sometimes the little child would try to pick it up, and this would make us laugh out loud a lot. “When she grew up a bit we continued to draw together. We’d name the topic and both of us would draw on it, looking into the workings of each other and copying from each other whatever details and techniques we liked. Our attempts moved from paper to canvas and clay, and one day the separation happened. Here you see the works that happen solo for me, for now. Who knows, our paths might still converge one day again. :) “My hero is an urban animal, a stranger in the wilderness who wants to be assimilated. I love to throw him into the most peculiar situations and watch his inner constitution collide with the unknown and unfamiliar. “Nature is the place to cool down. Yet this world is so full of desire, all kinds of sorts of impatience, willingness to get deeper into the experience. It does not matter there if you can mouth up the bite of that size. The pure pleasure in feeling your own existence is all that matter. "Whatever comes can be made for the better," says Salvinija, "I trust the world to be a happy place worth of celebration." She lives and works in Lithuania as an artist and an architect.