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Inga Ponomarenko

Inga Ponomarenko

Ignalinos, Lithuania

ARTIST BIO

The artist is a contemporary Lithuanian painter born in 1985 and raised in the Ignalina district, in a small Lithuanian homestead. Her creative language has developed at the intersection of exact sciences, natural studies, and visual art. Her background in geodesy and forestry, as well as her professional experience in land management, shaped a deep understanding of space, territory, and environmental traces, which she later transferred into painting.
She graduated from the Open School of Art, Design, and Architecture of the Vilnius Academy of Arts in Visaginas in 2019, completed her Bachelor’s degree in Painting at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2024, and earned her Master’s degree in Painting from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2026.
Her work has been presented mainly in Lithuania, including exhibitions organized by the Vilnius Academy of Arts, the Lithuanian Artists’ Association, the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, and the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. In 2023, she also participated in the Malamegi Lab – Rome’23 finalists’ exhibition at 28 PIAZZA di Pietra Fine Art Gallery in Rome, Italy.
Her practice explores traces of human existence, human legacy, and the environment “after” man.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Previously, my work explored the traces of human legacy through abandoned objects and forgotten places. Today, by combining classical and experimental oil painting, I deconstruct direct imagery into abstract forms, transforming visible reality into symbols, metaphors, and emotional landscapes.
My practice focuses on frozen moments and the process of reducing a visual motif to its essence — to a sign, a symbol, or a metaphor. Through colour, form, and composition, I search for symbolic meanings within the environment that surrounds me.
The themes of my work are connected to traces of human existence, memory, abandoned spaces, and the relationship between people and their surroundings. I am interested in what remains after human presence: marks, silence, fragments, structures, and invisible memories embedded in places.
My painting language moves between classical and experimental approaches. I work with oil on canvas, using abstraction, deconstruction, and metaphorization as artistic methods. The image is no longer a direct representation of reality, but a transformed space where symbols, emotions, and memories coexist.
In the context of AWAKENING, my work reflects a process of seeing the environment anew. Awakening becomes a moment when ordinary places, forgotten objects, and traces of the past begin to reveal hidden meanings. It is an invitation to look deeper — beyond the visible surface — and to reconnect with the tactile, sensory experience of the world in a digital age.
Selected Exhibitions
2023 — “Sugar” / Cukrus, group student exhibition organized by the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Artists’ Association Gallery, Lithuania.
2023 — Malamegi Lab – Rome’23 finalists’ exhibition, 28 PIAZZA di Pietra Fine Art Gallery, Rome, Italy.
2023 — “From CLOSE UP” / Iš ARTI, solo exhibition, Gallery of the II Building of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
2024 — “The Yellow Woman. Antanas Samuolis (1899–1942) Retrospective and Inspirations”, M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Lithuania.
2025 — “About Things and Places” / Apie daiktus ir vietas, Lithuanian Artists’ Association Gallery “Drobė”, Lithuania.
2025 — “Student Self-Portrait”, Vidmantas Martikonis Gallery-Museum “Autoportretas”, Lithuania.
2026 — “Myth”, VDA Painting Corridor, Vilnius Academy of Arts.
2026 — VDA Graduation Show 2026, creative project “The Loop” / Kilpa.

““I appreciate it when artworks contain unfinished details.””

WORKS