Born in: Vilnius, Lithuania
Lives in: Vilnius, Lithuania
Education: 2008 B.A. Vilnius Art Academy, Department of Painting
2010 M.A. Vilnius Art Academy, Department of Painting
2010 Vilnius Art Academy honors for the M.A. thesis project "Expressions of figuration in the field of painting" [theoretical and practical work]
2016 PhD in painting, theory and practice, Vilnius Art Academy
Information design (MA) from Design Academy Eindhoven, NL
Describe your art in three words: Body technology cyborg
See More Work: www.monikafurmana.com

"I paint intense energetic knots in which the relation between body and thing is crucial - the life hiding in the thing and the thing-like quality of the body. In my work, these two components began to slowly intertwine into a single cyborg "woman-machine", into a woman whose body is shot through with history, a history that grows into a burden, nourishing itself with her own body."
What themes does your work involve?
Contemporary female identity in relation to society.Describe your creative process.
My creativity is attached to my everyday life to what I look us from a distance and question why people or generally humanity act in one or another way in certain situations which appears as a layers of creative subject matter during my painting process. I collect archive pictures of details and objects for my painting during all time I spend on a social media or in the real life. Those details become a part of my paintings and become some kind of diary and a proof of my existence.What influences your work? What inspires you? Why do you make art?
I have been inspired and concerned with the creation of a formal imagery that is specifically female. It is my language that fues mind and body in to erotic objects that are nameable and at the same time quite abstract. Its content has always related to my own body and feelings, reflecting pleasure as well us pain, the ambiguity and complexity of emotions.What are your goals and plans as an artist in 2023?
My vision is to use the female body in my paintings as symbol (rune) which can collect and shape a whole symbolic language. I see a living creature carrying history from the medieval period to these days, searching for its newly embodied place in today's society. An image of the body that remembers and commemorates the ancestral legacy of ancestry, casting a spell for a luck, searching for legitimate integrity. Some of the symbols may resemble well known pop culture brands (mostly owned by men). Major result and edges of the subject will appear during unpredictable process of art.What is the role of the artist today?
Arists are creative thinkers and makers provide their communities with interaction and inspiration. They also give thoughtful critique to our political, economic, and social system.What is good art? What makes a piece of art great?
It is important to remember that not everyone will see art the same way. Some people see it as something with deep meaning, good technical skills and originally, but there are many examples of breaking the rules to create something special So a good peace of art must involve a courage, risk and even craziness to become something exclusive.
This interview was published by Circle Foundation of the Arts. © CFA Press ∙ Images are courtesy of the artist