Rūta Šipalytė graduated from the Ceramics Department at the Vilnius Academy of Arts with an MFA in 1998. Since 1994, the artist has participated in group exhibitions and international ceramics symposia in Lithuania, Latvia, Belgium, Croatia, The Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Canada, USA, China, Taiwan and South Korea. She has also held twenty solo exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad.
Among her significant accomplishments are: a fully funded, four-month residency at the Nordic Artists’ Centre in Dale, Norway in 2000; finalist prize in the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale at Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan in 2008; creation of ceramic artwork for permanent installation in the Eastern Europe Ceramic Museum, part of the FuLe International Ceramic Art Museums in Fuping, China in 2010; honorable mention at the 8th Gyeonggy International Ceramic Biennale in Icheon, South Korea in 2015; International Bronze Prize at the Martinsons Award / International Ceramics Competition in the 2nd Latvian Ceramics Biennale at Mark Rothko Art Center in Daugavpils, Latvia in 2018; artworks selected to the European Ceramics Context 2018; Curated exhibition at Bornholm Art Museum in Gudhjem, Denmark; Finalist Prize at the 25th international Biennial of Contemporary Ceramics VALLAURIS 2019 at Musée Magneli, Musée de la Ceramique in France in 2019; Golden Pin by Lithuanian Artists’ Association for artistic achievements in 2020; 1st prize / prof. Liudvikas Strolis Prize at the 6th Vilnius ceramics biennial NEW / FRESH in Lithuania in 2020.
Since 1999, Šipalytė is a member of Lithuanian Artists’ Association. Between 2011 and 2015 she served as a lecturer in the ceramics department at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Since 2019 she is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics in Geneva, Switzerland.
Her artworks are collected by various museums around the world. Several commissioned ceramic architectural installations can be found throughout her native Lithuania. The artist currently lives and maintains a private studio in Vilnius.
Visit Rūta Šipalytė’s website and Instagram page.
Featured work
Selected works, 2004-2022
Cities. Travelling Homes, 2018
Mark My Rothko, 2021-2022
Interplays of graphic lines, silhouettes, negative space, and simple geometric forms: this is the language that I use to transform the visual truth about my surroundings into art.
My artworks are inspired either by the meditative character of natural beauty or by highly structured, occasionally colorful, urban landscapes. As life is a dialogue between man and nature, I strive to preserve the lasting beauty of momentary impressions, passing landscapes, and familiar environments. Works devoted to urban environments and architecture seek to capture the shapes, cycles, itineraries, and stature of the city. Between these contrasting themes, I seek balance in my ceramic creations.
My artworks stand alone as steadfast forms, built of slab or cast, able to operate in a series as gentle rhythms, and thrust into existence by the collision of function and metaphor.
