Ruta Jusionyte - Under the Magik Tree

Under the Magik Tree – Ruta Jusionyte

In this composition, the whole resonates with the energy of the Tarot card The Wheel of Fortune.

The incandescent circle at the center acts as a living core: it symbolizes cycles, inevitable transformations, that constant movement of life which escapes human control. Its vibrant texture suggests both birth and dissolution, as though everything within it were in perpetual mutation.

Around it, human and animal figures coexist in a strange harmony. The calm horse, held with gentleness, embodies a fragile stability at the heart of change, while the hybrid creatures evoke the different facets of the self evolving through experience. Nothing is fixed; each form appears in the process of becoming, as if carried by a silent metamorphosis. The gazes, turned in different directions, express this uncertainty in the face of destiny’s motion. And yet, the gestures remain calm, almost trusting. It is not a matter of resisting the wheel, but of learning to move with it.

Thus, the work speaks of a conscious surrender: accepting cycles, losses, and rebirths, and finding within this very instability a form of balance.

Ruta Jusionyte has developed a body of work that is instantly recognizable, at the crossroads of Neo-Expressionism and Magical Realism. Born in 1978 in Lithuania, she lives and works in France and has established herself as a significant figure on the contemporary European art scene.

Her work explores the relationships between humans and animals, in compositions where figures intertwine, respond to one another, and protect each other. Horses, hares, elephants, and hybrid creatures embody inner forces, between instinct and consciousness. Through a warm palette and dense materiality, she develops a powerful pictorial language, both accessible and deeply symbolic.

Awarded the Académie des Beaux-Arts Prize in 2019, Ruta Jusionyte is now sought after by collectors drawn to a form of painting where emotion and visual intensity converge.