Ruta Jusionyte – Against Each Other

Against Each Other – Ruta Jusionyte

In this composition entitled Against Each Other, Ruta Jusionyte places back to back two figures: a little girl in a blue dress and a massive bear. Their backs touch while their gazes drift in opposite directions, suggesting a silent dialogue. The careful modelling of the surfaces and the detailed rendering of the hair and fur reveal the artist’s mastery. As always, Jusionyte works without a maquette, allowing the form to emerge directly from the clay.

The work plays with the symbolism of fairy tales: the bear, king of the forest in pagan traditions, embodies strength and protection, while the child represents innocence. The two figures seem either upset or simply lost in thought, each enclosed within their own world. A touch of humour appears through the oversized boat: who is actually steering it? Half serious and half playful, the scene invites reflection on the complementarity of differences in human relationships.

Beneath the surface, the artist evokes resilience and rediscovered joy, recurring themes throughout her work. She creates unexpected pairings in which tenderness and poetry soften life’s larger existential questions.

Over the years, Ruta Jusionyte has developed an immediately recognisable body of work at the crossroads of Neo-Expressionism, Symbolist Romanticism, and Magical Realism. Born in Lithuania in 1978, she now lives and works in France and has established herself as a significant figure on the contemporary European art scene, blending expressionist intensity with symbolic romanticism.

Her work explores the relationships between humans and animals. Her hybrid sculptures reveal a fascination with fragility and strength, innocence and bestiality, always infused with a discreet touch of irony.

Winner of the Académie des Beaux-Arts Prize in 2019, Ruta Jusionyte is now highly sought after by collectors drawn to deeply embodied painting and sculpture, where emotion and visual intensity meet.