Vytautas Kumža constructs realms out of contradiction to search for meaning within the fractured logic of daily life. His practice unfolds in the space between stillness and tension. Rooted in a childhood shaped by instability, his work gravitates toward what resists resolution, focusing on what lingers unarticulated. Ordinary objects become charged through displacement and distortion, inviting viewers into a process of looking, and then looking again.
His newest series of works brings together photography, sculptural gestures, and glass sculptures. These objects, both delicate and defiant, transform familiar symbols into something uncanny and unresolved. Through displacement and distortion, they create spaces that feel at once delicate and unsettling. Kumža does not resolve contradictions, but he inhabits them. Objects stand in for what cannot be easily named. Hand-crafted visual illusions become tools for building a new kind of order, one that doesn’t deny dysfunction but reshapes it.
Kumža graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2017. His work has since been exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (Netherlands); Museum of Photography Seoul (MoPS) (South Korea); CODA Museum (Netherlands); Museum Villa Mondriaan (Netherlands); (nelly&) theo van doesburg foundation, Amsterdam (Netherlands); NEST, The Hague (Netherlands); National Gallery, Prague (Czech Republic); Geste, Paris (France); Kunsthuis SYB. Beetsterzwaag (Netherlands); and MaMA, Rotterdam (Netherlands).
Kumža's works are held in the collections of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (Netherlands); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Netherlands); MO Museum Vilnius (Lithuania); GCA Collection, Montélimar (France); CODA Museum Apeldoorn (Nethelands); LAM Museum Lisse (Netherlands); Noewe Foundation (Lithuania); Mondriaan Fonds (Netherlands); NN Art Collection (Netherlands); KPMG Art Collection (Netherlands), and SEB Bank Art Collection (Lithuania). Kumža received the NN Art Award in 2022 and the Sybren Hellinga Art Prize in 2019.
His newest series of works brings together photography, sculptural gestures, and glass sculptures. These objects, both delicate and defiant, transform familiar symbols into something uncanny and unresolved. Through displacement and distortion, they create spaces that feel at once delicate and unsettling. Kumža does not resolve contradictions, but he inhabits them. Objects stand in for what cannot be easily named. Hand-crafted visual illusions become tools for building a new kind of order, one that doesn’t deny dysfunction but reshapes it.
Kumža graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2017. His work has since been exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (Netherlands); Museum of Photography Seoul (MoPS) (South Korea); CODA Museum (Netherlands); Museum Villa Mondriaan (Netherlands); (nelly&) theo van doesburg foundation, Amsterdam (Netherlands); NEST, The Hague (Netherlands); National Gallery, Prague (Czech Republic); Geste, Paris (France); Kunsthuis SYB. Beetsterzwaag (Netherlands); and MaMA, Rotterdam (Netherlands).
Kumža's works are held in the collections of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (Netherlands); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Netherlands); MO Museum Vilnius (Lithuania); GCA Collection, Montélimar (France); CODA Museum Apeldoorn (Nethelands); LAM Museum Lisse (Netherlands); Noewe Foundation (Lithuania); Mondriaan Fonds (Netherlands); NN Art Collection (Netherlands); KPMG Art Collection (Netherlands), and SEB Bank Art Collection (Lithuania). Kumža received the NN Art Award in 2022 and the Sybren Hellinga Art Prize in 2019.
"Inner Dialogue", 2022. Archival inkjet print, shells, screws, aluminium frame. 80 x 60 cm.
“Departure”, 2023. Archival ink-jet print, laser engraved glass, handcuffs, aluminIum frame. 80x60cm
Exhibition view at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2024
“Dizziness”, 2022. Archival ink-jet print, opaque glass, hinge, aluminium frame. 50x40cm.
Exhibition view at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2024
Exhibition view at CODA Museum, Apeldoorn 2023
“Fragile chair 2“, 2022. Glass, epoxy, various objects, aluminium clamps with screws. 92x52x45cm.
Exhibition view at CODA Museum, Apeldoorn 2023
'Prospects' installation view, 2021. Image: Luuk Smits
“After hours”, 2022. Champagne glasses, metal hardware, oyster shell. 110x13x10cm.
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