Biography and art gallery: www.zavisaite.com facebook.com/akviliazavisaite Artist Akvile Zavisaite (Akvilė Zavišaitė) was born in 1962 in Vilnius, Lithuania to a family of an architect and a journalist. Since childhood Akvile manifested signs of artistic talent. But when after graduating from high school she was denied admission to the Vilnius Art Institute for not being a number of the Komsomol, she enrolled in the Pedagogical Institute of Vilnius to study English and in 1983 she left Lithuania to join her mother in Australia. Here Akvile studied art at the Newcastle College of Advanced Education graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in the visual arts. In 1988 she completed her post-graduate studies in the Hunter Institute of High Education in Newcastle with the graduate diploma in art. In her paintings and drawings Zavisaite strived to put into perspective the experiences of her own life (especially as a night club dancer) and those of her family and friends. Her portraits of people possess what her critic and mentor Frank Celtlan called “almost intimidating presence.” She was a promising young Lithuanian artist whose loss will be deeply felt by all. Since 1984 to 1991 Akvile participated in 14 art exhibitions (2 of them – solo) in Australia, Lithuania and USA. After her death at the age of 28 in 1991 in Sydney her art was exhibited in 3 retrospective exhibitions: in 1991 in Chicago (USA) and in 1997 and 2006 in Vilnius (Lithuania). In 1997 in Lithuania was published a book Akvile. Pictures, Letters, Memoirs, compiled by her journalist mother. In 1998 the second edition was issued and a TV documentary was created by talented Lithuanian director Lilia Kopac. The movie with English subtitles was shown several foreign countries including Australia. Akvile, who died of AIDS on 2nd of June 1991, left about 50 big paintings (mostly pastels on canvas), many drawings, numerous sketches, and some ceramics.

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