Mažvilė Rudė’s exhibition | Physically Embodied Stories: Aged Books

You are invited to discover the traces of experience, entropy, and continuity in Mažvilė Rudė’s exhibition, “Physically Embodied Stories: Aged Books”.

Time is typically seen as something a painting must be protected from. Mainstream culture favors the new and flawless, rarely appreciating the marks left by time. The artist, however, chooses a different path—she allows her works to age. In carefully selected areas, pigments fade, metals develop a patina, and cracks in the varnish deepen. Her art explores the passage of time and the laws of entropy: a constant tension between decay and continuity revealing a full spectrum of transitional states.

The artist employs mixed media, using acrylics, crackle mediums, oxidizing paints, and collage elements—ranging from old book pages and fragments of her own cut-up canvases to metals and natural elements. This process gives rise to multi-layered abstractions—”physically embodied stories”—characterized by rich texture and profound color depth.

At the core of the exhibition are aged books. Every book tells two stories. One is printed on its pages; the other is etched into it’s physical form. It’s the weathered cover, a stranger’s penciled note in the margin, the stains on yellowing paper.. This second story cannot be found in any other copy of the edition—it is entirely unique.

The artworks draw a parallel between books and humans, a connection deeply rooted in our language: we try to “read” one another, seeing ourselves as “open” or “closed” books. Society often expects individuals to remain unmarked by time and lived experience. Yet, in both scars and laugh lines, one can perceive not damage, but the dignity of experience. To truly read the story of each artwork, we invite you to step closer.