Lithuanians in the news
3rd July, 2005
Aleksandra Kađuba - Sculptors Society in Sydney
Aleksandra Kađuba - Granite Wall,
4000 sq.ft., 7 World Trade Center
in NYCity, 1986, demolished 9/11 2001
Aleksandra Kađuba - Plaza, 7,000 sq.ft.,
Pennsylvania Ave. Washington DC 1981
Aleksandra Kađuba - 20th Century Environment
at Carborundum Museum of Ceramics,
Niagara Falls 1973
On 26 May 2005 The Sculptors Society in Sydney offered an interesting talk on a Lithuanian woman artist to a well-attended meeting of fellow artists and guests. The Sydney sculptor-ceramicist Jolanta Janavičius highlighted the art of Aleksandra Kađuba, well known as a sculptor in New York for the past 50 years.
Aleksandra Kađuba -
Live-in environment in NY City, 1971
Aleksandra Kađuba -
Aluminium clad shells,
New Mexico, 2003-5
Aleksandra Kađuba -
Aluminium clad shells, detail
Jolanta Janavičius briefly outlined Aleksandra Kađuba’s very impressive biography. Aleksandra Kađuba was born in Lithuania, attended the Art Institute in Kaunas in 1941-42 and the Academy of Art in Vilnius in 1942. Before the returning onslaught of the Soviet Army in 1944, Aleksandra Kađuba fled to the West. Later on she migrated to the USA, lived and worked in New York and moved to New Mexico in 2001. The artist has held many solo-exhibitions and participated in a number of group exhibitions. She is the author of four books: Private Heresies, In the Wake of Dreams, Child Ticking, Utility for the Soul. The artist’s creative works have been reviewed in The Journal of Mind and Behavior and 22 other books, catalogues articles and reviews. Aleksandra Kađuba is also the recipient of the following awards: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1983), IFAI International Award for Excellence, with FTL Associates (1981), WAA & AIA New York Chapter citation (1972), AIA Artist-Architect Collaboration, with Edward L. Barnes (1971).
The speaker, Jolanta Janavičius, then went on to illustrate various aspects of Kađuba’s work with a series of slides, commenting and explaining the various strands of the artist’s work. From 1967 to 1986 the sculptor created twelve "Selected Architectural Installations" in marble, bricks, pebbles and granite in New York, Chicago and other cities in the USA. The Old Post Office Plaza, 7,000 sq. ft., Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC mosaic is a mesmerising work of art. The mosaic reminds the viewer of a wheat field gently swaying in the wind. The sculptor has the rare gift of making inert mosaic matter to pulsate and vibrate before our eyes.
"Stretched Fabric Environments" is yet another medium in which Aleksandra Kađuba likes to create her sculptures. The principle underlying these sculptures is "...that tension can be employed as a shape-giving force to great advantage". The lightness and floating quality of these sculptures are fascinating. Finally, Jolanta Janavičius presented Aleksandra Kađuba’s art of building "Shell Dwellings", clad with aluminium plates. These buildings intrigued the spectators with their unusual forms and colour schemes. The dwellings are built on a high tract in the New Mexico Desert. The sculptor’s aims are: "to experiment with unconventional building methods and materials, and take the ideas projected in Imaging the Future a step further; to use membranes as a guide to produce curvilinear walls for housing."
In conclusion, Jolanta Janavičius summarised Aleksandra Kađuba’s great achievements and paid homage to her as an artist of the XXIst century. She also referred for further information to Kađuba’s website on www.kasubaworks.com

Isolde Ira Davis AM