KOVATO — Creation, Destruction and Everything In Between

New artist at EIGHT

There is something unsettling about the work of Einoras Kovalkovas, known as KOVATO. His paintings do not seek to comfort. They exist somewhere between creation and destruction, instinct and reflection, life and the persistent awareness of its end.

A self-taught contemporary artist from Lithuania, KOVATO approaches painting as a form of raw inner dialogue. Before arriving at canvas, he spent years moving between disciplines — drawing, writing, textile design and sculpture. Painting eventually became his central medium, not so much through a calculated decision as through what he describes as an inevitable turning point.

His work begins with observation.

Nature. Loneliness. Human existence. Death. Rebirth. The repetitive rituals of everyday life. The strange experience of being alive while knowing that everything around us — including ourselves — is temporary.

These subjects appear on canvases that can be both restrained and confrontational. Some are reduced to stark, almost severe monochromatic compositions. Others erupt in saturated, high-friction colour. In both, intuitive brushwork takes precedence over perfection. The image is allowed to remain uncomfortable.

For KOVATO, painting seems less concerned with providing answers than with staying inside the question.