Virgilijus Šonta: The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
July 22-August 23, 2026
The exhibition opens on Wednesday, July 22, at 5:30 PM at the Kaunas Photography Gallery, Vilniaus g. 2, Kaunas.
The exhibition’s title is borrowed from Bob Dylan’s 1962 song “Blowin’ in the Wind,” a work that became an anthem of the civil rights movement. Its lyrics remind us that answers to the most important questions often remain unresolved, drifting through history and personal experience.
Virgilijus Šonta created his work within a society shaped by the repressive Soviet system, using his photography to search for ways to remain himself under ideological pressure. His biography is shrouded in unanswered questions, the shadow of the KGB, a complicated relationship with his own identity, and a tragic end — the artist was killed at the age of just forty.
Despite his short life, Šonta left behind a rich and multifaceted creative legacy — melancholic and sensitive in character. His work brings together a documentary eye, experimentation, and a subtle photographic aesthetic.
This exhibition is a fragment of the Virgilijus Šonta retrospective held at the National Gallery of Art, which highlighted the key milestones of the artist’s work and life: analog photography, his studies and early career at Kaunas Polytechnic Institute, his involvement in the Lithuanian Photographic Art Society, the KGB’s presence throughout his life, his concealed LGBTQ+ identity, his U.S. citizenship, and his journeys to the country he considered his own.
We invite you to view Virgilijus Šonta’s work as a multifaceted story of an artist, an era, and personal freedom — one full of secrets, puzzles, and meanings hidden between the lines.
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Organizers: Kaunas Photography Gallery, Lithuanian National Museum of Art / National Gallery of Art
Curators: Margarita Matulytė, Gintaras Česonis
Designer: Inga Navickaitė Drąsutė
Works and documents on loan from: Miglė Šontaitė–Petkevičienė and Vidonija Šontienė, the Lithuanian Union of Art Photographers, the Aušra Museum in Šiauliai, Romualdas Požerskis, Arvydas Žalpys, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), the Lithuanian Central State Archives, the Lithuanian Special Archives.
Sponsors: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Kaunas City Municipality
Patron of the Kaunas Photography Gallery: AON