Rebecca Đuran-Šilėnas, presenting as Bekki, is an artist from Croatia, born in 1991. She graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka (Croatia) with a Master’s degree in Painting in 2017. She participated in the Erasmus student exchange program in 2013/2014 at the Academy of Fine Arts, Jan Matejko, in Krakow (Poland). In 2017, she moved to Vilnius, Lithuania, to enroll in postgraduate studies at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. She graduated in 2019 with a Master’s degree in Photography and Media Art.
She has exhibited in Croatia and internationally, with notable exhibitions including the XVIII Biennale of Drawings in Belgrade (2015), the 9th Croatian Triennale of Aquarelle in Zagreb / Karlovac / Slavonski Brod (2022), the 2nd Drawing Biennale in Pula, and a solo exhibition at Menų Spaustuvė, Vilnius (2023). Her paintings have found homes in many countries across the globe, from the USA to Australia, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, and beyond.
Throughout her career, she has also worked on interactive and participatory artworks, exploring the relationship between the artist and society. However, during that time, she always found painting to be a more meditative and explorative practice, specially drawn to the silence it offers. In painting, there was little need for explanations, works could appear simple yet complex at the same time. Beautiful to look at, unspoiled by the outside, pure clarity of what’s in front of you. A floating space, in which she plays the role of a conductor. She feels the need to celebrate colors and bring the deconstructed space on the painting to a balance, thus creating personal oases. Her paintings reflect the feel of control, movement, and freedom. She often uses bright, rich colors, dynamic compositions, and odd shapes that define the space on the painting.
She wants the viewer to be immersed in the painting, to form a connection with it, and to experience it in their own way. To her, a certain painting might evoke a longing for the Croatian sun, the sea, or cherished summer memories, something that warms her heart. But for the viewer, it may represent something entirely different, and she embraces that interpretation. She believes that the moment an artist explains a painting, the artwork begins to exist only within what was said and does not extend beyond it. It risks becoming “information” rather than a visual body of work.
She lives in Vilnius, Lithuania, and works as a full-time painter in her art studio.
