Paulina Pukytė is an artist, writer, and cultural commentator. She holds a degree from the Vilnius Academy of Art, and a Master’s from the Royal College of Art in London. She writes critical and satirical articles on cultural issues and has received awards for her texts. She has published a collection of essays Netikras zuikis (Fake Rabbit), and three experimental fiction books: Jų papročiai (Their Habits), Bedalis ir labdarys (A Loser And A Do-gooder), and Lubinas ir seradėlė (Lupin and Serradella). Two of them were shortlisted for awards in Lithuania. A theatre production of Bedalis ir labdarys premiered at the State Small Theatre of Vilnius in 2015. Extracts from this tragicomic book of dialogs and monologs are included in the anthology of Best European Fiction 2016, published by Dalkey Archive Press.

Pukytė is interested in misunderstanding and miscommunication, in flaws of perception and memory. In her work she employs chance and coincidence, as well as appropriation, often upcycling found artefacts, such as objects, images and texts. At the same time poetic and ironic, humorous and critical, her work twists perspectives and meanings, deconstructing socio-ideological myths and socio-cultural clichés. She is drawn to the marginal, even banal, rehabilitating what is seemingly unimportant and “inferior” but terribly human.

She lives and works in London and Vilnius. www.pukyte.com