Vinted co-founder launches arts organisation platforming Baltic cultural exchange

Philanthropist and Vinted co-founder JUSTAS JANAUSKAS and curator ADOMAS NARKEVIČIUS have teamed up to launch Upė Foundation, a London-based organisation aiming to support exchange between the Baltic region and international contemporary art communities.

Kicking off with an initial series of curatorial fellowships with UK and Baltic organisations, Upė will provide early-career curators with an 18-month full-time curatorial role within a partner institution.

The inaugural scheme, opening for applications on 10 December, will offer one for a role at Tallinn Art Hall for UK-based curators and the other for a placement at Hayward Gallery for curators from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

A Lithuanian curator and art historian, Narkevičius, will take up the role of director at Upė. From 2021 to 2025, he was curator at Cell Project Space. Next year, he will co-curate the Latvian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

His co-founder, Janauskas, has a background in software engineering and is an investor and advisor in early-stage technology companies. Stepping back from his role as Vinted chief executive in 2017, Janauskas is also an art collector and patron.

“Since the 1990s, the Baltic region has seen an exceptional number of artists and cultural practitioners whose work has gained major international recognition,” said Janauskas.

“This sits alongside Baltic art institutions entering new phases of growth and transformation. We believe it is important to support the people who will write this next chapter, the curators, researchers and artists whose insight and relationships determine which ideas circulate and how.”

Narkevičius added: “Over time, we see Upė as a driver of research, exchange and long-term dialogue between the Baltic region and a broader, shifting map of contemporary art through ideas and human relationships that go beyond preconceived identities or old notions of centres and peripheries.”