In 1959 as part of an initiative to incorporate sculpture in the Chadstone Shopping Centre, an invitation was extended to Melbourne sculptors to produce a maquette, the preliminary model for sculpture. Jomantas was a finalist, and this maquette was included in the exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1960.

An immigrant artist to Australia after the Second World War, Vincas Jomantas enjoyed a relatively successful career, producing an extensive body of work, the nature of which engaged directly with the abstraction and modernist art movement of Melbourne at the time. He was a founding member of the Centre Five group, which included artists Inge King, Clifford Last, Teisutis Zikaras, Norma Redpath and Lenton Parr. The Group’s ethos was “to bridge the gap between artist and public through exhibitions, lectures, and media interviews; seek better representation in public collections; foster a closer relationship with architects; promote a percent-for-the-arts scheme for public buildings; and lobby for sculpture-specific scholarships and fellowships”.

Jomanatas’s oeuvre reflected his European lineage; much of his work incorporates a personal symbolic sculptural language that acknowledged the mythology of his native Lithuania, and understanding this cultural heritage is key to accessing a more nuanced meaning in the sculptures. He was fortunate to be part of a cultured family, and a home environment often frequented by writers, musicians, actors and artists.

Key milestones in Jomantas’s career included his appointment as a lecturer in sculpture at RMIT in 1965 and being the subject of a retrospective exhibition some 20 years later, also at RMIT; two retrospective exhibitions (1990, 2003) at McClelland Gallery, and a curated group exhibition in 1974 also at McClelland Gallery. Jomantas was included in a significant survey group exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1958; participated in the Second Australian Sculptural Triennial held at Heide Museum of Modern Art in 1984 and the Third Australian Sculptural Triennial held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1987.