""Position"" Painting

“Come with me. I’ll take you back to the 16th century,” says a modest-looking teenager to several of his classmates. He blindfolds them with scarves and leads them through the winding streets of the Old Town in the silence of midnight. He takes them to the shabby yet charming staircase of an old, little-known house, still bearing the grandeur of its past, crowned by an impressive glass dome. Beneath the starry sky, he says: “Here we are.”

Robertas Strazdas was born in 1969 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

He began studying art at the age of 13-14, attending extracurricular classes in an advanced fine arts group and later studying sculpture at the Vilnius Evening School of Arts. However, he considers himself primarily self-taught. Primitive art, as a means of expression, is closest to his nature. The themes and styles of his paintings and drawings are diverse, yet regardless of whether his works are serious or witty, they always bear the distinctive touch of their author.

His idols in sculpture are G. Manzu and C. Brancusi, while in painting he admires A. Modigliani and M. Chagall.

Since the last decade of the 20th century, the artist has been actively creating works in both fine and applied arts, exploring a variety of materials and techniques across painting, graphic art, sculpture, and ceramics.

Since 2001, he has organised several solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Lithuania.

His graphic works have illustrated the poetry book Vieniš(um)as - Solidao by Nuno Guimaraes, the Portuguese Cultural Attaché in Lithuania, published by Naujoji Romuva, Vilnius, in 2010.

The Lithuanian National Museum of Art has also acquired several of the artist’s works.

In 2016, Robertas Strazdas was granted the status of a Lithuanian art creator.

Currently, the artist lives and works in Vilnius, Lithuania.