Fine Arts

In brief: In his work painter R. Gailiūnas (1956) covers a wide variety of topics - from current affairs to Buddhism. You can sometimes get lost among the abundance of colors. Through them artist reveals the brutality, cruelty, anger and aggression of the world, but at the same time, as if from nowhere the reflections of the lighter world appear. Raimondas Gailiūnas shared his thoughts on his work, life, bullies and pipes.

Author is not afraid to scare with his works - he portrays beings with sharp teeth who are attacking, strange creatures, huge flies and etc. According to him the real world is more frightening and no painting can reflect the reality of its turmoil. After the destruction of American Twin Towers, the documentary footage showed people trying to save themselves - they were jumping from the skyscrapers and that affected him more than a horror film. Or the reality of Maidan, where snipers where shooting people like rabbits. Can a painting really frighten more than the horror experienced by dying passengers of the plane that was hit? A painting is nothing but the "preserve" of our fragile world impressions.

Painter uses bright colors, more so, seems like he cannot do without them. "Life is colorful and its colors affect me and I react colorfully. When I work on the painting, I "cultivate" my colors. I rarely start with an open color. To me, cultivation of color means conveying the informal, emotional charge. Formally, color has an emotional charge within, but for me it is more important to identify with a color and use it consciously," says R. Gailiūnas.

Painter does not avoid talking about his works. He says that "during a creative process you are trying to figure things out for yourself (relationship with the world) but at the same time it is intended for the viewer. Painting destroys the boundary between me and the other. I am interested in viewers’ opinion. I have heard about the wishes to see what is going on in my head. My works are sometimes linked to bohemian life experiences from dozens of years ago."

In his works artist portrays various animals, mostly dogs, and also embryos. According to him everyone has a similar opinion about flies, but dog is an animal that is viewed controversially. “That controversy is the main factor of my work. And about embryos: there is a saying not every human being who appears to be human is one. The mere human form is not enough. As I said, I was looking for a character and found it on the web page of the anatomy museum. I also portray screaming heads. In fact it is not really a scream, rather a hysteria, a cry for nothing. Our environment is full of this false cry,” says painter.

Painter seems to be interested in Buddhism. Sometimes Buddhist images appear in his works. He says, he has been interested in many things in life. His interest in Buddhism began 20 years ago. First it started for romantic reasons, but gradually it became clear that it is a very difficult path, so romanticism evaporated quite quickly. "Buddhism helped me realize many things and it continues to do so. Buddhist symbols appear in one of a few paintings, but I try to avoid that. When I need a quote on the nature of mind, then I invoke the Buddhist symbolism," says R. Gailiūnas.