Artwork in the room
Arvydas Kašauskas was born in 1959 in Vilnius. From 1977 to 1982, he studied fresco and mosaic at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.
“The quality of art remains a matter of the author’s ambition and integrity,” says Kašauskas. In simple terms, art is good when the artist cares and stays honest.
Kašauskas was trained in monumental art—a discipline focused on scale, structure, and permanence. This background still shapes his work today. He approaches painting not as simple depiction, but as construction: each piece is built, carrying a sense of weight and space.
After the fall of the Soviet regime, he began working independently, moving from public, state-commissioned frescoes to more intimate canvas works. While the scale changed, his material approach remained.
Paint is not just applied—it is scraped, pressed, and layered, creating dense, tactile surfaces. His work balances control with unpredictability.
Looking back, Kašauskas describes his early artistic drive as a search for “a brighter, more compelling life,” shaped by a time when art held a distinct cultural role.
Today, he sees creativity as something open to everyone—not limited to artists, but available to anyone shaping their life with intention.
Landscape remains a constant in his work. Often painting outdoors, he draws from the energy of place and shared creative experience. Even in abstraction, nature is still present—reduced to rhythm, form, and space.
For Kašauskas, every painting is, ultimately, an abstraction.
About this artwork+
The painting presents a vividly colored abstract landscape. Composed in a series of horizontal swathes that suggest layers of a horizon in a shifting tableau, the artwork exhibits dynamic textures and rich impasto techniques that bring out tactile qualities. The top part of the canvas is dominated by deep blues and blacks, possibly representing a stormy sky, with dynamic strokes of white and gray that suggest moving clouds. Just beneath this tempestuous scene, there is an intense band of fiery reds, oranges, and yellows that merge into each other, evoking the dramatic colors of a sunset or sunrise. The lower section of the painting appears to depict the land, rendered in cooler and more subdued tones. This part features lighter blues, greens, patches of pink, yellow, and a hint of brighter colors, reflecting a tranquil and perhaps populated space contrasting sharply with the wildness of the sky above. The whole scene is abstract enough that the specific details are left to the imagination, yet it distinctly captures the essence of a vibrant, living landscape, marked by movement and emotion. The thick, expressive application of paint adds a three-dimensional effect, making the work seem as though it is in constant motion.
