Arūnas Žilys was born in 1953 in Vilnius. In 1973 he graduated from National M. K. Čiurlionis arts school. In 1979 – graduated from Vilnius art academy. Since 1976 he has been participating in the exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad. Since 1985 – a member of Lithuanian artists union.

Vilnius, the capitol and oldest city in Lithuania. This small country, whose ancient language is most closely related to Sanskrit, declared independence in 1990 after enduring a history dominated by oppressive foreign occupations. With largely agricultural roots and an extensive mythology similar to Norse traditions, the resourceful and artistic Lithuanians have an unshakable sense of identity.A style this distinctive comes along but rarely in the art world. A growing number of private and corporate collectors are testament to Zilys’ unique gift. He has had numerous one-man shows in galleries and museums in Europe and America. The careful viewer may have noticed paintings by Zilys in the background of several feature films and television shows, including “Friends”, “Veronica’s Closet”, “The X-Files”, “The Mod Squad” and others. Arunas Zilys has emerged as a leading light of the style of art known as Mythic Surrealism. The uplifting emotional tone, rendered in his signature jewel-bright colors, brings a unique cheer to Zilys’ imagery.

In Lithuanian art painter Arūnas Žilys stands a bit away from the colleagues, represented traditional colouristic painting school, which main support points are emotional experience, expressionist manner, local colors range. A. Žilys walks the other way – in his creation work he openly declares and upholds refined aesthetical and decorative origin. His painting is marked the beauty of stagnant world. However, it looks only from the first sight. After the exploration closer, it begins to spread various notional and cultural layers, in which a rich language of the signs and their meanings is encoded. Repetitive motives of the past cultures are realized and revealed by the modernly thinking human.

Žilys harmoniously get on a figurative origin, symbolic moods, modern stylistics sophistication and decorative shapes interpretation. All these signs are inherent to postmodernism stylistics, however, in the creation work of A. Žilys they are immuned from the agression, anger, ugliness aesthetics declaration, that is inherent to postmodernism. In the paintings of A. Žilys dominate theatrical elements – fantastic, unreal and sexless characters move as in the background of decorations. Their stylization, also, highlights specific, inherent to A. Žilys performative manner – small, fussy and frisky brush‘es touches to the canvas surface create ephemeral colors and space‘s vibration.

The main exhibitions:

In 1989 – Chicago International New Art Form Exposition; Chicago, the USA.

In 1994 – Mostra D Arte Pittori Della Lithuania; Venice, Italy.

In 1996 – Personal exhibition; Worpsvede, Germany.

In 1996 – Personal exhibition; Arnsladt, Germany.

In 1997 – Personal exhibition; “Baroti“ gallery, Klaipėda, Lithuania.

In 1998 – Personal exhibition; “Gates“ gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania.

In 1999 – Personal exhibition; “BGH“ gallery, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, the USA.

In 2000 – Personal exhibition; “BGH“ gallery, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, the USA.

In 2001 – Personal exhibition; “Artifacts“ gallery, Cumbria, the USA.

In 2001 – Personal exhibition; “Baroti“ gallery, Klaipėda, Lithuania.

In 2003 – “Maldis“ gallery; Vilnius, Lithuania.

In 2008 – Personal exhibition; “Esteban“ gallery, Paris, France.

In 2010 – Personal exhibition; gallery “Castle“, Vilnius, Lithuania.

In 2011 – “Sails of Business“; Vilnius, Lithuania.

In 2011 – “Hermitage“ gallery; Eze, France.

In 2012 – Personal exhibition, gallery “Castle“; Vilnius, Lithuania.

In 2013 – Personal exhibition; gallery “Castle“; Vilnius, Lithuania.

The paintings of A. Žilys and his created jewelry was used in the cinematic and TV films:

Anywhere But Here; Mod Squad, Office Space, Perfect Murder, She‘s All That, The Shrink Is In; True Crime; Arliss; Buffy The Vampire Slayer; Charmed; E. R; Friends; Jesse; LA Doctors; The Larry Sanders Show; Maggie Winter; Once & Again; Sport Night; Veronica‘s Closet; VIP; Wasteland; Work With Me; X-Files; Nurse Betty.The pieces of A. Žilys have been get by National M. K. Čiurlionis museum in Kaunas, World Bank in Washington, the USA; private collections around the world.

Creation：

Lithunian artist ArūnasŽilys and his vividly colored oil paintings are well known on both sides of Atlantic. Arūnas‘ work stands apart from mainstream Lithuanian artist with unique subjects as well as colors. While traditional Lithuanian art has been either strictly realistic or abstract, Arūnas has choose neither way. His paintings have clearly defined subjects; however, the subjects are taken from the fantasy world. For instance, many subjects look like they‘re right out of fairy tale, with many theatrical elements and decorations. They‘re usually full of mistery and suspense, as if you are looking at fairy tale frozen in time.

The paintings transport you back in time, and all sudden you‘re wondering whether you‘ve seen this setting before, some time your own childhood fantasies. The subjects usually entail many different cultural aspects from ancient history to modern times, and could be attributed to vitually any part of the world, thus making Arūnas‘ paintings highly admired by people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. The painting subjects are instantly admirable. They avoid main features of post-modernism art, such as declarations of aggressiveness, ugliness and anger. The human element in his paintings is mysterious, provocative, and highly sophisticated. Although in many cases the subjects are slightly surrealistic they do not declare any confrontations, pain or suffering.

Au contraire, they are full of peace and claim self-consiousness, declaring the essential goodness of the human nature. In addition Arūnas‘ colors emulate warm beauty and depth of the fantasy world. His style of painting creates and additional vibrating effect, where depth and structure of painting changes with lighting, angle of viewing, and even your own mood. Rich texture, mix and contrast of colors perfectly supplement the themes and give Arūnas‘ paintings inmistakable uniqueness that separates them from the crowd and make them so desired by art collectors from around the world.

Arunas Zilys creates mysterious paintings of haunting beauty. “Birdman”, “Guardian Angel”, “Offerings”–these popular Zilys titles invite you into another world. Fantastic hybrid creatures stalk through a pointillist landscape of vivid paintbox colors. Calmly they stare out from the canvases, inviting you to join them on their mysterious quests. Symbols and myths swirl about in a mosaic of meaning. The unique visions of Zilys, once viewed, are tattooed on your heart indelibly. They echo, like an ancient dream.

Take a journey into the soul with Arunas Zilys as your guide and you will emerge refreshed, with new eyes, ready to stride off on the mythic quest that is your own life.