Aidas Bareikis is a Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

n artist, currently working in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Bareikis studied at the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts between 1987 and 1992. His previous attempt at finishing art school in Vilnius was interrupted when he was drafted by the Soviet Army

Soviet Army

The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...

 and sent to Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, where he saw gunfighting, injured soldiers of war, and caskets, before inflicting delirium on himself through sleep deprivation and the inhalation of graphite

Graphite

The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...

 powder.

In 1993 he received a scholarship and moved to America. Between 1993 and 1997 he studied at Hunter College

Hunter College

Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...

 in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, graduating with an MFA.

In 2000 he exhibited at the Berlin Contemporary Art Center and at the Eleni Koroneou Gallery in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

.
In 2004 he showcased his artwork at the Miller Durazo Gallery  in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

.
He showed at Leo Koenig Gallery, and Happy Lion Gallery.

The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

describes his work as "sprawling, grotesque yet artfully color-coordinated messes of found objects, paint, wax, foam, plastic, scrap wood and many other materials. His installations have an impressive physical impact; but, with one exception, there is a formless one-note monotony about them."

External links

• "Aidas Bareikis", Vikipedija