Propeller Member since 2023
Snaige Sileika is a painter living and working in Toronto. She began her art career as a printmaker studying at University of Toronto and at Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Upon her return to Toronto she became involved with the community of printmakers at Open Studio.
Then in 2004 came a full shift to acrylic painting. Snaige Sileika has had solo exhibitions in Toronto, Paris and Vilnius, Lithuania. Her work is in the art collections of City of Toronto, TMU (formerly Ryerson University), Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Lithuanian National Museum of Art and numerous corporate collections.
For the last few decades I have considered myself a painter, but I am still strongly influenced by my initial background as a printmaker. I mimic the steps of creating an etching where I begin each painting with the initial line-drawing from my sketchbook. It is on this graphic framework that I build my paintings – adding coloured shapes and textures.
My approach to recording and painting landscape is simplified – I have reduced the terrain into only a few essential, almost abstract gestures. I create a geography that flickers between gestural mark making and clear representation. My interest lies in expressing the movement and patterns that emerge from these views, as I have experienced them.
