“To enter the gate of inexhaustibility
And to roam in the field of infinity.
I shall mingle my light
with that of the Sun and Moon,
And will become eternal
with Heaven and Earth.”
~ Chuang Tzu
- In the Studio 2017
Vandenis Design & Illustration
Duel with the Daemon 2015 (digital photomontage)
My name is Augustinas (Gus) Našlėnas. I am a Lithuanian-born visual artist and designer.
I live and work between Gargždai (Lithuania) and Sheffield (United Kingdom).
I am primarily involved with illustration, graphic design and digital imaging, but I also dabble with video and performance art.
Vandenis Design & Illustration is a creative identity that I chose back in 2009 for my illustration and graphic design work. Since then I’ve worked for numerous private and official clients such as bands, record labels, authors etc.
In my formative years I found myself interested in Surrealism, especially the work of Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst, also post-surrealists HR Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński.
Inspired by collage work of Max Ernst I completed my first photomontage series Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream (2009-2014).
These days I enjoy paintings by Alex Grey, photography by Gregory Crewdson, illustration by Moebius and Vania Zouravliov.
A lot of my inspiration comes from ideas of Archaic Revival, Jungian psychology and magic traditions of various cultures, such as Syberian and Amazonian shamanism, Baltic paganism and Chinese Taosim.
Currently I find myself working for the University of Sheffield on a multidisciplinary project Gaiamycota. Encompassing sculpture, sound, moving and static imagery as well as performance, the project reflects on the state of “what remains of the soil” of our planet…. it’s acute predicament, and foretells of a method to address this, given a global collective political and cultural will.
Augustinas 2017
You can also find me on:
FACEBOOK (Vandenis Design & Illustration)
