Remigijus Treigys was born in Kaunas in 1961. He studied at the Klaipėda Department of Visual Design of the State Art Institute of Lithuania (now Vilnius Academy of Arts), graduating in 1987. Later, from 1988 to 2004, he worked in the same institution as a teaching master. From 1990 to 1995, he was a member of the Klaipėda artists group ‘DOOOOORIS’. Since 2000, he has been affiliated with the ‘TTL’ (Gintautas Trimakas, Remigijus Treigys and Alvydas Lukys) trio. Between 2005 and 2009, he acted as Chairman of the Klaipėda branch of the Lithuanian Photography Artists’ Union.
The main subjects of his photographs are old objects and elements of urbanism and nature: an empty landscape with a barely visible boundary separating the sea; a lonely building and a space of flat landscape vanishing in the fog; broken windows in the walls of a dark building; objects obscured or hidden in a dark and empty room; spaces filled with debris, dust and scratches, further emphasising the serenity and darkness of the image. The compositions are static, balanced between reality and symbolic images, rich in hints, and the impression of the flow of time is conveyed by textured surfaces. In the artist’s own words, any object – be it simple, insignificant, or every day – becomes an instrument of self-knowledge and reflection on being.
Treigys has benefited from numerous scholarships and received several awards: Lithuanian National Culture and Arts Prize for young artists (1991); State scholarships from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania (2003); CEC ArtsLink (USA) Scholarship (2005); Lithuanian Photography Artists’ Union award for creative and organisational achievements (2006); Vilnius International Art Fair Prize (2015); Klaipėda City Master of Culture award by the city for Klaipėda for outstanding merits (2018); Klaipėda Municipality Scholarship for Artists (2018-2019); ArtVilnius’20 Best Artist (2020); Lithuanian National Culture and Arts Prize (2021).
Treigys has participated in the following creative studies and projects: Pro Artibus Art Center in Ekenäs, Finland (2000); Robert Bosch Cultural Foundation Creative Studio, Berlin (2004); residence at the Kunst:Raum Sylt Quelle Foundation on the island of Zilto, Germany (2008); KLEE Residence at the Schwerin Artists’ House of Art, Germany (2009); International Writers’ House of Graz, Austria (2010); Close Stranger creative studio, Kaliningrad, Russia (2014).
In 2014, the Photography Foundation of the Lithuanian Photography Artists’ Union published a monograph entitled Remigijus Treigys. Photographs 1987-2012.
