Mikas Šileikis (1893–1987) was a Lithuanian-American painter and writer who emigrated to the US in 1913 and graduated with distinction from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1923. He co-founded and in 1957–1962 directed the Čiurlionis Gallery in Chicago; his works are in the Lithuanian National Museum of Art. He painted mainly sunlit dunes, beaches, forests and gardens, combining realism with a post-impressionist feel for light and a bright, clear palette.
Mikas Šileikis (1893–1987) was a Lithuanian-American painter and writer, born in the village of Liminėlis in the Zarasai district of Lithuania. In 1913 he emigrated to the United States to avoid conscription into the Russian imperial army, and at first worked in a steel mill in Pittsburgh. While earning his living he studied art in Boston, then moved to Chicago in 1919 and graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1923 with distinction in painting, later also studying art history. Šileikis took part in numerous American and Lithuanian diaspora exhibitions and received several awards for his work. He was primarily a landscape painter, known above all for sunlit sand dunes, beaches, forests, parks and gardens, and he also painted portraits and worked in watercolour. His manner combined realism with a post-impressionist feeling for light, with carefully modelled forms and a bright, clear colour scale. He was one of the founders of the Čiurlionis Gallery in Chicago, directed it from 1957 to 1962 and established a prize fund in his own name. Alongside painting he wrote short stories, sketches and art criticism for Lithuanian-American periodicals such as Aidai and Draugas, and published the collection of stories Liucija in 1981. His works are held by the Lithuanian National Museum of Art and the Zarasai Regional Museum, which has a gallery devoted to his paintings. The watercolour “Landscape (Chicago)” (1947), offered by TUMO Gallery, is a small work on paper from the Chicago years in which he spent most of his life. Šileikis died in Chicago in 1987.
