Mantas Poderys - Artist of the Month, January 2022

Mantas Poderys was born in 1990 in Kaunas, Lithuania, and had a love of art from an early age. In 2004, his family moved to Ireland to settle in Letterkenny. While Mantas was at school he took extra art classes under the tutelage of Peader McDaid, who encouraged Mantas to participate in multiple shows. At the age of 18 he won the prestigious Texaco Children’s Art Competition. Mantas went on to study art and design at the North West Regional College in Derry / Londonderry, and Batchelor of Fine Arts in Painting at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. Since graduating in 2012, he has been travelling and creating work throughout Europe, which led him to rediscover his love of portraiture, working primarily in pencil, pastel and oils.

‘Self Portrait at the age of 28’ is part of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland collection. The work was created 10 years after a series of self-portraits won the Texaco art competition, at a time when the artist wanted to make a return to portraiture with new works of light and shadow. This piece won the Young Artist of the year KPMG award at 139th Royal Ulster Academy annual show, and the Prince of Wale’s Award for Portrait Drawing at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition in 2021.

Further information about Mantas and his work can be found at www.mantaspoderys.com