In an era where artistic disciplines increasingly blur and merge, few creators embody this evolution as authentically as Evaldas Gulbinas. His journey from a six-year-old drawing castles in Lithuania to becoming a dual-practice artist commanding respect in both London’s fine art galleries and underground tattoo studios represents more than personal transformation. It signals a fundamental shift in how contemporary artists navigate multiple creative territories without compromise.
Standing at the intersection of high art and street culture, Evaldas has spent over two decades perfecting a unique creative philosophy that refuses to segregate artistic expression into conventional categories. His story begins in the quiet moments of childhood creativity, where a young boy in Lithuania discovered that drawing wasn’t just something he enjoyed but something essential to his being.
“I remember first time myself drawing at the age of 6 years old,” Evaldas recalls. “At the age of 7, I was drawing castles with the pencil. That time I remember was enjoying so much. I even didn’t want to go out, just draw and draw.” This early immersion in visual creation would prove prophetic, establishing a pattern of complete dedication that continues to define his approach to art today.
The recognition came early. Teachers at his primary school noticed his exceptional artistic inclination, leading to formal training at Kedainiai art school and later at the prestigious M.K. Ciurlionis National School of Art in Vilnius. These formative years provided technical foundation while nurturing an experimental spirit that would later prove crucial in his boundary-crossing career.
THE LONDON TRANSFORMATION: WHERE STREET CULTURE MEETS ACADEMIC RIGOR
The decision to relocate to London represented more than geographical change; it marked the beginning of Evaldas’s evolution into a truly contemporary artist. Drawn by the city’s vibrant skateboarding scene and street art culture, he found himself in an environment where creative boundaries were meant to be challenged rather than respected.
“I was also inspired by street culture here in London,” he explains. “As a skateboarder I’ve seen there is lot of skateparks and street art in UK. I wanted to see what can I do here with my creative minds.”
London’s influence extended beyond inspiration to fundamental artistic development. At West Thames College and later at the University of Westminster for his Bachelor’s in Fine Art, Evaldas discovered the freedom to experiment across mediums. The academic environment encouraged exploration while his continued involvement in street culture provided authentic connection to contemporary urban aesthetics.
The plot twist that would define his career came through adversity. A severe knee injury ended his skateboarding pursuits but opened an unexpected creative pathway. “When I was skateboarding in London, I’ve twisted my knee very badly,” he reflects. “I was looking for something mixture between my passion skateboarding and my academic art studies. I’ve found tattooing.”
This discovery represented more than career pivot; it revealed a profound understanding of how different artistic mediums could inform and enhance each other. Rather than abandoning his fine art education, Evaldas chose to pursue both paths simultaneously, working as a professional tattoo artist while completing his studies.
The dual life continued through his Master’s degree at Chelsea College of Arts, where he began formally integrating his tattooing practice with fine art creation. “In this course first time I’ve started mixing tattooing and fine arts. For example I was making sculptures out of my made tattoo’s photography,” he explains.
LIVING BETWEEN WORLDS: THE PHILOSOPHY OF DUAL PRACTICE
Evaldas’s approach to maintaining excellence in both fine art and tattooing challenges traditional assumptions about artistic focus and specialization. Rather than viewing these practices as competing demands, he has developed a symbiotic relationship where each discipline enhances the other.
“Personally it seems that I live two lives,” he acknowledges. “For me, I always thinking about new ideas and if I don’t have time to do some sculpture I go and mixed my ideas with customers which gets tattoo from me.”
This cross-pollination extends beyond mere inspiration to fundamental creative process. Ideas generated in fine art practice find expression on skin, while interactions with tattoo clients influence gallery work. The result is an artistic practice that remains constantly fresh and responsive to immediate human connection.
The professional benefits are equally significant. “Professionally it feels great as I have multiple ideas to produce and play with. I have a lot of ideas to offer to tattoo customers and fine art customers,” Evaldas notes. This diversity provides both creative stimulation and economic sustainability, allowing him to take risks in one area while maintaining stability through the other.
THE ART OF TRANSLATION: MOVING IDEAS ACROSS MEDIUMS
Central to Evaldas’s success is his sophisticated understanding of how artistic concepts translate across different mediums and contexts. This isn’t simply about adapting the same image for different surfaces; it involves understanding the unique properties and possibilities each medium offers.
“I guess it’s like a game,” he explains. “I take some thing from tattooing and added to fine art. And I take some thing from fine art and added to tattooing.”
This translation process requires constant adaptation and interpretation. Tattoo work must accommodate client vision while maintaining artistic integrity. Fine art pieces can explore more personal or experimental directions while incorporating techniques and perspectives developed through client interaction.
The environmental influence on this translation process is particularly sophisticated. “I feel if environment is more fine so I create more fine art if it’s more underground I create more outsider art,” Evaldas observes. This environmental responsiveness allows him to remain authentic to different contexts while maintaining a coherent artistic vision.
STYLE AS AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THREE Distinct Visual Languages
Through years of dual practice, Evaldas has developed three distinct artistic styles, each reflecting different aspects of his journey and worldview. Rather than viewing stylistic diversity as inconsistency, he treats these variations as chapters in an ongoing creative autobiography.
The first style embodies “complex underground designs with angriness inside” featuring “thick bold lines in abstract shapes.” This style connects to his street culture roots and represents periods of struggle and intensity in his personal journey.
The second approach is “more happy and colourful style with strong bold lines and humour concept.” This reflects moments of joy and celebration, demonstrating his emotional range and ability to channel different psychological states into visual expression.
The third style represents his current evolution: “more realistic style with graphic motifs.” As he explains, “Now I see things more realistic and graphics lefts on the background.” This style reflects his growing sophistication and interest in the tension between reality and digital representation.
MEANINGFUL CREATIONS: The Power of Personal Narrative
Among his extensive body of work, certain pieces stand out for their deep personal significance and their demonstration of how tattoo and fine art practices can address similar themes through different approaches.
His tattoo piece “Urban Life” presents an abstract composition where “Elephant keeps a bee. Elephant with armours and in the eyes red lines and shadows presents the angryness. Bee is with red lines as well but she is dying. Elephant wants to protect and save a bee.” This work transforms the intimate space of tattooing into a canvas for complex emotional and social commentary.
Complementing this is his sculpture “Ghost,” a large-scale work created from resin and foam. “3D sculpture was in mad shapes like ghost has it. On the shape painted lots of eyes. All this represents me in the past. As I felt like a ghost but seen everything.”
Both works address themes of protection, vulnerability, and observation, but through dramatically different mediums and scales. The tattoo becomes a permanent part of someone else’s story, while the sculpture exists as independent artistic statement. Together, they demonstrate the sophisticated conceptual thinking that underlies his dual practice.
CREATIVE PROCESS: Intuition Meets Planning
Evaldas’s creative process balances spontaneous inspiration with strategic planning, allowing for both immediate responsiveness and long-term artistic development. “I often get visual representation ideas to my head instantly. So I keep them and when I have time I do them,” he explains.
This approach has resulted in an extensive creative pipeline. “There is around 30 art projects I would like to do it in the future,” he reveals, indicating both prolific ideation and disciplined project management.
His inspiration sources reflect the diversity of his practice and environment. “Inspiration comes from daily life and place where I’ve been. Inspiration could come from music or movies as well. Tattooing customers gives me inspiration as well.”
When creative blocks arise, his solution is refreshingly straightforward: “I just try to relax and don’t think. I enjoy the city view or forest.” This approach recognizes that creativity often requires stepping back from conscious effort to allow subconscious processing.
COMMUNITY AND COLLABORATION: Building Bridges Across Scenes
Operating in both fine art and tattoo communities has given Evaldas unique perspective on artistic collaboration and audience development. Rather than seeing these communities as separate, he actively works to build connections between them.
“I think tattooing is interesting for fine art audiences. And fine art is interesting for tattooing,” he observes. This cross-pollination enriches both communities by exposing each to different aesthetic traditions and cultural perspectives.
His collaborative experiences emphasize the value of shared creative exploration. “The most enjoyable thing is communication with other artist. When you’re sharing ideas and thoughts. I think this is very valuable.”
London’s diverse creative ecosystem has been instrumental in this community-building approach. “It made more freedom for my creations. I grew up more as an artist. It gave me more possibilities and switching new styles to create.”
CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE: Technology, Reality, and Artistic Expression
Evaldas’s current work explores themes particularly relevant to contemporary life, specifically the intersection between reality and digital representation. “I currently exploring theme between reality and graphics. I am looking at the real life but it goes up with technology.”
This exploration appears across both his tattooing and fine art practice, creating “tattoos which show realism but with graphic motifs” and paintings that address similar concerns. This thematic consistency demonstrates how contemporary artists can address societal issues through multiple mediums while maintaining conceptual coherence.
His perspective on modern artistic practice emphasizes adaptation and evolution. “I think at this time modern artist keeps up with the future possibilities as more and more use technologies to create art,” he notes, while maintaining that fundamental creative principles remain constant.
VISION FOR ARTISTIC EVOLUTION
Looking toward the future, Evaldas envisions continued expansion of his multimedia capabilities while maintaining the core integration between his different practices. “I hope I will start more properly create art out of multimedia which will have some tattooing motifs,” he explains.
This evolution represents natural progression rather than fundamental change. His multimedia interests build on existing strengths while exploring new expressive possibilities. The integration of tattooing motifs into multimedia work demonstrates his commitment to maintaining connections between all aspects of his practice.
His approach to artistic success reflects this integrated philosophy. “Making living out of it. Get known. Living in creative life,” he defines simply but comprehensively. Success encompasses economic sustainability, professional recognition, and personal fulfillment through creative expression.
THE LEGACY OF LIMITLESS CREATIVITY
Perhaps most significantly, Evaldas’s career demonstrates possibilities for contemporary artists willing to challenge conventional boundaries. His message to emerging creatives is both inspiring and practical: “That everything is possible and artist can be anything. There is limitless what you can do. You can be fine artist, sculptor, mixed media and tattoo artist at the same time.”
This philosophy extends beyond career strategy to fundamental artistic worldview. “Just need to understand how is everything connected,” he concludes, revealing the systems thinking that underlies his successful dual practice.
Through his work and career trajectory, Evaldas Gulbinas represents a new model for artistic practice in the 21st century. His success demonstrates that authenticity and excellence can be maintained across multiple disciplines when grounded in clear creative vision and commitment to continuous growth.
As artistic boundaries continue to blur and new mediums emerge, creators like Evaldas provide essential guidance on navigating complexity while maintaining artistic integrity. His example shows that the future belongs not to specialists in single mediums, but to artists who understand how different forms of expression can enhance and inform each other.
For those interested in exploring Evaldas’s work further, his complete portfolio and current projects can be viewed at www.evaldasgulbinas.co.uk, while his ongoing tattooing and artistic process can be followed through his Instagram @efka_tattooart.
