Please Do Touch. Sculpture by Leonas Strioga
3 November 2026 – 31 January 2027
Leonas Strioga (1930–2022) was one of Lithuania’s most prominent sculptors. Throughout his creative career, which spanned over seven decades, he worked with a variety of materials including stone, marble, granite, plaster, clay, wood and others. For him, the choice of material was more than a mere technical decision as it influenced the form, texture and the overall character of the sculpture itself.
Strioga’s late wood sculptures are particularly unique. They were created using a distinctive carving technique that leaves rhythmic hatchet marks on the surface of the piece. As Strioga himself has said, when a sculpture is carved using a hatchet, it becomes textured, almost like living being. Intuitively, we can sense that these sculptures invite a caressing touch.
The exhibition encourages visitors to do something not usually permitted in museums: you can experience Strioga’s works not only with your eyes but also with your hands. Being able to touch the original artworks allows us to explore them more fully, following the curves and breaks in the form, sensing the surface texture, the properties of the material, and the marks left in it by the artist’s hands and tools.
The artworks on display come from the private collection of Ramutis Petniūnas and reflect various periods in Strioga’s artistic career. Quite literally, they allow us to have a feel for the artist’s unique creative journey from perfectly mastered realism, sleek expressionist and austere cubist forms, to minimalist wood sculptures and abstractions embodied in laconic, monumental metal pieces. Varying in shape and size, these sculptures reveal the diversity of the artist’s work and offer us an opportunity to experience his gestures immortalised in different materials.
The exhibition is held in collaboration with the Lithuanian Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted. It is one of a few art exhibitions in Lithuania where people with visual impairments are invited to experience the original works of art.
The sculptor’s son, Aidas Strioga, lent the exhibits for the exhibition.
Project idea originator: Ramutis Petniūnas
Architect: Sigita Simona Paplauskaitė
Graphic designer: Juozapas Švelnys
Coordinators: Audrius Jerašius, Daiva Tonkūnienė
Educators: Ona Kvašytė, Eva Rodz
Texts by: Justina Augustytė, Ramutis Petniūnas, Daiva Tonkūnienė
Organisers: Radvila Palace Museum of Art of the LNMA, Meshka Tech Gallery
Partner: Lithuanian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired
Partially financed by Vilnius City Municipality
Sponsors: Demus Asset Management, Cosmica servisas, Yzi sprendimai
Radvila Palace Museum of Art,
24 Vilniaus st, LT-01402, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 250 5824
