Initially, Glakas’s career path was directed toward law. He worked on Capitol Hill with the plan to go to law school, but he had not yet gone. However, after an illness at age 24, he decided to fully dedicate himself to his vocation. This professional shift defines his art with an unwavering sense of optimism and the value of life.

His work is characterized by the use of oil on canvas with a 21st-century sensibility, aiming for his art to be simultaneously timeless, classical, and contemporary. He combines the precision of realism with a color palette and light that evoke a narrative, optimistic feeling, and, in his own words, “the feeling that life matters.” He is widely recognized for his exceptional ability to capture light, especially during the “Golden Hour.”

Glakas’s paintings grace high-profile permanent collections, including the United States Capitol, the House Armed Services Committee, and Georgetown University. He has received numerous honors, including awards from the Portrait Society of America and the Butler Institute of American Art, establishing him as an artist of high institutional prestige. He currently resides in Virginia, where he teaches figure and portraiture at the Yellow Barn Studio and Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Glakas firmly believes that creativity consists of building and improving upon preconceived notions of the world, infusing a message of love and positivity. As a juror for the Tartget Prize 2026, he will contribute his deep knowledge of figure and color, valuing especially in contestants their narrative capacity and the ability to use realism to convey universal emotions and an enduring sense of beauty.