Riga Castle is the residence of the President of Latvia and one of the largest medieval castles in Latvia. We framed original paintings in it’s hallways and Presidents office.

Exhibition specs

• Various L-box frames, custom painted or stained

First time presented as part of Discovery Award at The Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France

An idea once expressed by George Santayana – „those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – most accurately correlates with the recent history of military and ideological conflicts in the Western world. The tragic geopolitical events of the past century have either been forgotten or pushed out of the collective experience as something inconvenient and outdated. The seemingly obvious facts about the numerous wars, the cold war between NATO and the Soviet Union, the arms race and recent disarmament treaties appear to have had no lasting effect on the modern society, which once again resumes the rhetoric of the cold war, nationalism and conflict. In spite of this curious state of oblivion, some experiences of the collective conflict are reinterpreted and … Read More »

Le Solitaire (French for patience, loner) is a single player card game, played by arranging cards in a particular order. Digital illustrations, animations, and net artworks displayed in the solo show by Santa France, titled after the card game, have been produced in communication with a computer, creating and arranging 3D objects in compositions by principles known only to the author herself. Through designing glossy interiors and creating still life compositions, answers are sought to the question “how to be alone?” – to work in solitude, to be self-sufficient, how to compensate the lack of human contact by browsing the internet and using one’s inner resources. The works displayed in the “Le Solitaire” exhibition are created by the artist after graduating New Media Art program in Liepaja University (2017).

Exhibition curators – Rasa Šmite and Raitis Šmits.

Santa France (Sunta Frunce) is … Read More »

The core of the exhibition is made of artwork by four artists – Lucia Nimcova, Peter Puklus, Roman Korovin, Pavel Maria Smejkal, who have drawn their attention to complicated, paradoxical, tragic, as well as humorous cultural situations and their interpretation in Eastern Europe. The former collective history and its reflections in the everyday folklore, rituals, media and art construct ambiguous contexts for the historical, contemporary and conventional values, as well as political discourses. The abovementioned artists question and construct new critical views on the canonized values in the Western media, (re)interpret generally known facts of the collective history, ironize about the everyday and seemingly unimportant aspects, as well as construct new modern-day fairy tales about the ties with the past and processes in the present.

Curated by Alnis Stakle and Arnis Balčus.

Exhibition specs

• Archival prints on matte paper

The core of the exhibition is made of artwork by four artists – Lucia Nimcova, Peter Puklus, Roman Korovin, Pavel Maria Smejkal, who have drawn their attention to complicated, paradoxical, tragic, as well as humorous cultural situations and their interpretation in Eastern Europe. The former collective history and its reflections in the everyday folklore, rituals, media and art construct ambiguous contexts for the historical, contemporary and conventional values, as well as political discourses. The abovementioned artists question and construct new critical views on the canonized values in the Western media, (re)interpret generally known facts of the collective history, ironize about the everyday and seemingly unimportant aspects, as well as construct new modern-day fairy tales about the ties with the past and processes in the present.

Curated by Alnis Stakle and Arnis Balčus.

Exhibition specs

• Printed on Pro Pearl paper

Exhibition specs

• Printed on Natural Pearl Paper • Mounted on 3mm dibond • Ash tree frames, stained • GroGlass anti-reflective art glass

“Sword Lilies” is a series of photographs that visually explores cultural heritage of Latgale (a region located in the Eastern part of Latvia). The project includes photos, which were taken during three years by one well known Latvian photographer – Iveta Vaivode.

Since Latgale’s separation from Vitebsk province in 1917 and its inclusion in Latvia as a part of a united country, this region has had a special place in the formation of Latvian national identity. Although Latgale is a part of Latvia, in some sense it represents a standalone land, in which high religiousness is interspersed with rich folk traditions. Latgalian language, Catholicism and unique, even wild countryside allows stranger to experience magical moments … Read More »

Exhibition specs

• Printed on Harman Gloss Art Fibre • Mounted on 3mm dibond • Black frames with spacers • GroGlass anti-reflective art glass

“Arsenal” has become the main keyword for the event, both through an attempt to build a link with the function of the building of the ARSENĀLS Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art (LNMA) over the centuries, and pointing towards the history of armament and its relevance today. Kristians Brekte’s most ambitious personal exhibition to date consists of new works – large-format paintings, ready-made objects and multimedia installations – all on the military subject.

Brekte’s visual language, which has been developed in a creative career spanning more than ten years, includes links to goth and black metal subculture, street art, religion, art history and pop culture. The artist is fascinated with the … Read More »

The series “JHE” is partially unpublished and non-displayed part of JH Engström’s book “Trying to Dance” (Journal) that was released in 2004 and became one of the most sought after photobooks during the last 12 years and also marked JH Engström’s international breakthrough in the contemporary art scene. “Trying to Dance” consisted of nudes of young men and women, urban and rural landscapes, empty rooms and self-portraits. “He puts a feeling of loneliness high on the list of his sensibilities, he has come up with a strategy that heightens the mood; he distances the viewer from himself and from his world (i.e., you will feel my loneliness, too) by a purposefully imperfect technique,” writer on photography William A Ewing tells about JH Engström works.

JH Engström (1969) was born in Sweden and raised in Paris. He graduated from the … Read More »

Exhibition specs

• Printed on Cold Press Bright paper • Mounted on 10mm foamboard • Black ash-tree L-Box molding

Artists Kristians Brekte and Modris Svilāns present Solaris, an exhibition devoted to analogue photography. Both authors argue that as a result of technological development digital photography has become more accessible and increasingly popular, which has led to the demise of analogue photography – this historically significant way of documenting the world. The use of camera obscura enables photographers to preserve a close contact with the photographed environment, while remaining open to experiment and chance. Both artists have spent more than a year working with a self-assembled pinhole camera creating photographs known as solargraphs. Using long exposures, these images record landscapes created by the paths of the sun.

Kristians Brekte (1981) studied scenography at the Art Academy of Latvia. Currently he … Read More »

Exhibition specs – Laura Prikule

• Printed on Luster Paper, 265gsm • Mounted on 5mm foamboard • White ash-tree float frame

The main idea behind the exhibition RESTART is a pronounced necessity to deepen the understanding of our world, by highlighting its dialectical connection with the past and the future. We can all but fantasize whether the future influences today, whilst attempting to guess what will be the shape of our future memories?

The exhibition also explores the current trends in photography as an artistic practice, since, as a result of a rapid development of modern technologies, we are forced to re-evaluate the significance of images and their conveyed meaning. Today photography is everywhere. Traditional photography as an aesthetic and documentary medium has been supplemented with numerous other notions, requiring us to survey this new content.