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

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.

Exhibition specs

• Printed on warmtone, deep matte paper, 230gsm • Mounted on 5mm foamboard • White ash-tree box molding with a fillet spacer • GroGlass art glass

In reference to the 2016 Summer Olympics, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the exhibition Olympic Body problematises the traditions of sport and physical culture and their relationship to specific visual and narrative canons.

The development of the body’s physical abilities and specific systems of exercises were originally related to the army. Only during the second half of the 19th century gymnastics was added to school programmes and became particularly popular in the authoritarian atmosphere of the 1920s and 30s. The 100-year history of the Olympic Games with their reference to Ancient Greece shows that they have not merely been a competition of top athletes. … Read More »

The Swedish photographer and a living legend Anders Petersen (1944) is known for his ability to find a common language with complete strangers, thus creating intimate, distinct human portraits. About his creative work Petersen says: “The stuff I do is a kind of private documentary photography. It is a real challenge – to be present, but maintain the distance.”

The Danish photographer Jacob Aue Sobol (1976) uses camera as a tool in order to create contact, closeness and intimacy with people and random places, even if only for a short period of time. Sobol compares taking pictures with hunting: “Relationship that hunters establish with the surrounding nature is very important. This feeling has left a great impact on my life and work”.

Exhibition specs

• 122 prints 67x100cm for Petersen• 40 prints 100x150cm and 5 prints 150x225cm for Sobol• Petersen pictures on Hahnemuehle … Read More »

Artists of two generations – Arturs Riņķis (1942), a designer and one of the first pioneers of the kinetic design movement in Latvia, and Iveta Vaivode (1979), an internationally recognized photographer of the youngest artists’ pleiad, have met here together to create their own dialogue in time and space, each applying different kinds of media – from installations and photographs to video, animation and sound. The idea for the project was born into world in the fall of 2013, inspired by Arturs Riņķis’ Kinetic Art Garden In the Middle of Nowhere, which is situated in the suburbs of the countryside town Sabile, Kurzeme region. Over the years this fabulous place has served, for both artists, as a laboratory where relationships between mediums of art were further developed. Finally, in 2016 their ideas have been solidified and now exhibited for the … Read More »

Although Ojārs Pētersons describes his works as the exercises of a playing trainer and only succumbs to their interpretation with the greatest reluctance, in essence they are attempts at abstraction from generally accepted assertions. His works are rich in the irony, which he often uses to resolve questions that matter to him, thus depicting his attitude towards the information overload so characteristic of this age. However, their conceptual stratum is not confined to an anecdote that can be told in a few words – his works are perplexingly complex and carefully calculated.

In conversation with Ojārs, I attempted to touch upon his vision for this exhibition. Upon perusing the sheet of paper he gave me bearing the names of the works, it seemed that I was almost bound to decode the intentions concealed behind the mysterious phrases. It seems that each … Read More »