I am

I am an unstoppable stream that floods and washes rocks among the hills, a whooshing waterfall and foaming brooks that keep on running, inexorably.

I am a slowly crumbling rock, a waterbed that battles cunning whirlpools, I am the sea that breathes to the rhythm of the tides.

I am.

I am explosive energy and shimmering life, split into tiny fragments.

I am the earth, awash with fragrance of wild honey, a warm summer breeze, freshly fallen snow, a stream of hot blood, a thunder-split sky and a rush of ice that tears river banks apart.

I am primitive carnal energy, a gesture that morphs into a tangle of restless lines and a burst of colour.

I am the time that I own with all its joy, pleasure and pain.

Anita Meldere

Anita Meldere is one of the most brilliant expressionists in Latvian painting. She is inspired by nature and the passage of time, by all things beautiful and not much, due to having been ruined by humans.

The artist’s creative cooperation with Daugavpils started with her participation in the painting plein air “Mark Rothko 2007” and her work at Daugavpils University, teaching students who pursued a master’s degree in arts.

In spring 2014, seven years after her first encounter with Daugavpils, the artist had her first solo exhibition, “Expressions. Abstract Painting”, at Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre. Following this exhibition, the artist and the Rothko Centre remained closely connected by a number of cooperation projects, group exhibitions, Meldere’s solo exhibition in Panevėžys and her work on the panel of judges for the Centre’s international symposia dedicated to Mark Rothko and Silva Linarte.

Anita Meldere’s cooperation with the Rothko Centre continues, as seen in the new exhibition and artwork, which will add to the Centre’s painting collection.

Māris Čačka