Mark Rothko 2026
22nd International Painting Symposium Exhibition
A Time of Becoming
At the age of ten, Mark Rothko left Daugavpils (then Dvinsk) and crossed the ocean into a world he did not yet know. He could not have imagined where this journey would take him or who he would become along the way. More than a century later, the movement continues in the opposite direction, as artists from different parts of the world arrive where his journey began.
Perhaps becoming is what best captures the symposium format – its beginning and end are known, while the outcome does not yet exist. For two weeks, artists work within a concentrated time and space, drawing on their experience, artistic language and established practice. Yet the place, conversations, observations and time spent together subtly enter the process. The familiar continues, but never quite in the same way.
In this year’s participants, becoming takes different paths. In some, it unfolds through movement and layering, through transitions between the physical and the digital, the figurative and the abstract, observation and imagination. In others, it moves in the opposite direction – through reduction, stripping away, repetition and a sustained focus on a single form, colour or surface. The garden, the body and the family bring experiences of growth, intimacy and transience, while the city and architecture are transformed into memory, sensation or personal mythology. Even what cannot be directly seen – structures in nature, vibrations and subtle connections – gradually acquires a visual presence.
The 22nd Mark Rothko Painting Symposium ran in Daugavpils from 18 September to 3 October 2026. Held each September, the month of Rothko’s birth, it brings together artists from different countries. Works created during their time in Daugavpils and donated to the museum collection become part of a lasting record – one that continues to trace developments in international painting and the symposium’s own history.
Pāvels Terentjevs
curator of the symposium
Featuring:
Nicole Mueller (USA), Gustavs Filipsons (Latvia), André Hemer (New Zealand/Austria), Weronika Hempel (Poland), Mice Jankulovski (North Macedonia), Rosa Juanco (Spain), Vilen Künnapu (Estonia), Henry Mandell (USA), Peter Maslow (USA), Emma Velde-Schaffer (New Zealand)
Supported by the Daugavpils City Council, the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia and its Cultural Programme for Latgale 2026
2 October – 29 November 2026
Publicity image: symposium’s vidual identity
