Towards the Invisible
Ingūna Liepa
At first glance, these paintings seem to dissolve before the eye. There is no obvious subject or narrative to hold onto, yet they possess a strong emotional presence that encourages slow looking. Rather than describing a place, a figure or an event, they evoke sensations that hover between atmosphere, intuition and memory. Forms surface briefly through layers of paint, at times suggesting landscapes, weather, water or dreams, before receding again, inviting the viewer into a space of shifting perceptions rather than fixed meanings.
Built through an intuitive process of layering, the paintings retain traces of their own making. Transparent washes, opaque passages and partially erased marks overlap to create a remarkable sense of depth without relying on traditional perspective. Ghosts of earlier brushstrokes, fragments of drawing and buried colours linger beneath the surface, lending each work a sense of accumulated time. Loosely drawn linear marks dance freely across the canvas, suggesting figures or natural forms before dissolving once more into abstraction. Rather than defining an image, they guide the eye through moments of searching, hesitation and discovery.
Colour shapes the emotional resonance of the series. Soft blues, turquoise, violet, muted pinks, warm peach tones and pale greens settle into restrained harmonies, while delicate shifts in tone and transparency allow light to emerge from within the paintings. Warm and cool colours remain in quiet dialogue, lending the compositions a subtle but persistent vitality.
Although the brushwork often appears instinctive, the paintings suggest a careful sensitivity to composition, colour and spatial relationships. Liepa is less concerned with representing the visible world than with translating emotional and sensory experience into paint. Her works invite the viewer to slow down and embrace ambiguity, offering contemplative spaces that continue to unfold the longer one spends in front of them.
Farida Zaletilo, curator of the exhibition
Born in Daugavpils, Latvia, in 1965, Ingūna Liepa is a painter whose works transform observations of the visible world into intuitive abstract compositions. She studied at Rēzekne Secondary School of Applied Arts before continuing her artistic training with painters Ivars Heinriksons, Bruno Celmiņš and Inta Dobrāja. She later earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Art from Daugavpils University, completing her Master’s in Painting in 2010.
Alongside her painting practice, Liepa has worked in art education and scenography, teaching at the Daugavpils Children’s Art School, lecturing at the Faculty of Music and Art of Daugavpils University and working as a stage designer at Daugavpils Theatre. Since 2018, she has balanced her studio practice with teaching at the Daugavpils Art and Design Secondary School Saules Skola.
Exhibiting since 1993, Liepa has presented solo and group exhibitions throughout Latvia and abroad, and has participated in numerous painting plein airs in Latvia and Lithuania. A member of the Daugavpils Regional Artists’ Association since 2010, she is represented in the Rothko Museum Collection and public collections in Lithuania. Her work is also held in private collections in Latvia, Lithuania and the United States.
Curated by Farida Zaletilo
Supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia and Daugavpils City Council
11 September – 29 November 2026
Publicity image: Ingūna Liepa, “xxx” (detail), acrylic on cardboard, 132 x 153 cm, 2021
