WIND BREAKER
Gustavs Filipsons (Latvia)
“The images appearing in my work are beacons that guide my soul on its unfolding journey through the dark – a voyage that will ultimately bring me home. We all seek inner peace and balance, but without us diving deep into our souls, without profound purification that will cleanse us from our fears, malevolence, and selfish greed, we’ll never find true happiness or freedom. All our experiences are active forces that move us towards freedom and help us to keep changing for the better. However, this can only happen if we truly want it. Alongside our free will, a countless multitude of beings works behind the scenes to help things happen. The raging ocean of our deep subconscious will never calm until we reach this goal,” the artist says.
“Wind Breaker” by the artist Gustavs Filipsons, his latest solo exhibition at the Rothko Museum, presents contemporary painted structures that embody the artist’s personal progression through near-entirely black and monochrome abstraction. The paintings offer a compelling demonstration of the artist’s dramatically expressive style that draws its energy from the robust, wind-beaten shores of Kurzeme, the western coastal region of his native Latvia.
As far back as he can recall, Filipsons has longed to send his gaze into the enigmatic depths of his existence. This inclination started manifesting in the artist’s early childhood, when he would lose himself in the star-studded nightly skies or touch the vastness of the wild in solitary “walkabouts”, such as his roaming in the fields of Ģipka, a coastal village that he often visited throughout his early years.
For Filipsons, nature remains a source of strength and rhythm for his wind-swept compositions. It helps him feel alive and gives a sense of real, full-blooded presence in the boundless universe.
The vastness that unfolds within the black in Filipsons’s paintings defies all spatial boundaries and dimensions. What happens in the dark is both irrational and mesmerising, and the layered textures seem to be suggesting an experience, a dream, a vision.
Dreams hold particular significance for his artistic process because the artist often transfers his dream experience into the real world. For Filipsons, the theme of dreams is tied to reading fairy tales, a childhood practice that played an active role in shaping his imagination. While growing up, he was particularly drawn to Nordic tales. The impact of these stories has led him to a better understanding of his inner self. Besides a deeper self-awareness, these tales have stirred a strong desire to explore their magical, enchanted world.
Multiple ventures into the mysterious dream realms of his subconscious have yielded mesmerising compositions that call to mind bottomless lakes and oceanic depths. This perilous and intimate adventure has lent a transcendental energy to Filipsons’s art. Such contact with the great beyond has been transformative and put him back on track onto the weather-beaten path that leads back home. Perhaps this is the reason why I feel inclined to liken Filipsons’s style and steadfast perseverance to a windbreaker. Because, when all is said and done, his paintings and creative choices show a fierce determination to move head-first against the wind.
Curator Māris Čačka
Gustavs Filipsons (1974) holds a degree from the Art Academy of Latvia, where he studied in the Painting Department under Professor Naumovs and Professor Zariņš (1998–2002). His vibrant exhibition record, dating back to 2004, includes group exhibitions and art competitions in the USA as well as Canada and France. Many of these have brought him honourable mentions and awards. Domestically, his work has been on show in venues such as Bastejs Gallery, Rietumu Banka Gallery and many more. The artist’s most significant domestic solo show to date was held in 2023 at the Jūrmala Museum.
Exhibition period: 29 November 2024 – 23 February 2025
Photo: Gustavs Filipsons, Wind Breaker, oil on plywood, 120 x 160 cm, 2021
