Archive

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

Grains of Sand and Void

“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road.” Stewart Brand, author. Progress did not bring people either happiness or peace. People are disjointed and lost, they do not see humanistic ideals or do not believe in them. The European civilization is losing faith. Faith can be different. Collective and individual. Multiple and single. As loud as a brass band, and as silent as the rustle of grass. Like a magical Celtic pattern, its thread extends to us from Ancient Egypt, linking together the ancient sculptures of the Cyclades, the icons of Andrei Rublev and Theophanes the Greek, the work of Gothic sculptors and the masterpieces of Giotto. This thread also extends to Mark Rothko – recall the artist’s unique painting experience in Houston chapel.

Erdmute Blach. Compositions. Answers to Darkness

There is no monochrome painting; there is no figurative painting. The almost monochrome, ‘In Daugavpils’, could be a starting point for contemplation. It is an exercise in the limiting of a tone, the capturing of deviations, the keeping of something within a frame. The colours in general are unique mixtures. They are colours without names. It would be easy to say this is a picture in red, this is one in blue: But, what does that mean? How should it be named?

Marco Giannotti. Interwoven

In Marco Giannotti’s recent paintings there unfolds a dialogue at least as venerable as the High Renaissance when the art of Florence opposed Venice’s. Namely, between drawing/line and color (disegno and colore). These contending elements were long germinal in Giannotti’s work – at least since the “Facades” series (“Fachadas”, 1993). However, the artist has continued to lend them strikingly modern forms appropriate to the New World of his Brazilian homeland, as well as our increasingly dark times. By no coincidence, too, the American Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko famously described his haunting images as “facades”. Giannotti thus aims to synthesize tradition with the example set by one of the past century’s greatest masters of abstraction.

I See Nature Like Paint: Gillian Ayres paintings 1972-83

One of Britain’s most significant abstract painters, known for her huge vibrant canvases bursting with colour.  Inspired by abstract expressionist art in the United States, Ayres painted in a lyrical, gestural, non-geometric abstract style that stood in contrast to the hard-edge forms of her contemporaries. Never didactic, her oeuvre illustrates an artist constantly experimenting with the possibilities of paint.

FINAL EXHIBITION OF THE 7TH INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART SYMPOSIUM

CERAMIC LABORATORY It is already the seventh time the International Ceramic Art Symposium CERAMIC LABORATORY is taking place in Latvia, every year bringing together a number of professional artists and creating fruitful platform for creativity and exchange of experience. This exhibition shows ceramic artworks created by the Symposium participants here in Daugavpils Fortress, working creatively for two weeks.

International Painting Symposium “Silva Linarte 2019”

The universe is an endless interaction. Phenomena, objects, signs and humans are deeply interconnected. At times, this link is short-lived, ephemeral, seemingly transient, but ever so often, it becomes something lasting, creative and stimulating. Silva Linarte (1939-2018), artist and art educator, had and continues to have a special connection to Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre. Not only because she was born in Daugavpils district and inherited a familial connection to Latgale region, but also because she has been constantly present in its activities and undertakings ever since the centre opened its doors to the public. In August 2013, one of the all-time largest solo exhibitions of Silva Linarte’s paintings, “Reflections”, was unveiled at the Rothko Centre, followed by further cooperation in multiple art projects. Silva also loved to pay the centre a casual visit, drop by to see the new exhibitions, talk to the staff and give her own take on what she had seen. She used to say that the centre had a particularly creative and artistically rousing environment.

AIR

Marietta Patricia Leis   Air begins at our feet and lifts upwards as it swirls around the planet touching each of us with life.  AIR, an exhibition of paintings and photos, is intended make the beauty of air, whether dark or light, visible to our eyes. As we all breathe Earth’s air communally we are both the recipients and the guardians of the air that we share.

BASICS

Exhibition of Baltic contemporary ceramics On July 5, 2019, as a part of Latvian Centenary programme a number of meaningful events to explore the emergence of professional ceramic art in the Baltic States with a view to outlining the historical stages of its evolution and tracing their impact on the current global image of contemporary ceramic art will take place at Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre. The events are organised in cooperation with Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics.

BASIC ELEMENTS

Kirsi Kivivirta The surrounding urban landscape and its different spaces inspire Kirsi Kivivirta. She uses geometry, perspective and visual illusions when creating her imagery. The references to landscapes in the artworks speak about the relationship between urban humans and nature, with wildlife assigned only to memories. Kivivirta’s works are always based on a clear concept. To emphasise this, Kivivirta tends to leave her work white in colour. Drops and Flow II, however, include a modest palette of tones. Kivivirta is drawn to minimalist ideas that enable the medium to speak for itself. In Kivivirta’s porcelain wall compositions, one can experience movement and rest, dynamic force and contemplation. She plays with displacement and trompe l’oeil effects as well as distorted perspectives and horizons.