Archive

Harald Jegodzienski

My Path of Questioning What ideological stance do I take and what artistic beliefs do I adopt to support it? Is artistic expression an adequate medium of communication with my fellow humans? What can communicate a message and why does it want to be communicated? Do I wish to stir feelings or address the spirit, or maybe both? If I must have artistic expression, what is this ‘SELF’ that wants to announce itself? Where are the ends of individual ‘red threads’ which reflect my true goals at an age of being flooded with images and information?

Colours

Green – the woods outside my window; blue – the endless variety of the sea; orange – the sun in a summer sky; brown, grey and black – fresh furrows and the road beneath the melting snow; red – the roses in our gardens. The colours in my work are drawn from the splendour of Latvian nature. I create my fibre works by painting little sticks and wrapping them in copper wire, by gluing and sowing, putting layer upon layer until the work seems finished. For digital printing, I use my own photographs. Real to begin with and taken in different seasons, they are processed until I’m left with blurred colour fields. Colour as a flash, an abstract field, a vision. Hardly any white, but in this colour, which includes all others, I am living right now.

The recent paintings of Jon Arne Mogstad: Looking into the contemporary sublime?

The notion ‘dialogue’ could be interpreted as something that is open, never ending, unfinalized. According to Mikhail Bakhtin, “... there is neither a first nor a last word, and there are no limits to the dialogic context (it extends into the boundless past and the boundless future)”.1 In his three recent series of paintings, Mogstad sets out to explore the pictorial space, referring to art history, time and presence. He offers a dialogue in which to find traces of his own art since the 80s, the history of art from Early Renaissance via Baroque and Romanticism to Dadaism, Hard Edge paintings and Abstract Expressionism. Mogstad is investigating different angles and perspectives, and a plethora of pictorial languages from the more figurative to the more abstract ones. In addition to referring to the history of art, his paintings even relate to music, literature, poems, film, and popular culture.

Rhapsody to Womanhood

Free-form romanticism, expressed through symbols and perceptions, is a peculiar narrative of that sensual and elusive feminine charm, which is a reflection of current processes and a longing for identity in the modern world. Who are we, really, and what are we like? A conscious and nuanced choice of colours and selection of subjects, not unlike a rhapsody, replace one another, featuring different characters and performances and highlighting the emotional aspect of lived experience. Touching the canvas changes perception. Conjuring a dynamic interplay of colours works wonders. It is living and experiencing through painting. An opportunity to transform events trough creativity helps to stay true to one’s beliefs and to that which gives a sense of fulfilment.

Made in Kaliningrad. Contemporary Art of Kaliningrad features works created by contemporary artists from Russia and abroad within the framework of the various projects of the Baltic Branch of Russia’s National Centre for Contemporary Arts (incorporated into ROSIZO) and united by the theme and context of Kaliningrad. This project enables international audiences to understand and to feel the environment and people that inspire contemporary artists as they seek to address some of the current issues and burning problems of today. What connotations are attached to Kaliningrad – an enclave that has no border with the metropolis? How do we make sense of words such as Soviet, Russian and national? How do ethnic and gender identities play out in everyday life and how does the social context affect humanity and privacy?

MEMORY BOX EXHIBITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS COMPETITION

Anticipating the centenary of the Latvian State and the 2nd Latvia International Ceramics Biennale, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics, in cooperation with Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, offers an exhibition of the international ceramics competition MEMORY BOX. The exhibition is organised as a tribute to Pēteris Martinsons (1931-2013) – an outstanding Latvian ceramicist, who frequently created ceramic memory boxes to immortalise his memories of places and acquaintances.

Ilona Vilka Sea, time, dreams…

Photography excites, photography grabs your attention, photography plunges you into memories of the captured moment, photography animates. Ilona Vilka is captivated by seascape photography. She took it up seriously in 2010. Soon enough, in 2015, the artist opened her first photo exhibition, “Sea”, in Jāņa Sēta. A number of exhibitions followed at regular intervals, both in Latvia and abroad. The artist has published a set of postcards with seascape photography, several albums as well as pocket calendars for 2016 and 2017. Ilona’s versatility is highlighted by another line of interest – she also writes poetry. Her debut collection “Time and Rosy Dreams” was published in 2015.

Ričardas Garbačiauskas MY OWN TERRITORIES

This exhibition comprises an array of recent works encompassing an important part of artistic expression, including that of music and fine arts, namely, correlation of space (the field of picture) and spot (as the object). This correlation arranges the rhythm, which, in its way, determines certain repetitions of the spots – or objects – to be compared to long and short musical notes. So the rhythm, which is absolutely everywhere, is an essential condition of the existence of our cosmic surroundings, our micro- and macro world. This position is the fundamental approach to the construction of works, which enables me to speak the language of extremely generalised, minimised, primitivistic forms and shapes. They are something like archaic signs, anonymous, yet interacting shapes of figures from the recent world. The constituent of picture colours is of no less importance in creating the emotional and aesthetical mood. Ričardas Garbačiauskas

UNA GURA PUMPUNELLA

With her project “ PUMPUNELLA ”, Una Gura celebrates a big anniversary and a full return to ceramics. The title of the project is derived from the artist’s nickname, Unella, given to her by members of Daugavpils Clay Art Centre, and from the pimple-like specks that cover her abstract ceramic works. The artist admits that preparation for this exhibition, which involved creation of a number of large-scale ceramic objects, reminded her of her student years at the Ceramic Department of Rēzekne Secondary School of Applied Arts, where her graduation project involved making large-format vessels. Now as then, the artist finds this process both frustrating and exciting: “It may be hard to get started, but, once you are in it, you cannot tear yourself away from clay. And ideas drive ideas!”

SILVIJA ŠMIDKENA AND STILL, AS EVER…

Silvija Šmidkena was born in Rīga in 1935. In 1954, she graduated from the Ceramics Department of Rīga Secondary School of Applied Arts, in 1960 – from the State Art Academy of Latvia, whereafter she was accepted into the Artists’ Union. Silvija Šmidkena was an active and long-term member of the Union’s board, chairing its ceramics section. She also sat on the expert commission of the Ministry of Culture and different art panels as well as contributed to the organisation of various exhibitions. For many years, Silvija Šmidkena helped organise the Latvian SSR Art Holding’s creative and experimental ceramic workshops in Ķīpsala, located at number 13 Ballast Dam, and was actively involved with the workshops’ renovation during 1980s, when artist studios were refurbished and new display spaces created for Latvian applied art.