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Latvian Contemporary Painting

Latvian Contemporary Painting   Artists about themselves, context and exhibition Artists participating in the exhibition “Latvian Contemporary Painting”, perhaps, can be included in one category, if some general classification principle is applied – for instance, they are all contemporaries, representatives of approximately the same generation, who have convincingly entered the Latvian art space this century. The turn of the century coincided with the time when, initially only anticipated, Latvian painting was undergoing changes, occurring especially in its relationships with the contemporary art. Having overcome the gap, partially caused by historical events and partially institutionally imposed, which has separated these spheres previously, the younger generations of Latvian painters can really be characterized as “Latvian Contemporary Painting”. However, all artists represented at the exhibition are original personalities having their own essentially different and unmistakably individual style. Therefore, though it might have been very tempting to speak about them as a totality, I wished to devote a special attention to their differences, to see personal motivation and choice of each of them. This led me to interviewing them and asking them to answer three similar questions – this proved to be the right way, because the responses were so different! No matter how well art scientists, critics, philosophers are able to characterize artists, invaluable are those cases when artists themselves are allowed to speak. Then the opinions, ideas and judgments are revealed which “a detached observer” would never guess. Fortunately, the generation of Latvian painters, which now can already be called mature, are able to speak about their art from “inside”, openly telling about their emotional experiences, impressions, ideas, and simultaneously be “a detached observer” – to comment on the selected approach within a broader context of time and space.

Peter Griffin “I am only the head of those that go before me”

  Peter Griffin I am only the head of those that go before me   About style: „...most paintings in this exhibition belong to a time when I really felt I found my own style, a mature style that best allowed me to explore my ideas.” Abstract or figurative:  „It is not that the paintings become totally abstract it is that they play in this space between abstraction and figuration - really what I am aiming at is a state of having a form that suggests the human presence without necessarily having a human figure.” „At the same time, I don't like to feel trapped by stylistic restrictions. I feel that I've developed a kind of visual alphabet which can be used in any manner I choose and many of these choices come through the process of painting I could really relate to that statement Matisse wrote in Jazz: „Prisoner? An artist should never be: prisoner of himself, prisoner of a style, prisoner of a reputation, prisoner of success”

Collection of Alexandre Vassiliev “Fashion of the 60s of the 20th Century in Art”

Collection of Alexandre Vassiliev Fashion of the 60s of the 20th Century in Art   For the first time in Daugavpils, a small part of Alexandre Vassiliev unique collection of clothes can be seen at the exhibition “Fashion of the 60s of the 20th Century in Art”. Alexandre Vassiliev is a well-known stage designer, interior designer, art scientist, fashion historian, author of popular books and essays, excellent lecturer, author and leader of TV shows. He has one of the richest private historical dress collections in the world which includes more than 50 thousand exhibits and covers the period from the 18th century up to nowadays. The exhibition shows not only the clothing, but also footwear, accessories, photographs, pictures. The collection is kept in Paris and Lithuania, and it is constantly supplemented by donations and purchases on sales and in antiquarian shops.

KRISTINA HUXLEY exhibition “RADIANCE AND AFTERGLOW”

  Kristina Huxley RADIANCE AND AFTERGLOW   “Radiance is the afterglow of the explosive.” Mark Rothko „I do not know what I was working towards...I could imagine the accomplishment without knowing what it looked like in advance.” Edward Corbett Kristina Huxley is an artist, living and working in Dublin, Ireland. “Radiance and Afterglow” is the title, given to the series of works by Kristina Huxley that have been produced in response to the exhibition space and Mark Rothko Art Centre, for Daugavpils. The ‘Sensitive Paintings’, occurring since 2000, have been produced specifically for the context of the Mark Rothko Art Centre together with paintings from a new series, ‘In-Transit, Radiance and Afterglow’ to deliver a visually transient space and place to pause. As a painter, Huxley’s practice investigates change, an invisible process, through an exploration of its visual and physical potential. She pursues the ephemeral details of human existence, often those that we can sense and not see with particular attention to those that underline the precariousness of our ontological being. Her subjects in this exhibition are overlooked substances; heat, debris and dust are intrinsically of low value and are difficult to measure and contain; they exist on the periphery of our being. Simultaneously they are something and nothing.

Dmitry Lavrentyev “Venus Rising”

  Dmitry Lavrentyev Venus Rising   The creative evolution of Dmitry Lavrentyev is based on search for primordial. Already his very early works arouse a feeling that the artist is creating an epic reality. His painting grasp your mind with such a powerful and ever growing force, same time it is so permanent in its intentions, so constant and simple, when all is a Man with his feelings and emotions. The imagery of his works roots in the archaic sculpture of Africa, in the traditions of Native American culture, Mexican masks in particular. Sculptures by Lavrentyev frequently resemble religious artefacts of ancient tribes. Turning to myth and primitive art is not accidental, because it is just a myth that captures the essence of any phenomenon and elevates it to a poetic metaphor, but the primitive provokes much stronger and more direct emotional experience. Some images and forms seem to have broken loose from the subconscious world, personifying the hidden fears, attachments, and non-fulfilled desires. The aesthetic priorities of the 20th century art can be easily noticed: Basquiat, Dubuffet.

Lars Strandh “BEHIND THE HORIZON”

  Lars Strandh is a Swedish born Norwegian artist. He studied art at the Oslo National Academy of Arts. For many years Lars explores colour in its limited range. As the artist says himself, his work can be described as a "monochrome polychromy": at distance seeming monochromic, they appear multi-coloured, and different in texture in the foreground. The simplicity created by the artist during the work on a painting becomes complex, and the result - meditative. A continuous link to the horizon in the form of associative perception is present in the artist's work. The artist embodies patience, precision and restraint characteristic of the people of northern Europe. However, this restraint characteristic is provocative - it generates a resonance and an illusion of vibration of consciousness. It seems that the works by Lars Strandh do not represent anything but monotonously striped canvases, still they are fascinating. With a missing narrative the canvases unobtrusively captivate the audience: significant becomes what happens with the observer, rather than what is displayed on the canvas. Strandh's work is a kind of dedication to a slow and calm reflection of an existential flow that invites the viewer to see, feel and think.

Gaudeamus XVII Daugavpils 2014

THE PRIMARY COLORS "THE PRIMARY COLORS" is an exhibition of works by rectors of art academies of Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The exhibition is held in the framework of the 17th Baltic Student Song and Dance Festival "GAUDEAMUS". As well as art academies of the Baltic countries, which usually perform accumulative and generative function of art, the rectors of the academies have always been powerful locomotives in the world of art who not only have good organizational skills, but also charismatic talent in arts. The exhibition presents the works of the three rectors - rector of the Latvian Academy of Arts Alexei Naumov, rector of the Estonian Academy of Arts Signe Kivi, and rector of Vilnius Academy of Arts Audrius Klimas, who, like the synergy of three primary colors, able to create a holistic picture of the contemporary art in Baltic region.

Aleksandrs Karpovs “THE ARTIST AND FAIGHTER”

      Alexander Karpov was born on March 21, 1953 in the United States (Iowa). Maternally Alexander came from a family of well-known public figure Janis Volonts who was a mayor of Daugavpils city during 14 years, and from 1938 till 1940 was a Minister of Welfare of Latvia. His mother, Lucija Volonte, narrowly escaped deportation to Siberia on June 14, 1941. In 1946, Lucija was in a transit camp in Germany, where she married Anatoly Karpov. Later family moved to USA. The family had three sons, however, nine years later Alexander’s father left the family and laid all the hardships to raise and support children on their mother. At that time Alexander was only two years old.

Anita Meldere “EXPRESSIONS. ABSTRACT PAINTING”.

 Anita Meldere “EXPRESSIONS. ABSTRACT PAINTING”. Anita Meldere was born on May 18, 1949. She received professional education at Janis Rozentals Riga Art High school (graduation work “Wood Sawyers”,  advisor Jānis Osis, senior) and at the Art Academy of Latvia (graduation work “In the Sun and Wind”, scientific advisors professors Edgars Iltners and Edgars Kalniņš). The artist works in oil, watercolour and acrylic techniques, as well as in lithography. Apart from it, she has also painted on ceramics and silk during the international plein-air sessions for art teachers in Zvārtava, initiated by the Ceramics department of the Art Academy of Latvia. Anita Meldere has been a member of the Artists’ Union of Latvia since 1973. She is a Master in Arts (her Master’s work “Atmospherism as the quality of artistic expression in Latvian painting of the 1980s and 1990s”, 1993), an associate professor and since 2007 the Head of the Fine Arts Department at Riga Technical University, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. From 1995 to 2009 she taught colour theory at the Art Academy of Latvia, Department of Functional Design.

Eugeny Shitov „Verbalization:” Sculpture, Graphic, Porcelain.

  Jevgēnijs Šitovs. „Verbalizācija:”. Tēlniecība, grafika, porcelāns. Quirky, semi-fantastic world, created by the artist Eugene Shytov, strikes imagination by unbridled fantasy, inventiveness and carnival merriment. His characters - a kind of hybrids that combine features of real and mythical creatures – are both concrete in their characteristic and archetypal at the same time. They seem to have been erupted out of some magical  pipe under the pressure of a powerful creative impulse. A pipe, an integral component of many of Shitov’s art works as the seat of the creative emptyness, is growing into a philosophical symbol and occupies a special place in the art world of the author.