BECOMING // artwork insights

From the 30th of June until 16th of July, M/Gallery is presenting "BECOMING” exhibition by the 2nd year BA Fine Art students of the Art Academy of Latvia. 14 young artists reveal what the process of becoming means to each of them. Growth, change, the beginning or the end of something? To learn more about the stories behind their artworks we offer you little insights from the artists themselves about their works.

Madara Freidenfelde

“Two undercover feelings”

“For some reason, we tend to hide our anger and sadness behind other emotions, like cabbage. Or an onion.”

Madara Freidenfelde

“Shadow in the rainbow”

“Darkness creeps in and begins to take over…”

Madara Freidenfelde

“Woman sheds her skin too.”

“When the old skin no longer protects against the one who scratched it, a woman throws it off and pulls a new one. Visible on the old skin layer are lacerations left by injuries. Although the woman's second skin layer partly protects it from misfortune, it is fragile and does not guarantee complete protection against accidents. These passages indicate severe injuries and are evidence of cruelty.”

Madara Freidenfelde

“Between Your Arms”

“I wish everyone the warmest hug! It is the safest place in the world to be!”

Madara Freidenfelde

“The Only Landscape Backyard Lately.”

“The pandemic trapped us all, and because of that, the views from apartment windows and what had grown within our fence, had to be sufficient for painting in the landscape genre.”

Ina Kantiķe

“Portrait of Purvītis”

“In researching Purvītis's life, I found that many of his contemporaries love to quote Purvītis and remember his advices and sayings and the insights of a great teacher. I chose to illustrate some of them, which, in my opinion, describe the artist well.”

Gundega Brūvere: artist statement

“Being out in nature inspires me as a painter. Long walks and being near the seaside gives me inner power. Open air painting is a big part of my work process. I work with polished, smooth brush strokes, preferring soft colors. I pay a lot of attention to small details and to the light. My artworks are quiet and minimal, enriched with atmospheric effects - to evoke a sense. My paintings express tranquility, nostalgia and emotionality over reality.”

Renāte Pagaste

“Important Influences”

“We are influenced both by what has been before us and by what is above us. It is important to be aware of these influences, because that is the only way we can change the direction of our life. As long as it's all in the subconscious, we're like helpless puppets.”

Stīna Skulme: artist statement

"Painting for me is a necessity. I paint because I cannot not paint. I am interested in the representation of variations of reality and exploration of simplicity. My sources of inspiration are the subject world, human body, light and shadow. I am fascinated by technical mastery in painting. Today, the message of the artwork is often more important than the form, but to me, the quality has always been just as relevant. It is something I try to accomplish in my work."

Elīna Vagre

“Beach Tourists”

“The work "Beach Tourists" is an irony about the crowd phenomenon. Latvians call themselves "loners". We prefer to see our neighbor leave rather than arrive. But when the summer season comes, we are ready to break all personal spaces, sit half-naked near each other, and even enjoy it!”

Ivars Pommers

“Relic”

“This work is related to the author's search for a primitive, archetypal, animal-like self. Presumably, a person's identity alongside with instincts and layers of social influences, is also formed by the “information” that has been accumulated from one generation to another, in an invisible and incomprehensible way and it is stored in the hard-to-reach corners of subconscious. Maybe researching this issue we can get a bit closer to answering the question, “what does it mean to be human?””

Roberts Brastiņš

“Vape Demon”

“Listen to what he is whispering to you, what he is vaguely mumbling. If it remains too suffocating, the smoke dissipates, it muffles the sound and makes the mind spin. Keep listening because you're not crazy. He explains to you that you are lost.”

Tonijs Strods

“With the use of color, brushstrokes and the thickness of paint these works are my attempts at translating personal feelings into paintings that represent the state of consciousness I’m in the moment I paint them.”

Kristiāna Poce: artist statement

“I am interested in our relationship with society, sexuality, culture and the human experience in the modern world. The juxtaposition of humans as animals by definition, our flawed nature, our title as the dominant species and the authoritative role we must upkeep as an evolved society, as well as the irony and satire this position provides. My ambition in art is to create a direct connection with the viewer, to inspire and infuse the viewer with the desired emotions I have intended. I wish to create feelings of introspection about our human condition with all its quirks, beauty and flaws.”

Diāna Stopiņa

“The idea behind this work was to get to know my grandmother a little bit better because she has been through a lot. At a young age sent to Siberia with her parents and three sisters, losing the eldest sister, having to be the first one to return to Latvia. Getting married to a man her family doesn't approve of and moving to Saint Petersburg, giving birth to two children, having your husband die of cancer and having to return to Latvia with teenage kids, raising them almost single handedly! I always knew what she had been through but I never asked her how she felt about it all and what kept her going through all these difficult times. And she told me that she loved to dance, she would go to community centres and attend group dance lessons. And she would have the time of her life just dancing waltz. So I asked "would you like to have a dance with me" and, even knowing I can not dance to save my life, she agreed. The white footprints are mine and the black ones are my grandmother's.”

Beatrise Kaminska

“Stay or Go”

“The conflict between the yearning to stay still in the moment and the race of the constant motion of time. The painting is unfinished, just as the future is unclear.”

Renāte Pagaste

“Sleeping Beauty”

“This work is about what is at the bottom of us, our essence. The name is "Sleeping Beauty" because I believe that for many of us our essence is the thing that is the most beautiful, and coincidentally, it is also the thing that happens to be sleeping, not yet awaken.”

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