On December 16, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. kim?, Riga,  presents two exhibitions - Normunds Brūveris. FAMOUS CHILLIE WILLIE IN RIGA and BREAKING POINT: KATHRYN BIGELOW'S LIFE IN ART.

FAMOUS CHILLIE WILLIE IN RIGA. Normunds Brūveris exhibition


Writer Edmunds Frīdvalds in his miniature about the birth of Famous Chillie Willie states: “It couldn’t be said that Chillie Willie came into the world unexpected. Perhaps the world didn’t expect it and even his parents may have had no inkling. However, Chillie Willie himself was waiting for this moment impatiently, burning to decorate magazine covers and greeting cards. He was already aware that he was not like all the others.”

Famous Chillie Willie appeared in Normunds Brūveris’s works in April 2002 when he was living in the artists’ community building in Jersey City, NJ. There he found a piece of cardboard with a poem written on it about “Chillie Willie chilling out.” Brūveris took that board to his studio and the next day a strange and comical character, Famous Chillie Willie, was born. “With this spark I lit a fire. Chillie Willie became a reflection of all humanity. The involvement of this bizarre character in my paintings allowed me to truly show life, its meaning and our needs,” – says the artist.

The displayed paintings and collages have been created in the course of 10 years, since 2002, and they will be on view in Latvia for the very first time.

Normunds Brūveris was born in 1971, in Aizpute, Latvia. He was educated at the Liepāja Secondary School of Applied Art and has graduated from the Latvian Academy of Art, Department of Painting, where he attended the workshop of monumental painting lead by professors Kaspars Zariņš and Aleksejs Naumovs. At the end of 2000 he moved to the USA, where he currently lives in Jersey City, New Jersey. In the spring of 2002 he accidentally came across the image of Famous Chillie Willie and since then he has been using it in paintings of various formats, giving rise to both laughter and tears. Normunds Brūveris mainly works in oil and acrylic on canvas, plywood, planks and paper. He has also produced works in stone, sand and on the walls of houses.

The exhibition is curated by Ieva Kulakova.
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BREAKING POINT: KATHRYN BIGELOW'S LIFE IN ART

In the 1970s in New York, Kathryn Bigelow was part of the art world. She collaborated with Lawrence Weiner, Art & Language, Vito Acconci, Richard Serra, and others. This was long before she directed the “action-packed” Hollywood movies Blue Steel (1990), Point Break (1991) or Strange Days (1995) and established herself as one of the very few female film directors with a penchant for genre movies and gender roleplays – something which made her appreciated as much as an auteur than as a case study in film criticism and women studies.
Breaking Point traces Kathryn Bigelow’s trajectory in art in the 1970s and subsequent progression into the contemporary popular cinematic landscape starting in the mid 1980s.

The exhibition is conceived by Benjamin Thorel and presented in collaboration with castillo/corrales, Paris and curator Egija Inzule.

Acknowledgements: Mark Francis, Jenny He, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein - Dorothea Jendricke and Stephanie Seidel, Nicolas Perge, Richard Serra, signal - Carl Lindh and Elena Tzotzi, Mayo Thompson, Lawrence Weiner and Amy Yao.

The first venue of the exhibition took place in January 2010 at castillo/corrales, Paris and was followed by exhibitions at signal, Malmö in April 2010 and Neuer Aachener Kunstverein in January 2011.

On Saturday, December 17 at 7 p.m. kim? in cooperation with Kino Galerija invites to see the film by Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery "The Loveless" (1982). Screening takes place in the cinema K. Suns, Elizabetes street 83/85.

The exhibitions will be held until January 29, 2012

Illustration above: Normunds Brūveris. Wanted by FBI. 2006. Acrylic on canvas. 52 1/2 x 69 in. Photo: Gillian Crosson.