Art in General presents Lily’s Pool, a group exhibition organized in partnership with kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, Latvia as part of the International Collaborations program.
Now I will tell you what happened at the Lily’s Pool. A welcome ceremony. It was on the verge of North and South. Yet everyone remembered a sunlight. Some say it was a perpetual flight, others claim the moon needed one half of a turn.
Featuring the work of seven emerging Latvian artists, the group exhibition Lily’s Pool attempts to capture the presence of subtle, tangible, and poetic phenomena within a mediated post-Internet, “post-natural” culture. The participating artists utilize the varied mediums of drawing, painting, sculpture, textile, and performance to grapple with the personal and historical memory of materials in a contemporary society engrossed in the fleeting structure of the digital. The works in the exhibition create environments that are at once palpable and uncanny, examining how the physical and social body is affected by accelerated temporalities and the sensations of high-speed browsing and sharing in daily life.
A karaoke performance by Kaspars Groševs will take place during the opening reception on January 22, 2015. The performance is inspired by Latvian sculptor and writer Edward Leedskalnin (b. 1887) who crafted the Coral Castle monument in Florida after emigrating to the United States. Coral Castle was dedicated to the artist’s former Latvian lover he called “Sweet Sixteen.”
Kaspars Groševs (1983) graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia. Recent solo exhibitions include OAOA (Jūras griesti) (in collaboration with Oļa Vasiļjeva) at Jūras Vārti, Ventspils (2014); 00:10:00:00 at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2013); I/O. Without Enemies at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2011) and H at Kanepes Culture Centre, Riga (2012). Groševs’ work has been shown in group exhibitions such as Vortex at Project Space Garage, Moscow (2014) and Aspen-Kemmern at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2014). He has also collaborated with Vivienne Griffin and Cian McConn on various performances and contributed to Studija magazine. Groševs is a co-founder and curator of gallery 427 in Riga.
Leva Kraule (1987) is currently a MA candidate in Visual Communication at the Art Academy of Latvia. Recent solo exhibitions include Nobody dances like that anymore at gallery 427, Riga (2014); …if all you told was turned to gold at Vita Kuben, Umeå (2014); Loneliness will be my greatest treasure at Kalnciema kvartāls gallery, Riga (2014); 11 out of 10 at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2013) and Long Awaited Holidays by the Abyss of Fictitious Memories at the gallery Bastejs, Riga (2012). Kraule is a co-founder and curator of gallery 427 in Riga.
Kristīne Kursiša (1979) attended Higher Courses of Film Writers and Directors Institute in Moscow and received her M.A. in Visual Communication at Art Academy of Latvia. Kursiša has been collaborating with artist Miks Mitrēvics since 2003. Recent solo exhibitions include April showers (with M. Mitrēvics) at P/////AKT, Amsterdam (2014); Let me google that for you (with M. Mitrēvics) at Netwerk, Contemporary Art Center in Aalst, Belgium (2014) and Galerie VidalCuglietta in Brussels (2013) and Seven Thursdays (with M. Mitrēvics) at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, (2012). Kursiša’s work has been shown in group exhibitions such as Society Acts – The Moderna Exhibition 2014 at Moderna Museet Malmö, Sweden (2014) and Vortex at Project Space Garage, Moscow (2014).
Miks Mitrēvics (1980) received his Postgraduate (Laureate) at HISK – Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Belgium and his M.A. in Visual Communication at Art Academy of Latvia. Mitrēvics has been collaborating with artist Kristīne Kursiša since 2003. Recent solo exhibitions include April showers (with K. Kursiša) at P/////AKT, Amsterdam (2014); Let me google that for you (with K. Kursiša) at Netwerk, Contemporary Art Center in Aalst, Belgium (2014) and Galerie VidalCuglietta in Brussels (2013) and Seven Thursdays (with K. Kursiša) at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2012). Mitrēvics’ work has been shown in group exhibitions such as Society Acts – The Moderna Exhibition 2014 at Moderna Museet Malmö, Sweden (2014) and Vortex at Project Space Garage, Moscow (2014). Mitrēvics represented Latvia in the 53rd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.
Daria Melnikova (1984) attended the Art Academy of Latvia, Department of Visual Communication. Recent exhibitions include Brewing Harmony at Gallery Vita Kuben, Umeå, Sweden (2014); A Green Silhouette of Grey at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2014) and Dashing Lines and Forming Heaps at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2011). Melnikova’s work has been shown in group exhibitions such as Literacy-Illiteracy at the 16th Tallinn Print Triennial, KUMU, Tallinn (2014); Present Tense at Kalmar konstmuseum, Kalmar (2014); Aspen–Kemmern at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2014); Vortex at Project Space Garage, Moscow (2014); Sculpture Is Space at Hobusepea, Tallinn (2013) and 24 Spaces – Cacophony, Malmö Konsthall, Malmo (2013).
Evita Vasiļjeva (1985) attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and is currently a resident at De Ateliers, Amsterdam. Recent solo exhibitions include Parallel to Vertical at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2013). Vasiļjeva’s work has been shown in group exhibitions such as Aspen-Kemmern at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2014); Vortex at Project Space Garage, Moscow (2014); NF presents: from A to BE to SEE to D at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2014); Monograms at Gallery Vita Kuben, Umeå, Sweden (2014) and Indian Summer at Gallery Fons Welters, Amsterdam (2013).
Armands Zelčs (1978) attended the Art Academy of Latvia, Department of Visual Communication, and the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), Fine Arts Department. Recent solo exhibitions include Trails of Fading Landscapes (2013) and That is not which is. The name of that is known (2011) at kim? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga. Zelčs’ work has been shown in group exhibitions such as 24 Spaces – Cacophony at Malmö Konsthall, Malmo (2013), Exchange at Gallery Stiftung akku Emmen, Lucerne, Switzerland (2012); A Smiling Lady on a Tiger at Städtische Galerie, Bremen, Germany (2010) and Qui Vive? at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2010).
kim? Contemporary Art Centre (Riga, Latvia) was founded in 2009 and supports the developments of emerging artists, curators, and theoreticians through exhibitions, lectures, publications, and other programs related to recent art, theory, and social issues. In 2013, kim? and Art in General co-curated the Latvian pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale. Recent international collaboration projects include Vortex at the Garage Museum for Contemporary Culture in Moscow; a series of three solo exhibitions at Vita Kuben Gallery in Sweden, and Ola Vasiljeva’s New Commission Jargot at Art in General.
Art in General would especially like to acknowledge the support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, New York.
This exhibition marks the opening of the public diplomacy and cultural program for the Latvian Presidency of the Council for the European Union in the United States of America.
