The first edition of Riga Contemporary, the international contemporary art fair held in the heart of the Baltic region, concluded successfully this past weekend, welcoming more than 12,000 visitors over four days. The fair brought together 43 galleries from 16 countries, showcasing works by over 85 artists from across Europe, Asia, and North America.
Riga Contemporary highlighted the city’s growing role as a regional cultural hub, with a dynamic lineup that included leading contemporary art galleries from Tokyo, London, Milan, Vienna, Seoul, Amsterdam, New York, as well as strong representation from the Baltic and Nordic regions.
Among the participating galleries were internationally recognized names such as MISAKO & ROSEN (Japan), EastContemporary (Italy), POLINA BERLIN (USA), Galerina & Arcadia Missa (UK), ROH (Indonesia), SOPHIE TAPPEINER (Austria), Whistle (South Korea), Shimmer (Netherlands), The Green Gallery and Good Weather (USA), Artbeat (Georgia), Gauli Zitter (Belgium), Season 4 Episode 6 and Roland Ross (UK), Satoko Oe Contemporary and Lee Saya (Japan), Castiglioni (Italy), A Thousand Plateaus (China), Beau Travail (Sweden), BWA Warszawa (Poland), Leto and Turnus (Poland). The curatorial direction of the fair is developed by Kim? in collaboration with Jeffrey Rosen, co-founder of Tokyo-based gallery MISAKO & ROSEN and co-president of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA).
Photo: Kristīne Madjare
The Baltic region was prominently represented at Riga Contemporary, contributing to the fair’s broad geographic and curatorial scope. Participating galleries included Temnikova & Kasela, Tütar Gallery, and Kogo Gallery from Estonia; Drifts, Editorial Project Space, The Rooster Gallery, and Vartai from Lithuania; and SIC and Pitted Dates from Finland. Latvia, as the host country, presented a strong selection of institutions, among them Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Māksla XO, Alma, 427, ISSP Gallery, LOOK! Gallery, CUT ART, and TUR Telpa.
“With the inaugural edition of Riga Contemporary, we set out to establish a platform that brings renewed energy to the Baltic contemporary art scene – one that is ambitious, critically engaged, and genuinely inclusive,” said Zane Čulkstēna, founder of Kim? Contemporary Art Centre and Riga Contemporary. “The response to this first edition has far exceeded expectations – from galleries, artists, and audiences alike. It’s a powerful starting point, and we’re committed to building on this momentum. We’re deeply thankful to all our supporters and partners whose involvement made this first edition possible at such a scale. Most of all, sincere thanks to the entire team and all participating gallerists for their dedication and the exceptional quality they brought to this launch.”
Photo: Ģirts Raģelis
The Riga Contemporary public programme, held from July 11 to 12, offered a series of discussions and talks featuring artists, curators, business leaders, lawyers, and technology experts. Topics addressed included the evolution of the gallery format, the influence of institutions on creative practice, the intersection of legal and digital culture, new models of collecting, and the increasing role of technology in artistic production.
The programme opened with the discussion “The Role of Galleries in the 21st Century,” moderated by Jeffrey Rosen, and featured gallerist Olga Temnikova (Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Tallinn), artist Indriķis Ģelzis, and Markus von Platen and Toke Flivholm, co-founders of the Copenhagen art centre Simian. Later that day, in the panel “Institutional Power and the Artist’s Voice,” moderated by Valentinas Klimašauskas (CAC, Vilnius), participants included Ita O’Neill (Amos Rex, Helsinki), Michal Novotny (National Gallery in Prague), and artist Maija Kurševa. The discussion explored questions of artistic autonomy and representation within institutional frameworks.
Other notable participants included Matilde Tariello (Artsy, London), John Riepenhoff (The Green Gallery, Milwaukee), Alexander Lukas Bieri (The Roche Historical Collection and Archive, Basel), Liina Vahtras (e-Residency, Tallinn), Lisa Berentsen (Vienna Insurance Group, Vienna), Anna Mustonen (KIASMA), Lolita Jablonskiene (National Gallery of Art, Vilnius), and Vita Liberte (VV Foundation, Pāvilosta).
Photo: Kristīne Madjare
Since 2021, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre has been an active participant in the international art fair circuit, with recent appearances at NADA Miami (2022), Paris Internationale (2023), Onsen Confidential (Tokyo, 2022 and 2024), Esther (New York, 2024), and Warsaw Gallery Weekend (2024), among others. These engagements have provided a platform for Latvian and Latvian-born artists to gain broader international visibility. In 2022, Kim? also launched Riga Confidential, a small-scale art fair that brought together nine Baltic and international galleries.
Riga Contemporary is organized by Kim? Contemporary Art Centre in collaboration with Riga City Council and is part of the NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) network of art institutions.
