The Fifth Latvia Ceramics Biennale has opened in style with the inaugural exhibition at the Cēsis Exhibition Hall, setting the stage for a season of artistic encounters that will continue in September in Daugavpils and Liepāja.
For ten years, the Latvia Ceramics Biennale has stood as the most prominent and ambitious ceramics event in North-East Europe’s contemporary art scene. Its fifth edition begins its journey to the viewers with a compelling celebration of emerging Latvian talent. Opened on 15 August at the Cēsis Exhibition Hall, the exhibition – aptly titled FRESH – brings together a group of young women artists who have only recently graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia’s Ceramics Department and are now pursuing independent creative careers: developing their studios, staging exhibitions, leading workshops, and engaging in other activities in their field.
Reflecting on current trends in Latvian contemporary ceramics, the exhibition’s curators, Aivars Baranovskis and Valentins Petjko, observe:
“Today’s ceramic artists embrace both functionality and decorative grace, creating pieces that speak to urgent, globally resonant themes as readily as to the most intimate personal stories. In the hands of the younger generation especially, the medium fascinates with its unmediated, raw materiality – a quality inseparably tied to the bodily experience and presence. It is here that ceramics most convincingly dissolves the largely artificial boundaries between art and daily life.”
Featuring Egija Grīnfelde, Katerina Geiduka, Laima Lauriņa, Linda Ķivule, Linda Zelta, Marta Prēdele, Megija Zonne, and Ojūna Batbajara, “FRESH: New Voices in Latvian Ceramics” will be on view at the Cēsis Exhibition Hall, Pils Laukums 3, until 28 September.
With the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, the exhibition is organised by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics in collaboration with the Cēsis Exhibition Hall and the Rothko Museum.
The Latvia Ceramics Biennale is a landmark event on the European cultural calendar. Organised by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics in partnership with the Rothko Museum, it is both a platform for documenting achievements in the field through group and solo exhibitions and a continuous driver of new creative explorations.
The biennale’s fifth edition, themed “From Stardust to Lush Sprouts”, invites reflection on materiality – its forms and transformations, and the enduring value it acquires over time. This evocative concept will unfold across a rich programme of exhibitions and cultural events throughout August and September 2025 in Daugavpils, Liepāja, and Cēsis.