📅 December 14–30, 2023
At the very end of 2023, Zuzeum invites you to experience Zandele, the Latvian modern and contemporary art event that comes to Zuzeum for the third year in a row. This year marks a significant change as Zuzeum opens its doors to Riga’s vibrant art galleries and a thriving community of independent artists. Zuzeum will experience exciting transformations, becoming a hub for artists, professionals, art enthusiasts and everyone else. Zandele establishes a dynamic and diverse meeting place to create an unforgettable experience for the participants and visitors alike.
On the first day, 14 December, the market will be open to the public from 17:00 to 21:00.
The main goal of the event is to bring art and the public together. Zuzeum exhibition spaces will become a platform for galleries, individual artists, and other participants. Zandele invites every visitor to go on a personal art-collecting journey, this year offering not only works of art at affordable prices but also an opportunity for one-on-one conversations with artists and gallery representatives.
Zuzeum continues to cooperate with the architects from SIJA studio to create a welcoming space. In turn, the Zuzeum team will develop the visual identity of the art market. Sustainability is at the heart of the architectural concept, as we employ recycled and reused materials, which are reborn in new forms. We aim to build a space that creates a continuous spatial experience through colour accents and the layouts of the galleries.
The event will be accompanied by a rich public program. We invite you to join in informative conversations with artists and professionals, engage in thought-provoking discussions, and bring your children to take part in creative workshops.
🎟️ Ticket price — EUR 5 (re-entry free of charge with presentation of the first entrance coupon), for students and seniors — EUR 2.50, children and young people up to 18 years of age enter free of charge. Tickets can be purchased here or at the Art Centre ticket desk.
🧡 Welcome to Zandele, where everyone can expand their horizons and enjoy the widest range of art making in the city.
Zandele 2023 participants:
427, Anita Arbidāne, Ansis Starks, ArtEmbassy, Arnis Balčus, ASNI, DOM gallery, ISSP Gallery, Jēkabs auction house / gallery, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, LOOK!, Mark Sun Roz, Maxim Boxer Gallery, Pjotr Kirjuša, POST, Roberts Rūrāns, SUBFRAME, TUR_telpa, Virgilijs Tilks, Vladimirs Avramenko, VV Foundation, Zuzāns Collection.
More about participants:
427
427 was opened in 2014 to showcase contemporary art, uncover signs, cast nets, and exchange confabulations frequently.
Adam Till
A professional painter and art teacher, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from Casper College (USA) and a master’s in Figurative Painting from the Latvian Academy of Arts. He studied the painting methods of Old Masters extensively.
Anita Arbidāne
Anita Arbidāne received a professional education at Janis Rozentals Riga Art High School (1995–2002). A bachelor’s degree in visual arts – painting from the Latvian Art Academy was awarded in 2006. This was followed by a Master’s degree in 2008. She has been contributing to exhibitions since 2004. Solo shows in 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2022. Artworks can be found in private collections in Latvia, Sweden, Germany, India, the USA, the UK and Holland.
Ansis Starks
Photographer Ansis Starks is known as an architectural photographer and exhibition documenter, who delves into the nuanced interplay between object and space. He is also very attentive to people in his portraits, photographing for the magazine Rīgas Laiks. For Zandele, he prepares photo prints with a humorous twist to his daily routine.
ArtEmbassy
The leading auction house of art items on the Baltic art market. ArtEmbassy offers many paintings of Latvian, Russian, and European artists of the 18th–21st centuries, furniture, porcelain, glass, and many other interior objects.
Arnis Balčus
Arnis Balčus is a photographer and artist who focuses mainly on Latvian society and the environment, revealing the peculiarities of national identity and controversial socio-political phenomena.
ASNI
ASNI, a nomadic gallery project founded by curators Elīna Drāke and Auguste Petre, creates exhibitions in unconventional spaces, posing a compelling question: What does operating a gallery without an art market entail? The association ASNI aims to promote contemporary art processes and collaborative events in the Baltic countries and beyond, facilitating the exposure of emerging Baltic artists on a global stage.
DOM Gallery
DOM is an independent artist-run contemporary art space in Riga, 115 Ģertrudes Street, which opened its doors to exhibitions in 2021 and has chiefly supported the younger generation of artists. The DOM team comprises Liene Rumpe, Ieva Viese, and Elīna Salnāja.
ISSP Gallery
The ISSP Gallery is an exhibition space dedicated to contemporary photography, and it has been operating in Riga since 2018. The gallery focuses on photography as an integral part of contemporary art as well as the interaction of photography with other media, and it exhibits work by established local and foreign artists and the younger generation of Latvian photographers.
Jēkabs Auction house/gallery
One of the leading and most experienced companies in the Latvian art market, which has been engaged in organizing art auctions and exhibitions for many years, as well as in the individual trade of art works. The main value of the gallery is based on their long-standing presence in the Latvian art market, which has given them a unique and in-depth experience of working with old masters and contemporary art.
Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art
Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA) organises exhibitions and cultural events and regularly releases different publications. In 2023, the LCCA unveiled two noteworthy books: the Latvian translation of Chris Kraus’ groundbreaking novel I Love Dick, which has become a cult classic since its first publication in 1997, and the Latvian translation of The Longest Journey by Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko. This book combines incisive personal recollections with critical analysis and a historical background, revealing Russia’s efforts to render Ukraine invisible. The LCCA also expanded its offerings with exclusive limited edition prints and postcards by photographer Reinis Hofmanis with his nostalgic images from the once bustling Vidzeme Market and T-shirts featuring works by Hofmanis and designer Rūta Jumīte.
LOOK!
LOOK! is a contemporary art space supporting new, bright, limitless creativity. We exhibit the Latvian artists who continue to build our cultural heritage, inspiring us to feel deeply, think critically, and engage in insightful discussion.
Mark Sun Roz
Mark Sun Roz is a Riga-based sculptor whose work combines traditional fine arts, exceptional craftsmanship, and a playful blend of post-ironic humour and aesthetic charm. He is an alumnus of the Riga Art and Design School and the Art Academy of Latvia, with further studies at the Art Academy of Rome. Mark has hosted several solo exhibitions, featuring his works in various private collections. He produces distinctive fine art pieces while also dedicating time to creating larger-scale sculptural works.
Maxim Boxer Gallery
The gallery presents works by artists Ivan Lounguine and Igor Gurovich, created during their relocation from Moscow to France and Armenia. It is their reflection of the new reality and tragedy of life.
Pjotrs Kirjuša
“Like everyone else in childhood, I liked to draw. I was 11 in 1989 when my godfather took me to the exhibition “Latvian Avant-Garde,” which left a vivid impression. I had never seen such art before: a room where the wind was blowing, a movie about the sky with a red hang glider, tin linen drying on a clothesline, and huge canvases covered with phosphorescent paint, where people’s silhouettes could be seen after the lights were turned off. Perhaps this wonderful experience motivated me to become an artist. I started studying at the Higher School of Graphic Design in 2000. Over the five years of study, I remembered that I love to draw. Skills acquired in using design computer programs allowed me to experiment with video, photography, and digital drawing. Later, in 2015, I had a personal exhibition in Zurich, “So and no Otherwise” at Brykina Gallery. In 2018, my works were acquired by the Norwegian museum Kaviarfactory. In 2021, my drawings were included in the Guerlain collection. Painting is my enduring passion. I’m interested in the relationship between light and darkness, layers of transparent colours, and tactility of colour.”
POST
POST is an interdisciplinary master’s specialisation that is based on ideas of art in context. The programme seeks to explore and examine how it is possible to study art today while simultaneously being in Eastern and Northern Europe, a region with different borders characterised by a changing environment and rich experience regarding the forced implementation and collapse of global ideologies. Considering the cultural, historical and geopolitical contexts, and the artistic processes attached, we are in an environment of unique experiences. MA POST can be perceived as an open study space for various ideas and experiments, following the zigzagging path of contemporary artistic practice.
Roberts Rūrāns
Having finished the Printmaking department at the Art Academy of Latvia and co-founded the “Overpriced” design studio, Roberts Rūrāns is now a freelance illustrator and artist. Roberts’ works in acrylic technique and his aesthetics have evolved from being influenced by contemporary minimalism at the beginning to Modern art with its exaggerations of form, and now has gone even further into the past to find inspiration in the Middle Ages, where intricate details and complex compositions meet in images full of meaning and beauty. He has worked on commissions for various clients, including The New York Times, Vogue, NATO, The Olympic Games, Apple, Hermès, and many others.
SUBFRAME
Artist collective SUBFRAME will feature contemporary design objects. These pieces are created by the authors of the idea, Aleksandrs Breže and Armands Frebergs, as well as the Belgian artist Tom Volkaert. All the authors are interested in the relationship between graphic design, technology, material science, the human body, and the environment. They explore how functional design solutions affect our experience of the world and the role that everyday objects play within it. The space will be inhabited by sculptural objects that blur the boundaries between interior design and contemporary art, emphasising function or usability. The unique style and participation in various international projects distinguish the subframe artists.
TUR_telpa
TUR_telpa aims to complement Riga’s contemporary art scene by working closely with its selected artists to create high-quality, curated art exhibitions. Collaborating with the distinctive characteristics of the space at Tallinas ielas kvartāls – which refers to both the traditional white cube and the building’s industrial past – artists are invited to create new work and encouraged to experiment beyond what might be their conventional practice.
A small but dedicated team of artists and art professionals supports each stage of the exhibition process, from its conceptual inception to its closing. Interdisciplinary exchange is also a primary goal of TUR_telpa, and events are programmed to offer new perspectives on the ideas behind the exhibitions, seeking crossovers into different disciplines. TUR_telpa aims to engage an audience beyond the traditional “art bubble” and is uniquely situated on Tallinas ielas kvartāls to do so, creating a low threshold for passers-by and integrating a meeting place within a presentation space ideal for conversations, workshops, and other forms of exchange. Finally, TUR_telpa looks to bring artists they work with to the attention of artistic platforms and institutions outside of Latvia to strengthen the artist’s international standing and contribute to the position of Latvian contemporary art.
Virgilijs Tilks
Virgil graduated from the Latvian Academy of Arts in 2023 with a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication. He studied in an experimental exhibition programme for one semester at UdK Berlin. During his studies, he worked as a gallery assistant and as part of a team to establish a gallery, where he also curated exhibitions. Studying architecture and sculpture has helped him to understand the relationship between space and objects. He uses sculptural elements, photographic imagery, and digital composition to create spatially diffused narratives. Virgil believes that the best results come when you collaborate, and he has participated in many collaborative projects. He participated in an augmented reality group show, “As If Lost”, in which he explored the possibilities of digital art to bypass the rules of gravity. In the autumn of 2021, together with Ieva Viese-Vigule, he began working as part of an artist duo. He created the exposition “Self-fulfilling Prophecies,” where the relationship between words, thoughts, beliefs, and their realisation was explored. In 2022, Virgil and two other artists created the artist group “CIM.” At the exhibition “4ever” they explored coping mechanisms and escapism. He is currently living in Boston, MA, working on new projects and still participating in both artist groups.
VV Foundation
VV Foundation was established in 2018 by art enthusiasts: lawyer and art patroness Vita Liberte, architect Vilnis Štrams and art historian Jānis Borgs. The foundation’s mission is to promote contemporary art and art education in Latvia. VV Foundation produces high-quality international exhibitions, manages the PAiR artist residence in Pavilosta and creates contemporary art education programmes.
PAiR residence aims to help contemporary art find its way into the hearts of as many people as possible and continuously supports its resident artists, raising their exposure and promoting their practice both during and after their residency. Since 2019, it has welcomed more than 50 Latvian and international creative professionals and hosted multiple seasons of the successful public programme, which has included exhibitions, concerts and artists’ talks. Besides the residency itself, PAiR also features an art gallery, library, weaving workshop and public garden – soon joined by a sculpture park.
For this year’s Zandele fair, the Foundation introduces the works of three past PAiR residents – Ingrida Pičukāne, Lidija Zaneripa and Laimdota Malle.
Zuzāns Collection
The origins of the collection date back to the 1990s; it has been known as the Zuzāns Collection since 2017, and represents more than 30,000 items of painting, graphic art, sculpture, decorative arts, and design. Today, Zuzāns Collection is developing at a great rate. With late-19th-century and early-20th-century art, classical modernist art, and Soviet-era art, the collection represents established artists and movements in the history of Latvian art and lesser-known, nonconformist personalities, whose work may be underrepresented in Latvian public art institutions. A growing collection of contemporary international paintings and sculptures marks a new direction in the development of the collection. Zuzeum Art Centre is the home of Zuzāns Collection.
Zandele Team:
Zuzāns Collection: Ingūna Ģēģere, Laura Briede, Annija Grīsle, Jevgēnija Hamudajeva
Conservators: Liene Muceniece, Anastasija Skopenkova
Architects: studio SIJA (Artūrs Tols, Kristiāna Erta)
Head of projects: Katrīna Jurkevica
Project manager: Melisa Debora Kaškura
Head of design: Karlīne Anete Čepjolkina
Graphic designer: Elizabete Bušēvica
SMM and communication: Eduards Grizāns
Technical director: Raivis Švarcs
Technical team: Andris Konošonoks, Māris Mikāns, Mareks Ieviņš
Staff coordinator: Erna Marija Poča
Art pedagogue: Alise Starobina
Mediators: Vallija Lintere, Gundega Tentere, Patrīcija Baltiņa, Līva Indriķe, Gustavs Strads, Katrīna Ērgle
Accounting: Anita Bergmane, Inga Bērziņa
Financial Director: Ilze Baumane
Director: Alyona Solovyova
Founder of Zuzeum and Zuzāns Collection: Jānis Zuzāns
Supporters:
Skaistāk Print House
Mooseberry SIA,
Samsung
Arterritory
GUFO SIA