Sculpture garden

Professor of the Art Academy of Latvia, Aigars Bikše organizes and participates in international culture and art projects. The artist explores various historically significant subjects, taking an interest in life’s social and political aspects. Mostly on view in the public areas of various cities, his sculptures have frequently elicited noteworthy public response due to their unconventional style of expression and open-minded take on historical myths. 

‘The Thinker’ is thinking of himself as a person.
Who does he want to be?
What is his sexuality?
What is his role in society?

The last hundred years have seen rapid changes in women’s understanding of themselves – their body, her self-determination rights and their role in society. These issues are much reflected on, written, and spoken about. The debate on the impact these changes have had on men has been much less vocal, and yet they too must search for new patterns of thinking about ways of shaping their personality and expressing their sexuality. Frozen in a static pose, the giant muscular body of Auguste Rodin’s 19th-century ‘Thinker’ emanates physical strength and power. As for Aigars Bikše’s ‘Thinker’, it is not physical force but rather an inner power of self-awareness that he radiates, blossoming like a flower. Through distancing themselves from the ancient traditionally masculine way of thinking, people move toward a new, much more honest relationship with themselves and others.

Andris Vārpa works in sculpture, creating freestanding statues for gardens and parks, graveyard monuments, memorial plaques and medals. After graduating from Art Academy, he settled down in Valmiera where he set up a studio in an outbuilding in the park of the former parsonage. In the summer of 1984, he organised the first stone sculpture open-air workshop in Valmiera right next to his studio.

In his early work, Vārpa emphasised the structural features of the composition, monumental generalised volumes and diversity of the surface textures. The artist’s style is defined first and foremost by his appreciation for the classical period of modern sculpture, respect for the specific properties of the material and generalised rejection of anything superfluous, resulting in a laconic and meaningful form. An excellent draughtsman, Andris Vārpa brings to sculpture certain elements characteristic of drawing.

The best known works by the artist include his monument to Kārlis Padegs next to Vērmanes Park in Riga and the monument to the painter Voldemārs Irbe in Brīvības Street in Riga.

Denis Prasolov is a Riga-based Ukrainian sculptor who uses zoomorphic images in his work, frequently combining them with elements of the plant world. He mostly chooses stories related to mythological, historical, and cultural inspirations, while sometimes including deeply personal symbols, such as ducks representing an ailing society guided by the mass media. The artist often creates a series of works, which allows for exploring an idea or subject on a deeper level. In his sculpturally masterful and skilfully finished pieces, Denis Prasolov reflects on myths and cliches of the mass culture, depicting various fictitious or real stories. The artist focuses on the essence of each idea in his work, giving up everything he finds superfluous. 

To residents of Riga, the best-known work by Denis Prasolov is his ‘Sam’, the figure of a monkey shown in 2016 in Kronvalda Park in Riga as part of the Sculpture Quadrennial Riga ‘Conservatism and Liberalism’ – a tribute to animals used in space exploration and made to travel in Russian, American and French spaceships: unlike people, they were not given a choice whether to sacrifice themselves in the name of science or not.