Never-ending city exhibited in Riga

RIGA - It can be said that all people like to travel around the world and take impressions home with them, to create a new understanding about what is happening on other shores of the planet. Some of us decide to imprint these impressions in the shape of paintings, letting others see them as well. Thus, understanding gains a more diverse and global placement in memory.

The art gallery “Istaba” offers one the chance to get lost in the paintings showing pieces of Berlin, one of the most opulent cities in Europe. This is where Liga Lazdina hands over her personal exhibition “The Never-ending City.”
Lazdina, born in 1982, has participated in and diversified the cultural environment in Latvia from 2000. Graduating from Riga Art Secondary school of Janis Rozentals, and the Art Academy of Latvia, where she received a Bachelor degree in stage design and a Master degree in painting, her path takes her to Berlin University of Arts. It is the beginning of the painter’s love toward the city that has become a significant part in her life, and her most important inspiration source. Undoubtedly, Berlin plays the central role in the vast majority of Lazdina’s creative works.

Berlin rarely sleeps. It is vibrant and multi-cultural; there is entertainment variety, and it attracts with its eternal transformation. Yet what does this exhibition show about this city? The moment that wraps up its vivacity! The city serves as a challenge and impulse to portray the painter’s vision in paintings, hence the urban environment is hardly the only theme she covers in her work. Even more, she uses it to demonstrate the sparkle of Berlin’s parks, summer cafes, streets and backyards which pulsate both in the center and the suburbs of the city. Multi-colored frames outline the ordinary day of Berlin, and all these frames let us get a real taste of it. To maintain the movement and protect the rush, which is characteristic of the city, the paintings tend to accentuate the relations of human and nature. With the help of bright, joyful and clean colors she concentrates attention on the story found on the canvas, may it outline a moment caught to praise nature or a figure.

What must potential visitors be aware of? This is not a typical exhibition hall, where you come and buy a ticket to look at the paintings. It also excludes traditional perception about the exhibition, like an individual journey, where the visitors must be left alone to find the right lines in the paintings. Gallery “Istaba” is a store in the centre of Riga, built like a cultural island in a world of consumer products. There are only 11 paintings offered at the exhibition, but they are displayed in a free atmosphere where you are not asked to visit exhibitions on a daily basis.

However, do not mind looking around and mixing the chance to see an interesting vision of Berlin with a possibility to explore other items in the gallery, such as books on Latvia’s cultural life or greeting cards with unique motifs, or music CDs. An unusual place for an exhibition? Not exactly! There is probably no better place for this exhibition, as it perfectly reflects the goal “The Never-ending City” has set – to interpret the movement within a city where culture meets the person. Even the music in the background is an additional tool to understand the goal, rather than a distraction.

What is the trump card of the exhibition? A visit can be spontaneous, as it can be seen by simply using the entrance door of the gallery. This is not all, though. Paintings emanate positivism and make you believe Berlin is a completely different place on Earth, where the colors dance to present the various strata of the city. It leaves you wondering if you can guess what they are.

The exhibition is open till April 7.
The entrance is free of charge.