Ieva Epnere wins Latvian visual arts award

RIGA - Artist Ieva Epnere has been awarded the Purvitis Prize 2019 for her exhibition Dzivo Atminu Jura (The Sea of Live Memories), which was displayed at the contemporary art museum kim? at the beginning of 2017, the award’s representatives informed LETA.

The personal and private stories in Epnere’s multidisciplinary art, blending video, photography and installation, offered alternative pathways leading to broader reflection on identity, tradition and ritual. In her work The Sea of Live Memories the artist explores the fluid nature of identity, reacting to processes in Latvia’s post-Soviet society, according to the citation.

The Purvitis Prize, founded in 2008, is awarded biennially to an artist or a group of artists representing Latvia with an outstanding work, which is deemed to be deeply connected to the developments of the era and forming a bridge between contemporary life, spiritual ideals and intrinsic values. The author rated highest by a panel of experts and a special international jury is selected as the winner.

The monetary amount of the award is EUR 28,500.

This year’s Purvitis Prize nominees included Eriks Apalais, Kristaps Epners, Gints Gabrans, Romans Korovins, Pauls Liepa, Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, as well as Orbita text group.