Veldze Art Fair

427, ASNI, and TUR are pleased to announce the opening of Veldze Art Fair  - a collaborative exhibition taking place from May 29 to 31, open daily from 16:00 to 21:00 at Creative Factory Veldze on Matīsa iela 8.

As part of Riga Art Week, from May 29–31, 427, ASNI, and TUR present Veldze Art Fair, a temporary exhibition taking place in the former boiler room at Matīsa iela 8. The fair brings together works by artists whose practices the three spaces have engaged with or are drawn to. The selection emerges from a shared curatorial experiment — an effort to bring together differing perspectives in one setting. The exhibition also offers an opportunity to support the work of both the artists and the spaces through the sale of selected works. Each space contributes a selection shaped by its curatorial focus — reflecting distinct approaches to exhibition-making, methods of collaboration, and relationships with artists. The fair draws coherence from proximity: placing these positions side by side opens up a shared space for contrast, connection, and conversation. 

Rather than conforming to a central concept, Veldze Art Fair makes space for parallel approaches to curation and artistic practice. It offers a glimpse into each gallery’s evolving ecosystem - its artists, its rhythms, its way of thinking - bringing them into conversation through proximity and contrast.

427 was founded in 2014 by artists Kaspars Groševs and Ieva Kraule-Kūna. Since then, its goal has been to delight Riga residents and visitors with a regular program of exhibitions and various events, focusing on less-visited artistic phenomena that blend interests in the fundamental media of art – painting, sculpture, installations, and sound – uncovering signs, casting webs to capture new ideas, and exchanging confabulations. Since opening, 427 has organized more than 70 exhibitions, not counting temporary events in which the gallery transformed into a strip club, tattoo parlor, CBD shop, dance club, video salon, kindergarten, and more.
427 will present a selection of works by Evita Vasiļjeva, Jānis Dzirnieks, Raids Kalniņš, and Kaspars Groševs - artists whose practices reflect the gallery’s commitment to material experimentation, spatial intuition, and the poetics of process.

ASNI’s programme is focused on Baltic artists in the early stages of their careers. The gallery aims to carefully select and actively collaborate with artists to present the brightest and most relevant Baltic art today, and to help advance their careers internationally.
ASNI will contribute a grouping that spans generations and formats, featuring Sabīne Vernere, Helēna Heinrihsone, MAREUNROL’S, Anna Egle, and Andris Eglītis, brought together through a cross-generational interest in form, gesture, and sensibility.

TUR is an independent art space with a program that centers on curated solo exhibitions. The space is situated within a former industrial building where seasonal changes give rise to two distinct exhibition series, one winter and one summer.
TUR’s exhibitions are shaped through close collaboration with each artist and a curatorial process that emphasizes spatial engagement, experimentation, and context. Artists are encouraged to work beyond the familiar boundaries of their practice and are supported by a small team throughout the process. TUR also maintains a strong interest in interdisciplinary exchange and in creating points of access for a broader public.
For Veldze, TUR invited artists to contribute works that extend from recent exhibitions or reflect on their current practice. The presentation is not unified by a theme, but by a sense of continuity, returning to ideas that remain in motion, recontextualised in a different setting.
Artists contributing work include: Katrīna Biksone, Reinis Dzudzilo, Inga Erdmane, Oto Helgers Ozoliņš, Andris Kaļiņins, Maija Kurševa, Anna Malicka, Dzelde Mierkalne, Liene Pavlovska, Luīze Rukšane, Līga Spunde, and Rūdolfs Štamers.

The exhibition takes place in the former boiler house of the Veldze factory complex - a raw, unpolished industrial space currently being transformed into a cultural site. The Creative Factory Veldze, located at Matīsa street 8, is envisioned as a platform for synergy between city residents, entrepreneurs, and the creative industries, co-creating a new kind of cultural infrastructure in the centre of Riga. Historically, the site housed the Gust. Kuncendorf brewery until 1939, later becoming the Fruit and Berry Wine and Soft Drink Factory “Veldze,” and, notably, the site of Latvia’s first Pepsi production. The event takes place as part of the Creative Factory Veldze cultural programme, “Veldzes Vasara”, offering city residents and visitors the chance to experience an unprecedented summer in the city on the grounds of the former lemonade factory.

Veldze Art Fair invites viewers into an evolving conversation across practices, disciplines, and modes of making. It is a three-day glimpse into the ongoing work of shaping context, showing care, and thinking publicly with art.

As part of the first edition of Riga Art Week, the exhibition joins a broader program of events celebrating contemporary art across the city. Over the course of the week, RAW will activate cultural spaces throughout Riga - from established institutions to emerging creative sites like Veldze - offering a dynamic and publicly engaged portrait of the city’s contemporary art scene.