"Up, Down, and All Around"

At the Riga Porcelain Museum, from April 11, 2025, to June 8, the latest solo exhibition by Latvia's most popular ceramics duo, SKUJA BRADEN, "Up, Down, and All Around," will be on display. After a break of more than 10 years, Skuja Braden returns to the museum with their newest works in the museum's first-floor display windows, underground exhibition space, and other areas of the exhibition, transforming the fragmented environment into a unified artistic narrative.

“This is not a real exhibition, rather – a panic attack in porcelain, viewed in slow motion. Moving through the labyrinthine rooms of the Riga Porcelain Museum – from the upper floor to the basement and in between – Skuja Braden's works embrace the spatial chaos with wide-open arms and tightly clenched fists,” is how Skuja Braden – the joint identity of artists Ingūna Skuja-Breidena and Melissa Skuja-Breidena, who for 25 years have been offering the world their vision, observations, and critique expressed in porcelain – describe their solo exhibition “Up, Down, and All Around.”

“This exhibition is for a world that has lost its sanity (did it ever have it?). We gladly embrace fragmentation, layering baroque storytelling, geopolitical critique, and absurd mythologies, linking the display cases as if they were porcelain evidence boards. Leda gives birth to a swan, while a music box gently insists: “Let it be.” A birch grove is dressed in haute couture shrouds. The wilderness post-apocalyptically struts down the runway. Orwell's “Animal Farm” experiences Anthropocene improvements and becomes a totem for confusing mortality. Our latest exhibition is like a lullaby in a time of climate horror – a myth meeting a mime. Up is down, down is up, and all around is porcelain chaos – carefully arranged, slightly mad, and completely intentional,” say the artists.

Skuja Braden's solo exhibition “Up, Down, and All Around” at the Riga Porcelain Museum takes place after more than a decade since their last solo exhibition “A Dog's Life. Unleashed” in 2013. In the meantime, Skuja Braden has held solo exhibitions elsewhere in Latvia, European countries, the USA, and Asia, participated in group exhibitions, received nominations and both local and international awards, and in 2022, represented Latvia at the 59th International Art Biennale in Venice, Italy, with the exhibition “Selling Water by the River.” That year, the Latvian pavilion received unprecedented positive attention, and it can be unequivocally said that Skuja Braden is one of the most internationally renowned ceramicists currently active in Latvia.

Now more than ever, Ingūna and Melissa are mature and perfectly master the ceramic medium. Skuja Braden's creative legacy is diverse, and their current creative trajectories continue to outline new explorations in form-making, experiments with materials and technological possibilities, as well as unapologetic engagement in dialogue with socio-political reality and cultural narratives. The exhibition works will then travel to Basel, Switzerland, Milan, Italy, and New York, USA.

At the Riga Porcelain Museum, Skuja Braden's solo exhibition “Up, Down, and All Around” will be available to visitors from April 11, 2025, to June 8. The exhibition will be complemented by printed and digital materials at the museum and online on the museum's channels.

Publicity image:

Exhibition poster. Design concept by Artis Tauriņš / Formup, poster layout by Arnis Stasaitis. The poster features an image of Skuja Braden's works - "Ugi (Swimmers)", 2008 and "Eye", 2022. Photo by Gvido Kajons.