Opening of the Exhibition “Graphic Artists of Sūnu Village”

From May 17 to September 2025, the Department of Graphics of the Latvian Academy of Arts, in collaboration with the Andrejs Upīts Memorial Museum in Riga, at 38–4 Brīvības Street, invites you to view the exhibition “Graphic Artists of Sūnu Village”.

The opening of the exhibition will take place on Museum Night, May 17, 2025, at 7:00 PM, resonating with this year's unified theme – “Stories of Our Values”.

The truthful story for youth “Boys of Sūnu Village” was written by Andrejs Upīts 85 years ago, and it has had a fortunate lifetime, being published nine times. In the exhibition, eight aspiring artists look at ancient, time-tested values through the eyes of young people, arriving at the well-known realization that the Bear of Happiness resides within each of us.

“Every creative personality has, at some point in their life, gotten stuck in Sūnu Village, so in this exhibition, we, the graphic artists, offer reflections on how to get out of these situations quickly and painlessly, as the true Bear of Happiness is not someone from the outside, but rather one's own will and actions,” reads the conceptual description of the exhibition.

“The students and lecturers of the Department of Graphics of the Latvian Academy of Arts have been long-time friends and partners of the Andrejs Upīts Memorial Museum, and the choice of Museum Night for the exhibition opening is not accidental – it speaks of our shared quests and values,” says the museum director Ilze Puķe.

The event will delight guests with a concert by the flute quartet of the wind instrument department of the Emīls Dārziņš Music School.

Participants in the exhibition include: Līva Indriķe, Alise Krokforda, Arta Rolanda Laicāne, Valērija Sosova, Agrita Vanaga, Vilhelms Banders, Zelda Viktorija Jansone, and Lote Anna Strīķe.