“Dogs and Pigeons in the Light” at the Jūrmala City Museum

The exhibition “Dogs and Pigeons in the Light” by painters Anna Laicāne and Marta Jurjāne will be on view at the Jūrmala City Museum from 13 February. The artists are united by their master’s studies at the Art Academy of Latvia under professors Kaspars Zariņš and Aleksejs Naumovs, as well as by light, which interests both artists in the creative process.

Anna Laicāne (1984) studied at the Rēzekne Art and Design Secondary School and in 2010 received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in art from the Art Academy of Latvia. The artist has held solo exhibitions in Latvia, Denmark and Portugal, regularly participates in group exhibitions, and her works were also displayed in the competition exhibition “Marina 2017” at the Jūrmala City Museum.

Speaking about the themes of her work, Anna Laicāne says that there are many themes, but several stand out and run through her work of the past three years. “For example, I have been painting pigeons for several years, and each time I see something different in them—what shades of grey there are! It might be a street corner or... a dog standing in the light and shadow,” the painter explains. “From time to time, I paint a person in an environment: by the sea, on the beach, when life is full-blooded or, conversely, when a sense of peace prevails. In fact, there is nothing philosophical here, but rather our everyday life, which consists of non-philosophical things,” the painter reflects. The paintings highlight light and shadows, close-ups of objects and textures.

Marta Jurjāne (1979) studied at the Riga School of Art and in 2003, at the Latvian Christian Academy, studied under graphic artist Nele Zirnīte and received a bachelor’s degree in theology with a specialisation in art. In 2011, she received a master’s degree in painting from the Art Academy of Latvia. Since 2002, she has actively participated in local and international exhibitions and projects and has held several solo exhibitions.

“Whatever I paint—whether it is water, a field or a person—it is light and its various aspects, and the way light manifests itself as an ongoing process. I am interested in how to prolong the light that has illuminated something. A viewer may see a landscape or something else in a painting, but for me it is the light and colour that I study and paint,” Marta Jurjāne says of her creative process.

The artist also describes her paintings as memories, as fragments of memories: “My paintings are like a collection of memories and impressions of light. Yet the essential thing remains the light that interests me—how it reveals itself in different ways and places. Light and colour.”