Artificial Peace (Contemporary Landscape)

The "Artificial Peace (Contemporary Landscape)" strides the borderline between monumental painting and conceptualism while belonging to both. The works are in watercolour technique, using luminescent water-based acrylic paints.

The interaction between colour, light, imagination, and emotion forms the underlying concept. The large format wate rcolour series "Contemporary Landscape" is the core of the exhibit. Reflecting the most striking daily transitions, these paintings tell the story of a very personal relationship to the world. The huge pulsating fields of colour represent a distillate of the artist's emotions whose further evolution is up to the viewer. The silhouettes of the visitors become part of the artwork: interactive images provoke the interpretation of the narrative. In the context of "Artificial Peace" light plays a particular role: the fluorescent bulbs, the so-called "blue lights" help the gaze to penetrate the deepest layers of the painting. Light becomes a kind of emotional binding substance between the visitor and the artwork, throwing the formal qualities of the painting in high relief and revealing the endless depth of the painted space.

ARTIST
Kristaps Gelzis was born in 1962 in RÄga. He completed studies at the Department of Graphics of the Art Academy of Latvia (1986). Together with other conceptual art pioneers of his generation, he has been actively involved in Latvian contemporary art processes since the mid 1980s. Since 1997 he is Assistant Professor at the Department of Visual Communication and Graphics of the Art Academy of Latvia. The artist has participated in many significant international art projects. His works are represented in the collections of Helsinki KIASMA Contemporary Art Museum, the Latvian National Museum of Art and the Artists' Union of Latvia.

The idea at the core of Kristaps Gelzis's creative work is implemented in the most appropriate material—on planes, spatially or plastically, using all of the technology and media now available. He is sensitive to the symbolic elements of the local environment, which are then masterfully interpreted in his works, and has the courage to be openly ironic about the current political events.