Program

Programme

Art critic Simon Hewitt (Oxford) gives a lecture, "From Budapest to Baku: a year in the life of an art critic", and moderates a round table on "people and art traffic". Architecture theorist Alexander Rappaport takes part in a discussion, "Art in an Urban Environment", moderated by architecture journalist Igors Vatoļins, and, in the EuroClub's recurring "Art and War" conversation, reflects on war as a recurring theme across the works on show. Dr Andris Teikmanis presents "Documento Futurae: Eight Future Art Scenarios" (2019), an artistic research project from the Art Academy of Latvia.

Nightly ART RIGA CINEMA short film screenings run in a narrow gauge railway carriage parked inside the museum. Other programme points: an art therapy workshop and conference with Motus Vita; an Oforta Ģilde print making workshop running live etchings through the week; an AGNI Project concert performance; performances by the Frida Art Foundation (Berlin, Moscow); a lecture on Latvia's sacred sun calendar by Ivo Purviņš with Icelandic artist Ulfur Karlsson; a children's creative workshop; and a closing lecture, "Art & Platon", by Alexey Romanov and Igors Vatoļins.

For the first time in the fair's six years, the week closes with a contemporary art auction, run jointly by several Latvian auction houses and galleries, Art Embassy, the Jēkabs gallery and auction house, the classical art gallery Antonia, and the Baltic Auction House. The fair's own schedule placed the auction on the Saturday of fair week, at 17:00.

Featured artists

Systema Gallery (Japan) takes part for the first time, its own preview promising "a chance to communicate with Japanese artists and see current Eastern tendencies". Giordano Morganti (Milan) presents his "Dr. Frankenstein" retrospective and a new urban photography cycle. Clair Vital (France) shows "Inner Sanctum", a tribute to Tibet. Elīna Maligina presents video works "ICON" and "ART SHOWER". The Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre stand features Brazilian artist Marco G. Giannotti. The German duo COCOW & DUBROFF show a series themed on chess grandmasters. Latvian painter Vitālija Jermolājeva marks twenty years of her glowing painting theatre with a dedicated stand presentation. Krokin Gallery (Moscow) and Canada's Voyzx Fine Art Project, which the fair describes as bringing "an international roster of artists, including some vivid names from Los Angeles", each hold stand presentations and artist conversations during the week. St Petersburg's Mitki creative union, founded by artist Dmitry Shagin, returns once again, a participation the organisers themselves call "a tradition".