Ivanovs among 10 Artists You Should Know
The country may be small, but its art is ambitious, grand, uncompromising – Latvia is home to a thriving contemporary art scene, a closely knit community promoted by events such as Riga’s annual Survival Kit festival and the Riga2014 European Capital of Culture programme. From Evelina Deicmane’s dark humour to Arnis Balčus’ frank and investigative photographs, Ewa Bianka Zubek takes a closer look at the ten contemporary artists from Latvia you should know
The Culture Trip on Ritums Ivanovs: Working with large canvasses, iconic imagery from pop culture and the vision of man as an emotional being, Ivanovs could be compared to Latvia’s Warhol: his paintings sit on a strange border between pop art, op art and hyperrealism, and have brought him widespread popularity at home and abroad. Semi-monochrome, his portraits of cultural icons define his body of work, from ‘Madonna in Purple Light’, a sensuous and provocative portrait of the Queen of Pop, to his Erotic Movie, a series of paintings and photographs that toy with the idea of pornography transferred onto the canvas. With 11 solo shows in Latvia and abroad to date, Ritums Ivanovs’ works can be found at art fairs and in collections worldwide, from the Latvian National Museum of Art to the Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow.
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The article was also published by Huffington Post and can be found here.
The article was also published by Huffington Post and can be found here.
Find Ritums Ivanovs’ work at his studio, Andrejostas iela 4a, Riga, Latvia, call +371 29171515 for an appointment.
