For those by the sea and in the sea.
Fog descends, and all punctuation disappears, the horizon dissolves, and the protagonist dissolves into the landscape. That is the drama setting offered by Jānis Kupčs in his latest solo exhibition, Without Notes, in the art space Civita Nova of the Liepāja Great Amber Concert Hall.
‘Those who like strolling along the beach, or, even better, entering the sea on a small boat, must have noticed that nature will play tricks and break the simple order of land/sky or top/bottom as it erases the horizon. For example, it sends down fog or an evening twilight. The usual structure disappears, you cannot turn your usual corner, find the usual door and get to your own room, your home, your family, all that is familiar to you.
A person enters a space with no scale, one that cannot be related to, as there are no punctuation marks. Where is your self, where are you?’
The painter lives in Sārnate, he often sets sail to catch the odd little fish, he also makes both beautiful and practical ceramics and exquisite works in porcelain. In painting, Jānis Kupčs faces the canvas and paint alone. On a one-to-one scale.
It is the relationship of this scale that is important for each of us and, using saturated darks and brilliant lights, Jānis Kupčs builds and arranges his private space, his Universe, and, with this exhibition, he is inviting us to look in on this process.
Jānis Kupčs (b. 1969) is a Latvian painter and ceramist whose creative activities do not seek to unite both arts. The artist expresses himself differently in each area, with a distinct sense of materiality, color, and life.
The artist has graduated the Ceramics Department of the Tallinn University of Arts and received a Master’s degree from the painting workshop of Aleksejs Naumovs and Kaspars Zariņš at the Art Academy of Latvia. Since 2000, Jānis Kupčs has authored over 17 solo exhibitions in ceramics and painting. His typical exhibition titles contain literary references or offer a certain mercurial absurdity, such as The Fragile Sleep of a Bunny, or Breakfast in the Greenery. Among his most important solo exhibitions are Refrains (Kadrioru Plaza, Tallinn, 2024), Cruel Romances (Rothko Museum, Daugavpils, Theatre House Jūras Vārti, Ventspils, 2021/2022), Pushkin had four sons, and they were all idiots (Rīga Porcelain Museum, 2020), and Lost Villages (Gallery Daugava, Rīga; Theatre House Jūras Vārti, Ventspils, 2016).
Curator: Ieva Rupenheite
Opening: September 11 at 17:00
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