From February 15 to May 18, the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design (MDAD) will host Layers, a major Baltic contemporary glass art exhibition featuring 24 artists from Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. The exhibition highlights the diverse uses of glass as a material, highlighting its classical qualities in a contemporary and conceptual form. The works on display form a certain overview of the possibilities of the glass art today and explore what creates the value of a glass artwork — visual beauty or a conceptual message.
«The title of the project, Layers, is based on the idea of multidimensionality, uncovering the nature of objects and phenomena from different perspectives. Multilayering can be observed in the earth’s crust, in the atmosphere, and in the perception of any thing. History is also shaped by the layering of events. Nothing has ever been clear-cut; the secret nature is always ambiguous — it can be perceived either in context or subtext,» says the description of the exhibition.
The exhibition brings together 24 diverse professional artists from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, whose primary medium of self-expression is glass. The objects presented at the exhibition were selected through a competition by a panel of curators — Kati Kerstna (Estonia), Dalia Truskaitė (Lithuania), Bārbala Gulbe, and Marta Ģibiete (Latvia). The jury also included other local and international experts of the field. Finally, the exhibition demonstrates 23 individual and collaborative artworks by nine artists from Latvia, seven from Lithuania, and seven from Estonia.
The show offers a rich spectrum of art –—from intricately crafted paintings and glass graphics on paper to large-scale installations, monumental glass piles, and molten glass sculptures. The Baltic dimension of the exhibition allows us to discern the kindred and at the same time assess the differences of perception while viewing the artworks from the neighbouring countries. «It helps us to rediscover our own perspectives on glass — the material common to us all — and see how the shared history and related identity of the Baltic States are in an artistic way echoed in it. It is the same Baltic Sea and shores, the same forests, the same grey rain and fog, the long months of darkness, and the closer to the North, the greater the hunger for light,» say the curators.
The exhibition Layers is on view at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design from February 15 to May 18. More information about the exhibition — on the MDAD website.
Artists: Kārlis Bogustovs, Inita Ēmane, Dainis Gudovskis, Barbala Gulbe, Marta Ģibiete, IRMA Collaborative (Inguna Audere, Michael Rogers), Anda Munkevica, Artis Nīmanis, Ernests Vītiņš from Latvia; Piret Ellamaa, Erki Kannus, Merle Kannus, Kati Kerstna, Rait Prääts, Maret Sarapu, Tiina Sarapu from Estonia; Danas Aleksa, Domas Ignatavičius, Remigijus Kriukas, Rūta Lipaitė, Irina Peleckienė, Julija Pociūtė, Dalia Truskaitė from Lithuania.
Curated by Barbala Gulbe, Marta Ģibiete (Latvia), Kati Kerstna (Estonia), Dalia Truskaitė (Lithuania). Scenography by Renata Valčik (Lithuania). Graphic design by Kati Kerstna (Estonia).
Viedokļi