The Purvītis Prize Exhibition
The Arsenāls Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art (Riga, Latvia)
February 6 – March 29, 2009
1 Torna Street
Riga LV-1050, Latvia
For further information
pr.service [at] lnmm.lv
11 February 2009 will see the first Vilhelms Purvītis (1872–1945) Prize for outstanding achievements in visual arts awarded in Latvia. The Purvītis Prize was founded with the objective of gathering regular and systematic information about the latest visual arts events in Latvia, acknowledging the best achievements in Latvian professional visual arts, promoting the intensity of the art process in Latvia and development of new projects and original ideas, as well as popularising the success of Latvian artists both in Latvia and abroad.
The prize will henceforth be awarded every two years to an artist or a group of artists representing Latvia with an outstanding work. The author rated highest by a panel of experts and a special international jury will be selected as the winner; the prize money will amount to LVL 20 000 (approximately EUR 28 450).
It is no coincidence that the prize is named after the great Latvian landscape painter, Fellow of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, the founder and first rector of the Latvian Academy of Art.
The Purvītis Prize contest in visual arts is held by the Latvian National Museum of Art in association with the SIA Alfor company, the patron of the museum.
“This is an event of the utmost national and cultural-political significance, despite the fact that the prize is financed wholly by private entrepreneurs. The founding of the prize could be said to signify a steady launch of significant private and public partnership,” stresses the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Latvia Helēna Demakova.
The independent panel of experts, having evaluated the latest events in visual arts over the course of years 2007 and 2008, has shortlisted eight nominees to the prize (of the original 25 candidates):
• GINTS GABRĀNS for the Paramirrors exhibition representing Latvia at the 52 Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art;
• HELĒNA HEINRIHSONE for the Hi Mole! exhibition at the White Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art;
• IEVA ILTNERE for the Eight Rooms exhibition at Rīgas Galerija;
• KATRĪNA NEIBURGA for works Topology 29 (at the Urbano-Logic exhibition in Andrejsala) and Solitude (exhibited at the 2 Moscow Biennial, property of the Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Finland).
• ANDRIS EGLĪTIS for the Under the Firmament solo exhibition;
• ĒRIKS BOŽIS for the Sheltering Sky installation at the Instruction solo exhibition;
• SARMĪTE MĀLIŅA and KRISTAPS KALNS for the Love Never Ends object at the Beauty exhibition of contemporary art at the 2008 Cēsis Arts Festival;
• MIKS MITRĒVICS for the Collection of Persons, a work exhibited (with various modifications) at the Flensburg Museum of Art, the Moscow Centre for Contemporary Art and the Manifesta Biennial and for the Companion installation, part of the Is the Medium the Message? exhibition.
The winner of the First Purvītis Prize will be announced on 8 February by an international jury after evaluating the work of said eight nominees at a joint show hosted by one of the most prestigious exhibition venues in the country, the Arsenāls Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art (Riga, Latvia), on view from 6 February to 29 March 2009.
There are nine members in the jury. Mr. Bazhanov, art critic and curator from Russia and Mr. Obrist, the Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes at the Serpentine Gallery, are among them.
