Following first pop-up exhibition Artist’s signature, which highlighted the individual creative languages of the participating artists, the next exhibition in the cycle turns to nature as a source of inspiration, material, memory, and process. It reflects one of the most significant directions in contemporary jewelry art – the ability to address global and pressing issues through objects of intimate scale.
“Terms gradually accumulate meanings, and when they no longer accurately describe what is happening, a new language becomes necessary. When speaking about contemporary jewelry art in Latvia, the phrase ‘inspired by nature’ is no longer sufficient – it has become too general. I am interested in contemporary jewelry as a sensitive sensor: between people and the environment, between touch and memory,” explains curator of the pop-up series, Ginta Grūbe.
The exhibition is conceived as a living archive or laboratory, set among industrial metal structures, herbarium aesthetics, glass vessels, light spectra, and artificial cultivation environments. Jewelry pieces and objects are presented as findings, specimens, or hybrids between the organic and the synthetic. The overall atmosphere is defined by the violet glow of plant-growing lamps, creating the impression that nature no longer exists solely outside us – it is cultivated, preserved, reconstructed, and at times imitated.
Jewelry artist Anna Fanigina has repeatedly emphasized in interviews that people seek more than simply a form in jewelry: “When buying a piece of jewelry, we are most often buying inspiration and the story connected to it.” This idea permeates the exhibition, where each work becomes a personal and poetic attempt to capture humanity’s relationship with the living world.
The exhibited works reveal nature on multiple scales – from microscopic structures to embodied experiences. Artists explore the forms of seeds, leaf veins, mineral surfaces, biological processes, and human interactions with the environment, while also reflecting on contemporary ecological anxiety, sustainability, and the commercialization of nature’s aesthetics. Here, jewelry transforms into personal artifacts that preserve memories of contact with nature at a time when it is increasingly experienced through technological filters.
Participating Artists
Valdis Brože, Anna Fanigina, Guntis Lauders, Mārīte Rudzāte, Laura Selecka, Gints Strēlis, Daria Svirel, Māris Šustiņš, Zane Vilka, and Maija Vītola-Zitmane.
About the “Spectrum” Pop-Up Exhibition Series
The Spectrum programme presents Latvian jewelry art as a dynamic, multilayered, and contemporary form of creative expression that resonates with current cultural and design processes. Over the course of the year, the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design will host four pop-up exhibitions – Handwriting, Beautiful Nature, Architecture of Lines, and Noise – integrated into the museum’s permanent exhibition Design Process on the third floor.
The series offers insight into the work of Māris Auniņš, Ildze Bogana, Jānis Brants, Valdis Brože, Vladislavs Čistjakovs, Anna Fanigina, Ginta Grūbe, Aleksandra Federika Krastiņa, Andris Lauders, Guntis Lauders, Una Mikuda, Rasma Pušpure, Mārīte Rudzāte, Anita Savicka, Laura Selecka, Gints Strēlis, Jelizaveta Suska, Daria Svirel, Māris Šustiņš, Paula Treimane, Jānis Vilks, Zane Vilka, and Maija Vītola-Zitmane, highlighting each artist’s individual style, materials, and authorial techniques.
The creative team behind the Spectrum pop-up exhibition series includes the Latvian Jewelry Art Association, Zane Vilka, Jānis Brants, Ginta Grūbe, and first-year Master’s students of the Metal Design programme at the Art Academy of Latvia. The visual identity of the project was created by artist Eltons Kūns.
About the Latvian Jewelry Art Association
The Latvian Jewelry Art Association has been active since 2018. Its mission includes organizing joint exhibitions, collecting and preserving information related to jewelry art, and promoting contemporary jewelry both locally and internationally. The association’s activities are supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia.
