Spectrum: Beautiful Nature

The Museum of Decorative Arts and Design (10 Skārņu Street, Riga), in collaboration with the Latvian Jewellery Art Association, continues its pop-up exhibition series “Spectrum”, introducing audiences to current developments in Latvian contemporary jewellery art. The second exhibition, “Beautiful Nature”, is on view from 10 June to 27 September 2026 (extended exhibition dates).

Following the exhibition “Handwriting”, which brought together the individual artistic languages of the participating artists, the next exhibition in the series, “Beautiful Nature”, explores nature as a source of inspiration, material, memory, and process. It highlights one of the essential qualities of contemporary jewellery art – its ability to address significant global issues through objects of intimate scale.

Over time, terms accumulate meanings, and when they can no longer accurately describe what is happening, a new language becomes necessary. When discussing contemporary jewellery art in Latvia, the phrase “inspired by nature” is no longer sufficient – it has become too general. I am interested in contemporary jewellery as a sensitive sensor: between humans and their environment, between touch and memory,

explains Ginta Grūbe, curator of the pop-up exhibition series.

The exhibition is conceived as a living archive or laboratory, bringing together industrial metal structures, herbarium aesthetics, glass vessels, light spectra, and an environment of artificial cultivation. Jewellery pieces and objects are displayed as discoveries, specimens, or hybrids between the organic and synthetic worlds. The overall atmosphere is shaped by the violet glow of grow lights, creating the impression that nature no longer exists solely outside – it is cultivated, preserved, reconstructed, and sometimes imitated.

Jewellery artist Anna Fanigina has repeatedly emphasised in interviews that people seek more than form in jewellery: “When we buy a piece of jewellery, we are most often buying inspiration and the story associated with it.” This idea permeates the atmosphere of the exhibition, where each work becomes a personal and poetic attempt to capture the relationship between humans and the living world.

In the exhibited works, nature reveals itself across different scales – from microscopic structures to bodily experience. The artists explore seed forms, leaf veins, mineral surfaces, biological processes, and human relationships with the environment, while also reflecting on contemporary ecological anxiety, sustainability, and the commercialisation of natural aesthetics. Here, jewellery becomes a collection of personal artefacts that preserve memories of encounters 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.