Artist
Reinis Hofmanis
Reinis Hofmanis (b. 1985) is a Riga-based artist and photographer. He studied photography at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover, Germany, and obtained an MA from the Visual Communication Department of the Art Academy of Latvia. His works are characterised by a socio-anthropological point of view – which manifests in an interest in typifying different groups of society, their behavioural pattern, and tier effect on the surrounding environment. Hofmanis won the main prize at Archifoto in 2012 and 2013, and was awarded 2nd place in the Architecture category of the Sony World Photography Awards. His works have been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Financial Times, Der Spiegel, Esquire, Bloomberg, Le Monde, The Globe and Mail, and The British Journal of Photography
Room No.13
Before, it was the landscape in which human influence and inflicted wrongs could be felt. In recent years, it is the interior – a space created and affected by man. When functional and aesthetic thinking meet, the space evolves over time and becomes adapted to new functions and new living standards. Layers of wires, pipes, insulation and ceiling fixtures are squeezed into spaces where they have never existed before. The architecture of the space and the placement of a utility infrastructure may even seem absurd, but there is an internal logic and a unique aesthetic to it.
Cloe Jancis is Tallin-based artist who works primarily with photography, video and installation. Using her own body within staged photographs, Jancis reenacts a range of daily roles of women, highlighting their physical and mental manifestations. With an often playful approach, she questions the line between the autobiographical and fictional.
Informed by her own personal experience of displacement and migration upon returning to Lithuania after 17 years living abroad, Ieva Baltaduonyte's work engages with issues relating to migratory culture and its potential traumas. By using photography for both personal expression and to foster a critical dialogue with contemporary society, Ieva is preoccupied with encouraging a deeper engagement with cross-cultural dialogue.
Most often recognised as a masterful portrait photographer, Reinis Hofmanis’s series Room No. 13 reveals a portrait of humanity through images of empty public building interiors instead. In his images, the utility infrastructure has become a unique metaphor for the relationship between humans and their surroundings, revealing something of our desire to adapt, improve and, ultimately, give meaning to space.
Zane Priede examines the relationship between humans and nature through masterfully crafted still life photography. By utilising everyday objects, she creates imaginary and surreal images which reveal her deep fascination with architecture, design and biology. Her recent work Continuous Gardens explores a fictional potential future for plant life, and raises questions about how human intervention may impact its evolution.
Jurģis Peters is interested in visual explorations of the impact and consequences of various phenomena caused by advances in technology, with a particular focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) both as a medium and a conceptual basis. Believing that the future is of AI and human co-creation, Peters uses these new technological possibilities as tools for visual storytelling and speculation regarding future scenarios.