Tribute exhibition “Venice” of the artist Edmunds Lūcis (1959-2017)

The exhibition “442 hours” of the sculptor Anda Poikāne, and the tribute exhibition to the painter Edmunds Lūcis called “Venice”, is a rendezvous of two artists, demonstrating a variety of art genres and media works that will cover the exhibition halls of the Roman Gardens Gallery and the patio of the Art Hotel Roma.

“You have to spend 442 hours to walk to Rome from Liepāja. If you would walk for five hours a day, you would reach Rome in three months. If there were just as many hours of thinking about Rome, what fictional place that would be? The names of places projected to another geography, form a new imaginative space. In this case, the “Roman Gardens”, the artist Anda Poikāne tells us about the concept of the exhibition and the idea of the exhibition title.

The exhibitions create an integrity of shapes of the creative performances of the two artists — terra-cotta sculptures, paintings, video works and drawings, creating a certain composition according to the chosen focus.

On the patio outside the “Roman Gardens” Gallery, Anda Poikāne chose to display her “Surface Garden” with fragments of the illusional garden and terra-cotta sculptures in an area around the fountain. The gallery’s exhibition halls, meanwhile, will shelter her “Parallel Gardens” with video projections co-authored by video artist Raitis Vulfs, terra-cotta sculptures, drawings and compositions of mixed-material sculptural objects.

Anda Poikāne has decided to metamorphose a 442-hour journey to an imaginary Rome, in which the late painter Edmunds Lūcis, departed in 2017, becomes her companion. Part of the exhibition “Venice” is a retrospective insight into the painter’s art and, at the same time, a point of creative contact between the two artists.

The Edmunds Lūcis tribute exhibition “Venice” unveils his paintings from the gallery and other private collections, related to Venice. The exhibition will be supplemented with Edmunds Lūcis movie “GOD,” presented at the 55th Venetian Art Biennale exhibition “Personal Structures.”

The first joint exhibition of both artists called “Heartily Inhale”, took place in Liepāja back in 2004 and resulted in mutual cooperation until the death of Edmunds Lūcis. Recalling the artist’s 60-year anniversary in 2019, the “Venice” tribute exhibition for his memory was installed in the Gallery “Roman Gardens”.

Edmunds Lūcis (1959-2017) was born in Rīga. After studying at the Latvian Academy of Arts, he focused on painting, later turning to installations, performances and video art. Participated in several exhibitions in Paris, Munich, Lucerne and Moscow. His works were selected for the St. Petersburg Graphic Art Triennale, the Venetian Art Biennale, the Bilbao Video Arts Festival and the Beijing “Olympic Art” Biennale.

The paintings in the collection of the “Roman Gardens” Gallery depict the artistic period in Edmunds Lūcis life, when he was working in two-dimensional media, used the most extensive colour palette to describe the Venetian light. The artworks presented at the exhibition deliver both “classical painting” and his recent focus on materials found in the urban environment – film, plastic materials, alloys, etc. The exhibition’s main artwork pays attention to transforming a two-dimensional media into a three-dimensional quality, where the technique used is not only a display tool but also a tool for analysis and processing.

Venice was Edmunds Lūcis’s shelter to feel like home. It was his asylum, oasis and happiness. He had an opportunity there to exhibit his art in the Tintoretto workshop and enable the cooperation with the Venetian Academy of Arts.

Anda Pokāne is a Dunalka native (1972). Studied in the Liepāja 1st Gymnasium and Liepāja Applied Arts High School, she graduated from the Department of Arts at the Latvian Academy of Arts in 2001. Participated in various joint exhibitions in Latvia and abroad – Vilnius, Munich, Berlin, Venice, etc. Her most notable events are the personal exhibition “Litānija” at the Cēsis Exhibition House and the “Paēna” /Shadow/ exhibition in the Gallery “Grata” in Rīga in 2018, as well as arts and music project “Laukā” /Outside/ in Dunalka every summer.

The creative handwriting of Anda Poikāne is recognizable with unique terra-cotta sculptures and masterful small-plastic shapes. Her exhibitions often feature large-format drawings, various material-shaped objects, video works. She also works on audio and video projects together with her associates. Without restricting herself to the limits of a certain genre, the artist creates visual stories.

Author of the exhibition concept is artist Margarita Budze, curator – Evelīna Vanaga, author of video works – Raitis Vulfs.

The exhibition is open under the patronage of Liepāja Department of Culture.