20.12.2021-15.01.2022

Galerija "Māksla XO"

Elizabetes iela 14, Rīga, LV 1010

Janis Sneiders

Drawings

“In my works, which I create with acrylic ink and graphite on primed paper, I try to leave the greatest space for emptiness, that the viewers can fill in themselves. The work acts like a seed and the spectator in this case is the soil - what grows from the seed depends on the spectator. I am interested in surfaces, and what I'm working on right now, are perspective grids - inherently flat and silent, but when you change something about them, they start talking, as if they were a stone thrown into a calm water. I compare my works with visual poems, epiphanies or sentences underlined in a thick book, sentences, that carry the core of the whole book upon themselves – they are a key that allows for the book to be written in the mind itself, personal, different for everyone” - Janis Sneiders.

Janis Sneiders (1995) is able to grasp the dramaturgy of the emptiness of the world in his works, revealing it both as a metaphorical and as a spatial phenomenon. In 2020 Janis Sneiders received Claus Michaletz Prize as the best young Eastern European - Baltic artist, from Secco Pontanova Foundation, thus enabling him to participate with his solo exposition in POSITIONS Berlin 2020 Art Fair. For his solo exhibition “Vieta” he was nominated for the most prestigious Latvian prize in fine arts – Purvitis Prize 2021. In 2019 he received best Young Painter Award from Nordic and Baltic Young Artist Award, connecting Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Finnish art academies.
Janis Sneiders graduated with a BA degree from the Painting department of the Art Academy of Latvia (2015-2019) and is currently studying in MA program of Visual Communication department of the Art Academy of Latvia (2019-present). Since 2014 he has participated in group exhibitions in Latvia and abroad, as well as held 7 solo exhibitions in Latvia, Germany and Sweden.