KLAVS LORIS

Sabotage

“The main theme of the exhibition “Sabotage” is based on a personal reflection of one’s role in the society as well as the society around us. Regular self-destruction and constant growth at the same time. Various internal states in the paintings are solved with the help of metaphors and philosophical concepts, which are mainly borrowed from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, his idea of ​​the “Übermensch”, as well as from a topic widely studied in psychiatry and very familiar to a modern human – cyclical self-sabotage and reinvention. We idealize our lives and polish our alter ego through the eyes of the audience, but in the real world we are stuck between a primate and the idea of​ “Übermensch”.
At the center of exhibited works is the painting “Potemkin’s Curtain”, where with metaphorical means I’ve illustrated my vision of the illusory order of today’s world – social media, influencers, political events, etc. I am referring to the folklorized notion of “Potemkin village”, which refers to any empty, false, physical or figurative structure, designed to conceal an undesirable or potentially devastating situation” - Klavs Loris.

Klavs Loris’ artistic style can be observed in his large-scale works, where the painter continuously experiments with techniques, combining classical oil painting with more modern mediums and materials. During these experimentations, Klavs Loris has developed his own author-technique, which combines photography, digital print and classical painting.
Klavs Loris graduated from the Painting Department at the Art Academy of Latvia (2014). Since 2007, he has organized 8 solo shows and participated in more than 20 group exhibitions in Latvia and abroad, most noteworthy of which are (un)determined - 17th International Vilnius Painting Triennial (2021, Applied Arts and Design Museum of the Lithuanian Art Museum, Vilnius, Lithuania),  and Tension. The Young in Latvian Painting (2016, Latvian National Museum of Art, Exhibition Hall Arsenals, Riga, Latvia). In 2015 he received Grand Prix prize at the international biennale of contemporary art Jeune Creation Europeenne - Biennale d'art contemporain (Paris, France).