Ritums Ivanovs Solo Exhibition "Screen"

From 18 July to 30 August, the solo exhibition "Screen" by Ritums Ivanovs will be on view at the "Draugu nams" gallery in Cēsis. The exhibition will mark the official opening of the "Draugu nams" gallery in Konrāds Quarter. The opening will took place on 18 July and is an event of the Cēsis Art Festival 2026 satellite programme.

In today's digital environment, the human image increasingly reaches us through screens. Faces, close-ups and incidental images have become part of everyday visual experience. Amid this abundance of imagery, Ritums Ivanovs returns to painting as a medium that transforms the screen image into a different time and presence.

"As someone from Cēsis, this is a momentous occasion for me. Thanks to the support and collaboration of Draugiem Group, the idea of creating in Cēsis continues. This will be a fantastic place to encounter art, friends and like-minded people," says artist Ritums Ivanovs.

The exhibition "Screen" features works that originate from video stills, cinematic close-ups, found images and reproductions. In the artist's paintings, the human face gradually emerges from structures of colour, line and light. The exhibition presents large-format paintings, most of which were created specifically for this project.

In Ivanovs' work, a portrait is not merely a likeness of a specific person, but the result of sustained observation. The longer a viewer spends with a painting, the less important the question of who is depicted becomes, and the more significant becomes what the figure awakens within the viewer themselves. The title of the exhibition also references the cinematic experience. In Ivanovs' paintings, the screen image becomes a portrait, and the portrait becomes a place where the viewer encounters not only another person, but also their own gaze.

The venue holds particular significance for the exhibition. In Cēsis' first cinema — where moving pictures were once shown for the very first time — Ivanovs' works invite reflection on how the human image and our experience of looking are transformed in the digital age.

Ritums Ivanovs is one of the most recognised authors of contemporary Latvian painting, in whose creative work the theme of portraiture holds a central place. Born in 1968 in Cēsis, he studied at the Janis Rozentāls Art School, graduated from the Monumental Painting Studio of the Art Academy of Latvia, and pursued studies at Humboldt University in the United States. The artist has held more than 35 solo exhibitions in Latvia and abroad, regularly participates in international art fairs, and his works are held in public and private collections in Latvia and internationally. The theme of portraiture has been central to several of Ivanovs' major solo exhibitions. He has also painted the official state-commissioned portraits of Presidents Valdis Zatlers and Andris Bērziņš.