Anita Paegle Illustration Exhibition "The Subtle Worlds"

From 18 June to 5 December 2026, the 6th floor of the National Library of Latvia (LNB) is hosting illustrator Anita Paegle’s exhibition “The Subtle Worlds,” conceived as a retrospective look at the artist’s body of work as a whole. It presents a special inner life of distinct characters - from the wonder of childhood to an intellectual structure, from the lightness of watercolor to conceptual precision.

Anita Paegle is a beloved Latvian children’s book illustrator. The artist’s distinctive style is recognizable, original, and fascinating. It is marked by a particular realism, where the uniqueness of each form is combined in an unusual composition of scales and viewpoints, in which characters and architectural elements come alive like in a fairy tale.

The exhibition features original illustrations for Māra Cielēna’s books “The Smile of the Sphinx Alberta” (2023), “Meow and Purr” (2005), “City Tales and World Tales” (2001), “When the Queen Was in Riga” (2001), and “The Night Wandering of Clocks” (1997), for Juris Zvirgzdiņš’s book “Winter Tale” (2014), for Inese Zandere’s book “The Cat on the Piano” (2021), as well as sketches of Old Riga houses created for the videoinstallation “Sprīdītis” for the STARO RĪGA light festival (2018) and the artist’s childhood notebook.

The book “The Smile of the Sphinx Alberta” by artist Anita Paegle and writer Māra Cielēna inspired director Dace Rīdūze to create a puppet animation film about the residents of Alberta Street in Riga - birds, animals, and the stone figures on the facades of Art Nouveau buildings, who come to life and set off on a journey to Egypt to return a smile to the stone sphinx Alberta. The exhibition offers a chance to view the model of Alberta Street, which forms the scenography for the animated film “The Smile of the Sphinx Alberta” (2026).

National Library of Latvia opening hours until 30 June:

Monday-Friday

• 10.00-20.00 (1st-3rd floor)
• 11.00-19.00 (4th-7th floor)

Saturday (the whole building except the Rare Books and Manuscripts, Small Prints, and Map Reading Rooms)

• 11.00-18.00

Sunday

Closed

National Library of Latvia opening hours from 1 July:

Monday-Tuesday (LNB open for visits. Reading Rooms and Customer Service Center closed.)

• 10.00-15.00

Wednesday-Friday

• 11.00-17.00

Saturday (the whole building except the Rare Books and Manuscripts, Small Prints, and Map Reading Rooms)

• 10.00-15.00

Sunday

Closed