Exhibition of “Urban Sketching” Works by Students of the Pēteris Rozenbergs Cēsis City Art School

The Rainis Quarter is hosting an art exhibition dedicated to Rainis Street, created during the “Urban Sketching” plein air workshop. The workshop took place in early September this year as part of the project “Living on Rainis Street,” and was attended by students and teachers from the Pēteris Rozenbergs Cēsis City Art School. Altogether, the exhibition presents 25 young artists’ views of Rainis Street today, its rhythm, atmosphere, and the presence of people in the street space, observed from various points and angles.

The plein air participants’ special challenge was the assignment of a specific location, meaning that the art school students’ field of work included not the whole city, but only Rainis Street and its immediate surroundings. The participants were divided into three groups, each working in its own section of Rainis Street.

The first group, whose area of activity was comparatively the shortest but the most densely packed with notable objects, in the area around the market, the station square, and the city library, paid special attention to studying the trajectories of people’s movement.

The second group of artists worked in the central part of Rainis Street with the most dynamic and fast-paced character. In the young artists’ sketches, the dominant presence of car infrastructure appears here, along with the city choreography shaped by shopping centers.

The third group of plein air participants, meanwhile, directed their attentive gaze to the section of Rainis Street where picturesque gems and pastoral moods can be found: the oak avenue, views of the old town panorama with the spire of St. John’s Church, popular in early 20th-century postcards, the former mill pond of Dubinska Manor, and the stately, bright yellow villa of Jānis Mednis, the founder of the Cēsis brewery.

Exhibition participants: Paula Čudo, Sindija Girucka, Zane Ruča, Marta Daniela Smirnova, Meivis Supe, Amanda Tīrone, Adelīna Griška, Kate Zaičenkina, Matilde Ārberga, Sofija Elizabete Bugajova, Francis Otto Leonovičs, Santa Bittere, Žizele Franciska Brokane, Emīlija Dārta Caunīte, Nora Golubova, Emīlija Frīda Java, Emīlija Logina, Marta Mežaka, Emīlija Neimane, Ansis Aksels Kosovs, Katrīna Anna Zvirbule, Anna Segliņa, Nora Amēlija Šipkova, Luīze Graudiņa, Samanta Līviņa.

Teachers: Aigars Lenkevičs, Ērika Māldere, Inga Miezīte, Līva Graudiņa, Patricija Brekte-Pannetjē.

Admission to the exhibition is free.

A glimpse of the plein air exhibition opening is available on the Facebook page of the project “Living on Rainis Street”

The exhibition is one of the activities of the project “Living on Rainis Street,” implemented with the support of the Cēsis Municipality Cultural Department.