EXHIBITION | ART IN ITS BEST YEARS

This year, three art studios of VEF Culture Palace - “Varavīksne”, “Doma” and “Saule” - are celebrating their 65th anniversaries. From October 13 to November 29, we invite you to discover the creative achievements of their members in the anniversary exhibition “Art in Its Best Years”.

The exhibition, spread across various spaces of VEF Culture Palace, reveals the artists’ individual styles, experience, and creative explorations, where tradition blends with a contemporary outlook.

Folk Fine Arts Studio “Varavīksne”

“Varavīksne” celebrates 65 years in art in a colorful and diverse way - the anniversary exhibition features works by the studio’s members, revealing a range of artistic styles, experience, and perspectives. “Varavīksne” was founded in 1961. Today the studio is a lively, open, and creative environment where people of different generations meet through a shared interest in art. The studio’s members learn drawing and painting, improve their professional skills, experiment with different techniques, and search for their own individual artistic style. Since 2021, the studio has been led by artist Baiba Ābelīte. She brings a contemporary perspective to the studio, paying special attention to each member’s personality, creative growth, and individual expression, encouraging studio members not only to master the basics of art, but also to dare to seek new solutions, develop their own vision, and create an independent artistic language. The anniversary exhibition is a tribute to all the members and teachers of “Varavīksne” who have shaped the studio’s history over the years. It is also an opportunity to see how traditions continue today and how each artist brings their own experience, feelings, and perspective to them.

Folk Sculpture Studio “Doma”

The studio’s anniversary exhibition reveals the creative journey of its members over many years, bringing together works created in different periods and in a variety of techniques and materials. The display in the exhibition hall - from classical figurative sculpture to freer interpretations of form - shows the studio members’ diverse views of people, nature, and the world around them. Since 2025, the studio has been led by sculptor Svetlana Savelyeva. Under her guidance, special attention has been given to each participant’s individual growth and the development of their personal creative potential. The various materials, forms, and styles create a kind of creative history of the studio, where alongside the refinement of professional skills, the desire to create, experiment, and continue the tradition of sculpture is significant. The exhibition becomes a meeting between different generations and time periods, showing that the language of sculpture changes, but the creative impulse remains.

Folk Applied Arts Studio “Saule”

“Saule” celebrates its 65th anniversary with an exhibition on view at the Balcony of VEF Culture Palace. It introduces the works of the studio’s members, in which Latvian pottery traditions intertwine with contemporary explorations of form, color, and texture. The artworks reveal both the natural beauty and restraint of clay and the richness of color, expressive textures, and decorative motifs. Each object preserves the touch of the author’s hand and the transformations created by fire. The ceramics studio “Saule” was led by Leons Alksnis until 1994, and since 1994 the studio has been headed by Juris Tumulkāns. Over sixty-five years of activity, several generations of ceramists have changed and contributed their work to the studio, preserving and developing Latvian pottery traditions. The legacy of these traditions is the foundation of the creative work of “Saule” members - each one enriches it with their own experience, feeling, and individual style. New ideas and opportunities for new explorations continue to emerge in the studio. The name “Saule” has always been associated for the studio’s members with the desire to create works permeated with light and love. The anniversary exhibition offers a chance to get to know today’s “Saule” - its artists and their achievements, in which inherited skills also gain a personal and contemporary expression.

P.S. The exhibition can be viewed FREE OF CHARGE every day from 09:00 to 20:00 at VEF Culture Palace.

We invite you to visit the anniversary exhibitions and discover the creative legacy of the three studios, which continues to grow and develop today!