Exhibition “Sentimental Values. Brants and Vorkale”

From October 16 to December 6, 2026, the Art Nouveau Museum in Riga will host the exhibition “Sentimental Values. Brants and Vorkale.” It brings together porcelain and fine art works by two artists, Inese Brants and Irīna Vorkale, inspired by the heritage of Art Nouveau and family values.

“Touching a time that once belonged to someone else,” says ceramic artist Inese Brants about the exhibition works, and continues: “I had already tested the motif of embroidery, interpreted as porcelain painting, in terms of technical execution in my previous exhibition at the Riga Art Nouveau Center museum in 2019. Once again, the main theme of my sentimental resignation is connected with transferring embroidery onto the fragile material of porcelain.” Blue and red embroidery motifs are depicted in expressive coffee and tea sets, plates, and jugs, with pigments of the appropriate colors fused into the porcelain glaze to create outstanding works of art.

Meanwhile, painter Irīna Vorkale, whose works will adorn the museum spaces, reflects in her paintings the world of women, fashion, as well as the traditions of sewing and handicrafts. Her source of inspiration is the family’s black-lacquered “Singer” sewing machine decorated with a gold inscription, an artistic inheritance from her grandmother Elza Kundziņa, who was a renowned seamstress. “Art is worth nothing if it is not private, intimate, and subjective,” believes Irīna Vorkale. As if opening the lid of her own dowry chest, she creates the atmosphere of an early 20th-century seamstress’s workshop in her fine art works. Both artists are united by an Art Nouveau-like interest in ornament, the beauty of materials, fashion, and the world of handicrafts, allowing two different artistic languages to meet in this exhibition in a single touching story about woman, beauty, and the imprint of time.

The exhibition at the Riga Art Nouveau Center museum is on view until December 6, 2026. The museum is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., except Mondays.