KRISTAPS GELZIS

Kristaps Ģelzis (b. 1962), like other pioneers of Conceptual art (Ojārs Pētersons, Andris Breže, Oļegs Tillbergs, Juris Putrāms etc.), has actively participated in the formative process of Latvian contemporary art since the mid-1980s. These names are connected with a rapid influx and spread in the Latvian context of such phenomena as installations, objects, video installations, happenings and performances.

Kristaps Ģelzis has been faithful to Conceptual art, with particular regard to the development of new technologies and their possible use for implementation of his ideas. Each work is based on a conceptual approach – be they aesthetically perfect objects made of velvet, fur, metal, etc., provocative and challenging installations or large-size digital prints.
The artist is distinguished by a sensitive skill in dealing with symbolic elements of the local milieu that are excellently interpreted in his works, for example, his solo exhibition “Laika laukums” (“Time Square”) at the Riga Gallery in 2000, made of digital photo prints, searched for opposite and common elements in American and Latvian contexts.

Kristaps Ģelzis was among those artists who presented Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian art of the 2nd half of the 20th century at the exhibitions “Personal Time” in Warsaw and St. Petersburg in 1996. Ģelzis’ socially and politically topical installation “Dismantling of Wall” complemented the exhibition “Riga – Lettische Avantgarde” at Kunsthalle in West Berlin in 1988.
Kristaps Ģelzis’ works were exhibited at the show of the Riga Gallery project “Masks” at the 7th International Contemporary Art Exhibition “Art Moscow 2003”.

Ģelzis’ solo exhibition “Virtuale” at the State Museum of Art in 1996 should be mentioned as an important event in his creative carrier. The artist’s works have been exhibited at international shows: at Contemporary Art Museum in Budapest (1991), at Contemporary Art Museum in Pori (1992), at the exposition of Latvian art during the project “Art Moscow” at the Central Artists’ House in Moscow (2001), at Bremen Municipal Gallery (2002), at Contemporary Art Museum Kiasma in Helsinki (2004).

Kristaps Ģelzis’ works are found in the collections of Contemporary Art Museum Kiasma in Helsinki, Latvian National Museum of Art (previous title - State Museum of Art), Museum of the Artists’ Union of Latvia as well as in private collections.

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