Works from the collection by artists from
England, Australia, Austria, Argentina, France, Canada, Scotland, Germany, and Venezuela
29.01.2026–31.05.2026
RIPA Gallery
The permanent collection of the Global Center for Latvian Art (PLMC) was built through donations from around the world, both from collectors and artists. The organization’s curatorial approach balances solo exhibitions with exhibitions that feature recent acquisitions to the collection, often selected to represent a region or built around a theme.
The United States has always played a major role in the organization. PLMC’s predecessor, the Global Society for Latvian Art, was incorporated in the US and the PLMC collection was seeded by artworks donated by members of the American Latvian Artists Association (ALMA). Although the United Kingdom now has the largest Latvian community in absolute numbers, the United States remains the most historically influential diaspora—especially in culture, politics, and institutions—and is still home to over 80,000 people who claim Latvian descent.
The arrival of Latvians in the United States after World War II coincided with New York’s ascension to “art capital of the world,” where artists such as Avens, Milts, and Strautmanis bore witness to this exciting period. Although some Latvian American artists painted nostalgic scenes of their lost homeland, many adopted the avant-garde of their time, as seen in the abstractions of Šteiners and Sīmanis. Karpovs’s prints respond to American social injustices, while Mintiks’s works reflect psychedelia and the American land art movement.
This exhibition is a thought experiment that imagines the PLMC permanent collection without the contributions of Latvian American artists—without the influence of the United States. As a result, the exhibition features markedly less Abstract Expressionism and places greater emphasis on landscapes, geometric abstraction, and their combination, particularly
in the works that Latvian-Australian Haralds Norītis created in Canada, as well as in Latvian-Canadian Visvaldis Reinhold’s metal constructions. The exhibition includes works from England, Australia, Austria, Argentina, France, Canada, Scotland, Germany and Venezuela.
