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Growing Out? Growing Up? Contemporary Art Collecting in the Baltics

Arterritory.com

03.06.2022

04.06.–20.11.2022. / Zuzeum Art Centre, Riga

The exhibition “Growing Out? Growing Up? Contemporary Art Collecting in the Baltics” at Zuzeum Art Centre in Riga introduces vibrant contemporary art collections in the Baltics while emphasising the social aspects of private collecting.

Participating collections include Lewben Art Foundation, MO Museum Collection, Vitols Contemporary Art Collection, Zuzāns Collection, VV Foundation, Collection Kruus, as well as art collected by Boris Symulevič, Riivo Anton, Edgar Aronov and Maria Avdjushko.

What often started as passion projects in the 1990s has now grown into an alternative infrastructure with thousands of masterpieces of Baltic art being stored, catalogued, restored, researched and loaned to local and international museums and galleries. Many private collections have grown into foundations, museums, art centres and places of learning.

The exhibition features more than 70 artists representing different practices of contemporary art in different parts of the world.

The artworks and collections in the exhibition have been selected by Olga Temnikova, a gallerist and art advisor from Tallinn: “With this show, I took a simple route to point out collections and collectors, selected not by scale but their drive and potential. I want the most exciting people to get together.
We present mainly recent acquisitions as signifiers of the state of affairs of the collecting process.”

The project was initiated and developed by Ieva Zībārte, architect, writer and curator, and Head of Exhibitions at Zuzeum Art Centre, in collaboration with Karin Laansoo, Artistic Director at Kai, Ugnė Bužinskaitė, Art Curator and Director of Lewben Art Foundation, and Giedrė Marčiulaitė, Art Curator and Executive Director of the The Lithuanian Expatriate Art Foundation. The exhibition in Riga is organised and funded by Zuzeum Art Centre and will be followed by independently curated exhibitions in Vilnius and Tallinn, organised by main project partners Lewben Art Foundation and Kai Art Center.

The exhibition “Growing Out? Growing Up? Contemporary Art Collecting in the Baltics” at Zuzeum Art Centre in Riga will be on view from June 4 untill November 20.

Photo: Kristīne Madjare

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