Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2025 program announced
From 24 April to 6 July, the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2025 program will offer a wide-ranging program of exhibitions and education events, giving the floor to emerging artists and curators from the Baltic and other countries who have addressed aspects of the theme ‘invisible but present’.
The Riga Photography Biennial (RPB) was founded in 2015 and the NEXT 2025 program will take place on its 10th anniversary. The Biennial’s Off-year program name ‘Next’ embodies the idea of movement. ‘Next’ is a transition – never safe, predictable or known in advance, it has a direct and irrevocable presence that constantly poses the question: Is whatever comes next linked to what was before? NEXT Program provides a platform for emerging artists and curators who offer an original, contemporary vision and whose work encourages an exploration of the power of the image.
Arta Kauliņa, from the photography series ‘Aquarium’, 2017
The central events of NEXT—2025 are two Awards – ‘Seeking the latest in photography!’ and ‘Emerging Curator!’ – laureates’ exhibitions. To highlight the role of the curator as a creative personality and mediator between artists, works of art, viewers and society within contemporary cultural processes, RPB – NEXT in collaboration with the Curatorial Studies of the Art Academy of Latvia launched the Award ‘Emerging Curator!’ in 2021. For the first time in 2025, young curators from all Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – were invited to apply for the award, not only local ones. This year's prize went to the young curator Roberta Atraste (LV), whose exhibition ‘The Bureaucrat Who Secretly Reads Poems’ will be on view at the Art Academy of Latvia's experimental exhibition hall ‘Pilot’ from 25 April to 6 June. Roberta turns to the bureaucratic and administrative processes involved in art and its aesthetics in a contemporary context. Participants: John Huntington (SE), Arta Kauliņa (LV), Sara Krøgholt Trier (DK), Katariin Mudist (EE), Evija Pintāne (LV).
Ruudu Ulas, ‘Difficult Objects’, 2021–2025
The Award ‘Seeking the Latest in Photography!’ was first held in 2016 and since 2019 has been organised in cooperation with ISSP Gallery to encourage young artists from the Baltic States to reveal a conceptually deep, original view of their times in visually powerful works. ‘Seeking the Latest in Photography!’ winners Ruudu Ula's (EE) solo exhibition ‘Difficult Objects’ will be on view at the ISSP Gallery from 26 April to 30 May. The jury member Kulla Laas (EE) said: ‘Ruudu Ulas is very skilful in creating powerful photographic imagery with minimal elements and pure forms of display. Depicted scenes are frozen and isolated moments in time that have a quiet oddness to them and always leave something unseen. Her work has a strong cinematic quality, and each separate image raises an aspect of expectancy for the viewer.’
Triin Kerge, from the series ‘Scenes From a Lost Family Album’, 2022–2024
25 April at the opening night of the exhibition at ISSP Gallery the other finalists of the 2025 competition Klaus Leo Richter (LT), Riin Maide (EE), Keiu Maasik (EE), Gedvile Tamosiunaite (LT) and Paula Punkstiņa (LV) also will present their work. ‘Seeking the Latest in Photography!’ also has long-standing partners who present their special prizes. On 28 May, the ISSP Gallery will host the presentation of the prize of the Lithuanian book publisher ‘NoRoutine Books’ – Triin Kerge’s book ‘Scenes from a Lost Family Album’. The winner of the ‘VV Foundation’ Award, Karlotta Lainväe (EE), received a 1000-euro monetary prize and an opportunity to spend a month working at their residency ‘PAiR’ in Pāvilosta, Latvia.
Lesia Vasylchenko, form the project ‘Chronosphere’, 2024
Several other exhibitions will also be launched as part of NEXT – 2025. From 9 May to 6 July, the Intro Hall of the Riga Contemporary Art Space will host the solo exhibition ‘Chronosphere’ by Lesia Vasylchenko, an artist of Ukrainian origin currently based in Norway. The exhibition uncovers how war disrupts, ruptures, intersects with and reshapes the temporal fabric of human and more-than-human existence, embedding itself in personal and collective time. Curators: Inga Brūvere (LV), Marie Sjøvold (NO).
Luīze Nežberte, ‘All those who Suffer are Waiting to Play’, digital collage, 2024
From 16 May to 29 June, the group exhibition ‘Neurons Desperately Seek Each Other’ will be on view at the Smilga Culture Space, addressing the questions of where invisible yet present, accompanying, consequential thoughts arise and how are the threads that permeate the mind formed? Participants: Agate Tūna (LV), Luīze Nežberte (LV), Heikki Leis (EE), Kristaps Freimanis (LV). Curator and scenographer: Laima Daberte (LV). But from 31 May to 1 August, Vika Eksta’s solo exhibition ‘Funeral in Sloboda’ at Gallery ‘Alma’ will focus on the photographer's mission to document as objectively as possible life as it is through an anthropological view of funeral rituals. Curator: Astrīda Riņķe (LV).
Sheung Yiu, from the series ‘(Inter)Faces of Predictions, or How To Read a Face’, 2023– ongoing
This year, the Riga Photography Biennial will also enter the urban environment. From 9 to 22 June, artist Sheung Yiu (HK/FI) will encourage people to think about human nature and destiny through their facial features with his outdoor project ‘(Inter)Faces of Predictions, or How to Read a Face’. In his visual study, Sheung Yiu uses his own face, employing new technologies to subject it to a variety of processes testing past traditions developed by the societies of the East and West. Curators: Inga Brūvere (LV), Marie Sjøvold (NO).
Pēteris Vīksna, from the series ‘This Feels Familiar’, photograph, 2021–2025
The final exhibition of RPB – NEXT 2025 – Pēteris Vīksna’s solo exhibition ‘This Feels Familiar’ at Gallery ‘Asni’– will be on view from 20 June to 2 August. The exhibition is a story about urban space and its visual language. Over more than five years, the artist has built up an impressive photo archive, in which he studies the contrasting moods of Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Berlin, Paris, London, Tokyo, Amsterdam and other cities. In Pēteris’s photographs, the urban environment serves as matter – basis for anthropological study. Curator: Auguste Petre (LV).
An educational programme will also take place in NEXT 2025, with lectures, discussions and workshops further exploring the themes of the exhibitions and the role of the image in today's world. A special edition of the programme will also be available at the RPB – NEXT 2025 exhibition and event venues, further expanding on the themes explored at the events.
Title image: Katariin Mudist, ‘Slugs Like Us’, installation, 2024
