PARTICIPANTS

Aleksejs Beļeckis (LV) is a spatial artist who mostly creates exhibitions of different forms as well as other events. Aleksejs is the author of the art and science exhibition Fieldworks and co-author of Andris Eglītis’s Exhibition at the Latvian National Museum of Art. He is one of the organisers of the art space Savvaļa.

Vika Eksta (LV) is a visual artist and pedagogue from Latvia. Vika's works mostly concentrate on personal experience and existential subjects, such as aging, relationships, gender and social roles as well as life in the Latvian countryside. Vika works in photography (including analogue), video, performance for camera and audio-visual archive research. Vika is the recipient of ADC Young Guns, FK Portfolio and the Prize for Young Baltic Photographers at the first Riga Photography Biennial and was nominated for the Purvītis Prize. Since 2014, she has taken part in exhibitions in Latvia and abroad, and worked in pedagogy of photography. Her works are in the collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art, Latvian Museum of Photography, VV Foundation, SEB banka as well as private collections in Europe and the USA.

Iveta Gabaliņa (LV) is a curator, artist and educator. She has studied photography at the studio of Andrejs Grants, at Bournemouth Art Institute, and on the MA programme at Alto University in Helsinki. Her work has been exhibited in Latvia and internationally, including at C/O (Berlin, Germany), GESTE (Paris) and Williams Tower Gallery (Houston, USA). Gabaliņa has participated in photography festivals in Singapore and Hanover, as well as other locations. Her work is included in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Geste Paris and the Deutsche Börse Art Collection. Since 2008 she has been part of the ISSP team, responsible for numerous educational and curatorial projects. In 2018 she founded ISSP Gallery – an exhibition space dedicated to contemporary photography. In 2022 ISSP became a member of FUTURES – a European-based photography platform as part of which Iveta mentors emerging and mid-career photographers.

Kristaps Freimanis (LV) is an interdisciplinary artist from Riga who experiments with sound and visual media, creating photographs, video and installations influenced by DIY aesthetics. In combinations of commonly unnoticed or forgotten details he captures the beauty of the photographic message and access to a deeper manifestation of the structures of reality on a metaphysical level. Accidental abstractions of materials, objects and natural phenomena assist in achieving new and unexpected images of correlation. By listening to the rhythms and forms of life, and implementing variations with found elements and layers of truth, Kristaps makes fleeting three-dimensional environments and drawings. He studied at the Department of Motion. Image. Sound at the Art Academy of Latvia and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

John Huntington (SE) is an independent visual artist working in a conceptual tradition expressed through performance, sculpture, photography, text and installations. With interventions of various forms, his art questions notions we take for granted: in everyday life, work environments, public institutions and political spaces. In his various projects Huntington examines the borderland between everyday life and art, between individual and institution, between citizen and society. He is particularly interested in how we as citizens encounter and interact with larger institutions and enterprises, and how to open up new spaces of reflection through cautious norm violations and deviations from standard practices, most notably by using strategies commonly found in bureaucratic and administrative environments.

Arta Kauliņa (LV) was born in Saldus and lives in Riga. In her works she investigates performative actions during everyday processes and events, through staged scenes, images and subjects. She has a bachelor’s degree in dramaturgy from the Latvian Academy of Culture, studied women’s writing at the University of Luxembourg, and qualified as a doctor’s assistant at the P. Stradiņš Medical College of the University of Latvia. She studied photography at the ISSP (International Summer School of Photography) and in masterclasses with Lisa Barnard, Nico Baumgarten, Jörg M. Colberg and other artists.

In 2017, Arta was an FK Prize finalist as one of the ten best young Latvian photographers with the series Riska vadība/Risk Management (also known under the titles: Akvārijs/Aquarium and Termiņš/Deadline), in which she creates staged scenes about everyday work in an accounting firm. Arta is also co-author of the libretto for the first Latvian techno-opera Spazio Bar (Platons Buravickis, Leo Līcis).

Triin Kerge (EE) is an Estonian artist working between Tallinn and Venice. She holds a BA in Documentary Photography from Newport University, Wales, and an MA in Contemporary Art from the Estonian Academy of Arts. Kerge’s artistic practice combines photography – both archival imagery and family photographs – with embroidery, creating layered works that explore materiality, memory and identity. Her work examines the intersections of collective and personal histories, with a recurring focus on the meaning of home. Recently, her practice has been deeply informed by reflections on her family’s past and its impact on contemporary notions of place and belonging.

Jānis Knāķis (LV) is an acclaimed Latvian photographer, known for his surreal and provocative photo-collages made in the 1980s. The first decade of Knāķis’s creative biography coincided with the demise of the Soviet system, at which time his works stood out with their rich imagination, often accompanied by social critique. Knāķis’s photomontages are humorous, ironic, alarming and at times daringly provocative. His subjects include love, death, dreams, nakedness, and dystopian visions brought on by the Cold War. The artist realised his conceptual ideas through photomontage, experimenting with the possibilities of the analogue photo laboratory.

Alongside photomontages, Knāķis worked in documentary photography and took on commercial commissions. His works were regularly published in such Soviet periodicals as Padomju Jaunatne, Liesma and Avots. Following the restoration of Latvian independence in 1991, Knāķis expanded his work into projects related to advertising and erotic photography.

Jānis Knāķis’s works have been exhibited at many international galleries and museums, including the Latvian Museum of Photography and Melbourne Camera Club.

Sara Krøgholt Trier (DK) artistic practice revolves around digitally rendered films and images, though she also works with text and sound. She is interested in image and reality constructions, often employing digital 3D software to create visual compositions that blur the line between reality and fiction. Her work examines how our society is built on narratives that both shape and reflect our physical, social and cultural structures. She is fascinated by how our sense of self and shared reality are influenced by fictions within the society we live in, which, taken to extreme, can lead to alienation and feelings of disillusionment and loneliness.

A central focus of Sara Krøgholt Trier's practice is to examine Western democracy as an institution and the unstable foundations it seems to rest upon at the present moment. She is interested in how democratic ideals such as equality and freedom often collide with the actual realisation of democratic structures in real life. Through her work, she aims to highlight the gaps that exist between societal ideals and individuals’ personal experiences of what it means to exist.

Sara Krøgholt Trier is a visual artist who graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen in 2024.

Heikki Leis (EE) graduated from Tartu Art Grammar School, and the masonry and sculpture faculty at Tartu Art School in 1991. Heikki Leis is an Estonian artist and photographer whose work stands out for its exceptional versatility. His creative range spans sculptures, intricate pencil drawings, and complex photographic projects. Leis approaches each project with a unique style and visual language, encompassing staged costume photography, period-accurate simulations, distorted documentary shots, and imagined film scenes.

His work has received widespread recognition. Leis has published two photo books: Afterlife (2017), which explores the themes of life and death, and Eesti Meister (2018), focusing on local craftsmen and their work. In addition, he has held numerous solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions, both in Estonia and internationally. His works have been featured in various publications worldwide.

Karlotta Lainväe (EE) focuses in her work on the human search for security and belonging, exploring the changes that occur both within and outside a person. She strives to understand how the past, present and future influence one another. To bring her ideas to life, she uses photography, handicrafts and installations to create a visual world where viewers can reflect on their own internal and external sense of security. She also examines how connections to history, nature and rituals create a sense of safety that protects us, yet remains fragile and easily lost.

Riin Maide (EE) is an artist and scenographer who lives and works in Tallinn. In her practice, she deals with memory and presence through playful installations and staged environments. Her work can often be characterised as site-specific, ephemeral and reliant on graphic imagery. In addition to exhibitions, she has also worked as a curator and performer. She has also participated as a stage designer in several performances, both in Estonia and abroad. Maide graduated in 2020 with a degree in graphics from the Estonian Academy of Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts (BA) and is currently studying scenography (MA). In addition, she has studied at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theater at DAMU in Prague. Riin has received the Edmund Valtman and the Eduard Wiiralt scholarships, as well as the EKA Young Artist Award in 2020 and the title of “Newcomer in Graphics” in 2022.

Keiu Maasik (EE) is an artist based in Tallinn. She has degrees in Photography (BA) and Contemporary Art (MA) from the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2019 she was awarded the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Young Artist Award (MA) and in 2018 the Wiiralt scholarship. In her work, she has previously explored themes such as the impact of documentation on memory, identity and interpersonal relationships. In her recent projects Maasik has focused on the virtual world, using recordings of computer games and similar aesthetics in her video works and installations to reveal the personal stories of the people portrayed.

Adam Mazur (PL) is an art historian, curator, and assistant professor at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Arts in Poznań. Author of multiple articles and books on the history of Polish and Central European photography. In 2019, the Krakow-based Universitas publishing house published his "Mutilated World. Histories of Photography in Central Europe 1838-2018". In 2023 together with Vilma Samulionyte and Natalia Zak curated an exhibition "Litwa. Two Centuries of Photography" at the International Centre of Culture in Krakow. In 2024 curated „Images Falling From the Sky –Helsinki School of photography” at the State Gallery in Sopot. Currently running a venue in Lodz (Hilary Majewski House), where he curated, among others, "Botanizerka" by Dovile Dagiene and „Good Grief” by Przemek Dzienis (both 2024).

Katariin Mudist (EE) is an artist exploring the multifaceted nature of humanity and its manifestations in the social world. Her practice combines humour and irony to address societal norms, with a focus on performativity, value, and materiality. She is currently studying at the Estonian Academy of Arts on the Craft Studies programme, where she investigates the intersections of visual and material-focused art practices. Katariin holds a master’s degree in Contemporary Art (EKA, 2022) and a degree in Media and Advertising Design (Pallas University, 2018). A member of the Estonian Artists' Association, the Estonian Association of Young Contemporary Artists, and the Association of Estonian Printmakers, Katariin is currently preparing a collaborative exhibition with Keithy Kuuspu at Tartu Art House titled Unfortunately, You Were Not Selected This Time.

Luīze Nežberte (LV) lives and works between Vienna, Austria and Riga, Latvia. Nežberte’s practice encompasses sculpture, photography, writing and sound. If Luīze’s practice could be situated somewhere between formal experiments with the object trouvé and the disintegration of authorship through artistic appropriation, it would perhaps best be described by the criminal act of “theft by finding”.

Recent exhibitions include Sunpoles, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2024); Clump Spirit, 427 gallery, Riga (2023). Selected group shows: Quarter Life Crisis, Chicago, London (2025); Come As You Are, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, (2024); A simultaneity of stories-so-far, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Vienna (2024); Fabulation, Feigning and Fibbing, House of Spouse, Vienna (2023); Vienna Seduction, SPOILER, Berlin (2023). In public space: “How Much Can a Boat Carry”, Salzkammergut (2024). Since 2023, Nežberte has been co-curating the programme of the exhibition space Pech in Vienna, Austria.

Jurģis Peters (LV) is a new media artist interested in visual research on the influence of various phenomena caused by new technologies and their impact on society. One of the artist’s main focuses is artificial intelligence, both as a medium and as a conceptual field of research. In his practice he uses new technologies and self-made algorithms as means of artistic expression to produce visual narratives and speculations about the possible scenarios of future development and the role of humans in them. Jurģis Peters graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia, earning a master’s degree in audio-visual art and has a bachelor’s degree in digital media technology and master’s degree in cyber security from the University of Birmingham, Great Britain. Peters’ academic journey has led him from cybersecurity to visual art and now towards research on generative artificial intelligence, with the aim of enabling the creation of experiences. Currently he is a researcher and PhD student on Tampere University’s interdisciplinary PhD programme “Convergence of Humans and Machines”, which studies the future of the relationship between humans and technologies.

Evija Pintāne (LV) lives and works in Riga. She graduated from the Department of Stage Design of the Art Academy of Latvia (BA), then continued her studies at the Department of Graphic Art at the Art Academy of Latvia (MA) and, as part of her master's studies, attended the Fine Arts Department at the Icelandic Academy of Arts. She travels extensively and tries to fly to Iceland at least once a year.

Since 2014, she has been working as a stage and costume designer at leading Latvian theatres, the theatre festival Homo Novus and the Valmiera Summer Theatre Festival. She has been nominated for the Spēlmaņu Nakts award on several occasions. Currently her artistic practice is connected to contemporary drawing and work on illustrations. She was the artist for the book Biezoknis (author Toms Treibergs). For its visual appearance the book received a Zelta Ābele award in the poetry category. In 2022, Luīze Pastore's book Laimes Bērni, illustrated by the artist, earned special recognition at the international Bologna Book Fair, receiving an award in the New Horizons category, which is dedicated to visual innovations. With the illustrations of this book she also took part in the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava. In 2023, she was nominated for the Jānis Baltvilks award for debuts in children's literature and book art.

In her works, she reflects on human existence in this world through poetic, paradoxical and ironic images. She sees her artistic practice as an inevitable side-effect of existence rather than a professional career. In parallel to her role as a mother, she gathers ideas for creative works in a wooden box, hoping that in this life she will have enough time to bring the best of them to fruition.

Paula Punkstiņa (LV) is a Latvian visual artist based in The Hague, Netherlands. She is a graduate of the Riga School of Design and Art, and currently a photography student at Royal Academy of Art. In her work, Paula examines themes such as identity, constructed belief systems and personal ideologies. By merging factual reality and metaphorical imagery, she renders concepts into materiality.

Klaus Leo Richter (LT) is an artist and photographer living in Lithuania. His work focuses on the periphery, with an interest in the cultural and historical foundations of hegemony and the formation of difference between individuals or groups. Through photography and text, he sheds light on rarely noted areas.

He holds a BA in International Development from the University of Vienna, an MA in Media and Photography Art from the Vilnius Academy of Arts, and attended the Ostkreuzschule for Photography in Berlin.

His works have been shown in various solo and group exhibitions internationally. He is a two-time recipient of the national artist scholarship from the Lithuanian Council of Culture and his work was featured in Leica International and the EMOP-Catalogue. Last year, the series Kastute was selected by ISSP to be part of Futures! Photography and it was one of the winners at the open call for “Rotlicht – Festival for Analog Photography” in Vienna, Austria.

Sheung Yiu (HK/FI) is an image-centered artist and researcher. His artwork explores imaging practices emerging at the intersection of ubiquitous photography and large-scale computation. He looks at photography through the lens of new media, scales, and network thinking. He ponders how the posthuman cyborg vision and the technology that produces it transform ways of seeing and knowledge-making. Adopting multi-disciplinary collaboration and image studies as a mode of research, his works examine the poetics and politics of algorithmic image systems, such as computer vision, computer graphics, and remote sensing, to understand how to see something where there is nothing, how to digitise light, and how vision becomes predictions. His work takes the form of photography, video essays, exhibition installations, and artist’s books.

Gedvile Tamosiunaite (LT) is a Lithuanian artist and photographer based in Berlin, Germany. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Photography and Media Arts from the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania (2015), and a master’s degree in photography from ECAL/Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne, Switzerland (2022). She has received multiple grants from the Lithuanian Council for Culture. Tamošiūnaitė’s diverse artistic background spans photography, video and art direction, with her work exhibited internationally. Her artistic focus lies in translating contemporary human emotions and feelings into visual digital culture and non-verbal codes. Taking the former as an emotional collective entity – non-organic, bloodless, and painless – she aims to detect gaps that expose it to reality and allow for influence. Her aesthetics are characterised by a sticky, ethereal glow, evoking a sense of everlasting longing.

Agate Tūna (LV) is a multidisciplinary artist, working across photography, photographic installations, experimental video and sound art. Through chemigrams and altered photographs, Tūna plays the role of an investigator between reality and fiction while exploring themes of paranormal perceptions, technology and the supernatural.

Tūna holds a BA in Painting (2020) and an MA in POST (2023) from the Art Academy of Latvia. In 2022, she graduated from the ISSP School.

In 2024, she was nominated for the Purvītis Prize 2025 and selected for the Futures Photography platform.

Recent group exhibitions include: Beyond Our Bodies Our Beings Extend, Pilot gallery, Riga (2024); The Elevator Chats 2.0., Capa Contemporary Photography Center, Budapest (2024); New Address: EDEN, Kim? Hanzas 22, Riga (2024); Contemporary Histories of Photography I, RPB, ISSP Gallery, Riga (2024); Metahorror, Both Gallery, London (2024); BDO Young Artists Award (1st place), Pilot gallery, Riga (2023); Chasing the Devil to the Moon, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn (2023); Flora Fantastic, Apexart gallery, New York (2022). Solo exhibition: The Order of Invisible Things, Gallery DOM, Riga (2022).

Ruudu Ulas (EE) is a visual artist living and working in Berlin. She graduated from the Royal College of Art (MA Photography, 2019–2021) and Glasgow School of Art (BA (Hons) Fine Art Photography, first class, 2014–2018). Looking at the world through the lens of playful criticality she takes photos, and makes objects and sometimes words in an attempt to make sense of everyday life. Inquisitively, she follows traces which the contemporary, urban-dwelling, cyborg-like human accumulates, while being curious about the systems that have created such creatures. Working within the expanded field of photography, her investigations often take the shape of large-scale room installations.

Ruudu Ulas has received several awards, including “New Talent 2023” The Photographer’s Gallery London (2023); the Metro Imaging Mentorship Award, Metro Imagining (2021); the Ene Grauberg Foundation Stipend (2019); the Adamson-Eric Stipend, Estonian Museum of Art (2019); the Chairman's Medal, Glasgow School of Art (2018); The Alice Duncan Prize, Glasgow School of Art (2018); the Essay Prize for School of Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art (2018).

Lesia Vasylchenko (UA/NO) works across a range of media, including video, photography, installation and curation. In her research-based practice, Vasylchenko explores encounters between visual cultures, media technologies and chronopolitics. She is the founder of STRUKTURA. Time, a cross-disciplinary initiative for research and practice within the framework of visual arts, media archaeology, literature and philosophy. She holds a degree in journalism from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and in Fine Arts from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Vasylchenko has recently exhibited at the Pochen Biennial for Multimedia Art ( Ex Oriente Ignis ), the Munch Museum’s Triennale (The Machine Is Us), and the Henie Onstad Triennale for Photography and New Media (New Visions). She was the recipient of the Sandefjord Kunstforenings Art Prize in 2023 (Norway) and has been nominated for the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2025. Her work is part of the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma/Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki, Finland.

Pēteris Vīksna (LV/NL) is one of the most active Latvian photographers of the new generation. His interest is the collective environment and urban landscapes that contain various contrasts and absurdities. Vīksna is a photographer who strives not to interfere with the urban environment. At the same time, he actively documents his generation in various informal situations where it is control that is his main compositional device.

He has taken part in several group exhibitions, and his works have been included in international publications. In 2021, he held the personal exhibition The Skin (Brīvība, Riga). In 2024, he took part in the ĒTER project Nail Salon (MAGAZIN, Vienna). In 2023, Vīksna’s A Dog’s Gaze (dir. Ieva Aleksejeva) premiered at the RIGA IFF festival. Alongside photography, he works in film and directing. In 2021, he received a Zelta Mikrofons award for the best music video of the year. He currently lives in Amsterdam, where he collaborates with artists from around the world.