News & Events
December 2011_FEATURED ARTIST
.: ALMA is happy to present Guna S.Mundheim as it's featured artist at this time.
Guna Mundheim, who served as both Vice-president and President of ALMA (2002-2009), has just completed a one-person exhibition in Philadelphia at the GrossMcCleaf Gallery in September 2011. She also had a solo exhibition at the Phoenix Gallery in New York in October of 2010 and 2007 and many others over the years.
Born in Riga, she is a painter who lives in New York as well as Tucson, Arizona and Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Her most recent exhibition "Times and Places" reflects the artists' response to physical stimuli in creating her own imaginary spaces in which activity takes place. The work investigates relationships of plant forms, trees and everyday objects while placing them in a context of atmosphere and a space that is personal. Light shafts streak through and around the objects, where small figures walk, dance and play. There is movement, change and transition. Places become ambiguous and time non-linear. The work refers to the simultaneous perception of multi-events.
Mundheim taught watercolor at the University of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1986 and also held the position of assistant Dean for Academic Advising in the College of Arts and Sciences until 2007.
In recognition of the artist's contribution to art and to Latvian culture, Guna Mundheim in 2009, received an honorary award (Goda Diploms) in the field of art from the cultural Foundation of PBLA.
October 2011
.: Zane Treimanis / Made in Brooklyn / Art Retrospective with New Works.
Sept. 17 - Oct. 16, 2011.
Closing party Sunday, Oct 16 at 2:00.
For more information visit www.bwac.org.
August 2011
.: American Latvian Artists’Association Annual Conference and Creative Workshop September 30 - October 2 in Elka Park, New York.
To Register: Please download the form here...
Also please download: 2011 ALMA vestuli & "Saieta" dienas kartibu.
Current ALMA (American Latvian Artists' Association) members, their guests and Latvian American artists who wish to meet other Latvian American artists, participate in lively discussions about creative processes, and learn more about the current Latvian art scene in the USA and Latvia are encouraged to attend our annual conference week-end in the Catskill mountains. Lecturers featured this year are Anita Līcis-Ribaks (photography and architecture) and Rita Grendze (multi-media).
The Saturday evening cultural program will include a presentation about publishing in Latvia by Jānis Oga, director of the Latvian Literature Centre and "Mansards" Publishing House, as well as USA book signings of delightful new monographs (art criticism, poetry, illustration) by four of our members. The Saturday evening program will also include a panel discussion and the annual "auction" of always unique, elegant (prints, original works of art and jewelry) and often useful items (like Latvian bread).
Friday afternoon early arrivals are invited to construct free-form works reflecting this year's conference theme: TAILS; also the theme of the Saturday night "gala". If you like, please bring along a work of art with the Tail theme to display in our annual on-site show. Meals are provided for a very reasonable fee on Saturday and Sunday, but if possible please bring pot-luck type nibbles and/or drinks for the more informal gatherings on Friday and Saturday evening. Lodging is also available for a fee for Friday and Saturday night. Although most of the lectures and the annual meeting is conducted in Latvian, visual materials have no language barriers and everyone is accommodating of our members and guests who feel more comfortable asking questions and adding comments in English. Please feel welcomed!
Information can be requested from Linda Treija, Anna Annus-Hagen or Sarma Muiznieks Liepins.
April 2011
.: Gerda Roze "Image of the Circle" April 7 - May 13, 2011. Artist Reception Thursday, April 14, 4 - 7 PM The Treasure Room Gallery, The Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive (61 Claremont Avenues at 120 the Street), New York, New York 10115 Mon. - Fri. 9-5.
wwwgerdarozeart.com or www.interchurchcenter.org
.: Aivars Zandbergs recently won First Place in oil-acrylic category "Passing Clouds" 20x40, acrylic, at the 6th, Grafton Arts Fastival.
He also won a Third Place award in W/C, "In the Chadows", and the Grafton Conservation Award.
March 26 he was awarded First Place for his painting "Square Off" at the Morini Gallery exhibit, "Abstractions". The exhibition is open from March 26 - April 23. 377 North Main St. Mansfield, Ma.
www.mmas.org
March 2011
SMIJ: Šī Māksla ir Jauna (This art is new) is an annual art event held by the Canadien Latvian Youth Organization (LNJAK) for emerging Latvian youth artists. From March 10th to the 13th Toronto, Ontario was overwhelmed by roughly 120 art enthusiasts. Roughly 30 artists submitted works to be shown at the gallery space Function 13 in the Kensington Market area of Toronto. Friday evening at the gallery the history of the event was discussed with some the first organizers and its growth since 1974. During the day Saturday invited visiting artists showed and discussed works and the progression of Latvian art, followed by the gallery reception. ALMA diploma was given to Zinta Rutina,19 Maryland, for her watercolor of a fall landscape. The featured film "I Want Your Girl" directed by Miks Ozolins was shown on sunday cumulating a wonderful weekend.
February 2011_FEATURED ARTIST
Drawing Omaha from Manhattan — An Exhibition by Edgar Jerins<
Exhibition Dates:January 28 – March 4 2010
Location: Lied Art Gallery, Lied Educational Center for the Arts, Creighton University
2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178
Opening Reception for the Artist - January 28, 2011
Gallery Hours: 1-4pm daily during exhibitions and during all Fine and Performing Art events
Contact Info: Erin Walcek Averett, Gallery Director | 402.280.2261 | erinaverett@creighton.edu
Edgar Jerins (www.jerins.com), an ALMA member and of Latvian heritage, is a Nebraska native who now lives and works in New York, NY. Jerins graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1980 and has exhibited widely across the United States.
In 2001, he began this series with a drawing of his brother Tom in the house they grew up in in Omaha. "Tom in his Mother's House" is now in the collection of the Museum of Nebraska Art. The Midwest is the setting for many of the drawings.
Edgar Jerins is one of the leading artists in the resurgence of realism in the art world. Jerins creates astonishing, dramatic large-scale "narrative noir" images in charcoal, many of which are set in his native Nebraska. Standing before one of Jerins' monumental drawings, you will be drawn into a story like a still from a movie you've never seen. As you search for clues to the narrative they reveal themselves - in a gesture…in the lighting…in a small detail. Jerins' goal is to capture life as we are living it right now, making his drawings particularly relevant in these difficult times.
He is represented by the ACA galleries in NY.
November 2010
October 2010
Guna S. Mundheim "Watercolors and Drawings"
ALMA president, Guna Mundheim held a solo exhibition at the Phoenix Gallery in New York from October 6 to October 30, 2010.
In this exhibition of watercolors and drawings, Guna Mundheim investigates the relationships of plant forms, trees and everyday objects while placing them in a broader context of atmosphere and in a space that becomes personal and elusive. Shafts of light streak through and around the objects, where small figures walk, dance and play. There is movement, change and transition. The colored pencil drawings point to an intimacy with the object represented, while the broad watercolor-washes allow for larger rhythms and an ambiguity of space and time.
September 2010
.: "LINEAGE" art exhibition presented by the BWAC (Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition), co-chaired by Zane Treimanis and curated by Anna Annus Hagen with 300 artists. Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010.
ALMA members participating: Laila Bibelnieks, Anna Annus Hagen, Gita Treimanis and Zane Treimanis.
Weekends 1-6PM. Artist's Reception Sept. 25, 1-6PM. Free admission with donations accepted. 499 Van Brunt St. Red Hook, NY 11231.August 2010
.: It's time again for us to come together for our very special weekend of business, spirit, fun and friendship. Our annual Saiets on October 1.2 and 3 promises to be a particularly rich in programming and offerings.
We will start with our business meeting, review where we are as an organization, and have an opportunity to have a dialog with our new officers and formulate our vision for future work. Let's have some new adventures!
Our cultural program this year will feature the renown art critic, Maris Brancis from Latvia as well as Andris Vitolins, a young, energetic faculty member of the Art Academy in Riga, who will talk to us about cutting edge, underground art in Riga. Then, Liga Ejupe from Chicago will give a lecture on her growing collection in Garezers as well as the current traveling exhibition of "Beglu Maksla".
There will be new films by Laila Pakalnite, your presentations and surprises! Our own mini-exhibition has the theme of FOOD, interpreted in the most liberal way. We also want to apply that theme to our HAT PARTY in the evening! So, don't eat your entire lunch - put some of it on your hat.
Do mark your mark your calendars, (Oct. 1, 2,3) get your art piece ready, your hat and notify Dace Marga at dace_marga@merck.com for your reservation. If you can, please bring along an enticing, miraculous object for our fun auction. If you have a presentation you would like to give, please reserve time with Juris Ubans at ubart@maine.edu or by filling out the "Referentu" form you will receive shortly.
Looking forward to seeing there,
Guna and Juris, your co-presidents.
May 2010
.: Vija Celmins: New Paintings, Objects, and Prints. April 29 - June 25, 2010.
Please see slide show.
McKee Gallery, 745 Fifth Ave, New York, New York 10151.
March 2010_FEATURED ARTIST
.: Gerda Roze has been a member of ALMA for several decades. Over these years,
Ms. Roze has consistently been one of our most productive and innovative members, continuously developing new approaches and new imagery through her paintings and prints. She has enriched our annual meetings presenting her new works and leading dialog about them.
Gerda Roze's April 2010 exhibition will feature non-objective, expressionistic paintings and prints.
Although the compositions are essentially abstract, the paintings are often filled with subtly allusive elements and possess a kind of poetry far beyond formalism. In the new series "HOMAGE TO THE CIRCLE", the artist explores the mystery of the seemingly simple yet complicated shape of the universal circle. By utilizing the circle as the shape of the canvas, the paintings take on a sculptural look that evokes the theme of eternity. The eternal, mysterious shape has no beginning and no end.
We at ALMA, salute our distinguished member, Gerda Roze, as our Featured Artist at this time.
.: Three ALMA artists, Sarma Muizniece, Kika Nigals and Linda Treija had a wonderful opening of their Exhibition at the Latvian Society in Philadelphia. (Picture) Sarma and Linda in the Gallery.
Find out more about the artists:
.: Janis Jakobsons and Zoya Frolova, our guest lecturers in October 2009, Exhibition at Mimi
Fertz Gallery.
Opening Reception on March 4,
from 4:00 to 7:00 P.M.
81 Greene street, NY. NY 212-343-9377.
February 2010
.: Sarma Muizniece, Kika Nigals and Linda Treija will be showing their new work from February 20 - 28, 2010 at the Latvian Society of Philadelphia.
Opening Reception on February 20 at 4:00 P.M.
531 N. 7th Street, Philadrlphia, PA 19123.
Novemeber 2009
.: Gerda Roze Exhibition "Homage to the Circle", November 6 - December 1, 2009, Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, 511 W 25th St., NY, NY 10001. Opening reception, Nov.12. 5-7PM.
.: Zane Treimanis will be part of an open studio tour at 456 Argyle Road with Flatbush Artists Studio Tour F.A.S.T. 2009.
Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7 & 8 from 11 AM-4 PM, FREE. Come visit and purchase art work from artists in Victorian Flatbush.
For maps and more info go to: www.flatbushartists.org
October 2009
.: Please join us for ALMA's (American Latvian Artists Association) annual meeting "Saiets", which will be held in the Catskills on October 16, 17, and 18. The meeting will start Friday night with presentations by Aivars Zandbergs, Eleanora Sturma and others showing images and films of exhibitions in Latvia. We will also show Laima Zurgina's beautiful new documentary on Marta Skulme and her influence on Latvian art. The cultural program on Saturday, will feature presentations by Juris Ubans on his long career as an artist and art professor and also talks by the distinguished artists, Zoya Frolova and Janis Jakobsons, on the development of their art both here and in Latvia. There will be a two day exhibition of members' work, our traditional "Poets hour", hat party and general frolicking.
.: "SECOND" Philadelphia Art Exhibition of Latvian Artists, October 10-18, 2009 in Society of Free Letts. OPENING RECEPTION OCTOBER 10, 4 P.M. - 6 P.M., supper with artists to follow. Society of Free Letts: 531 N. 7th St., Philadelphia, Pa 19123
August 2009
.: Anna Annus Hagen was curator and exhibit coordinator for "Changing Perspectives 2009", Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, July 11-August 16, 2009, Red Hook, NY (see bwac.org).
July 2009
.: Anna Annus Hagen was curator of "Sightlines #3 A retrospective", June 12- July 12, 2009, at the Clinton Art Gallery in Brooklyn , NY. Zane Treimanis was one of the artists participating in this show.
May 2009
.: Kika Nigals will be displaying at Sugarwood Gallery - Broadway and High St, Farmington, Maine. Opening reception Friday May 1 from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM and Saturday May 2 from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
.: Maija Miesniece Berzins Retrospective at St. John's Latvian Lutheran Church - 301 S. Newtown Street Road (Route 252) Newtown Square, PA 19073. Opening/reception Saturday May 2, 2009 at 2:00 PM.
March 2009
.: ALMA member, Linda Kalnajs, writes that this past fall, she participated with her "Layered Photographs" in a 6 week group show at BWAC, and then for two
months at the Square One gallery in Doylestown. As of January 1, Linda has been accepted into the Upstairs Gallery, and artists co-op, in Peddler's Village, Lahaska,
PA. Her works will be shown there in March in a theme show, "Master or Impostor", for which Linda has chosen Andy Warhol.
You can visit the gallery at theupstairsgallery.com. Opening/reception Saturday May 2, 2009 at 2:00 PM.