Exhibition “Sentimental Values. Brants and Vorkale”

The exhibition brings together works of porcelain and fine art by two artists – Inese Brants and Irīna Vorkale – inspired by the Art Nouveau legacy and family values.

Both artists share interest closely aligned with Art Nouveau – in ornamentation, the beauty of materials, fashion, and the world of handicrafts, allowing two distinct artistic languages to converge in this exhibition into a single, moving narrative about women, beauty, and the passage of time.

Inese Brants’ blue and red embroidery motifs are depicted in expressive coffee and tea sets, plates, and jugs, with pigments of corresponding colors fused into the porcelain glaze to create outstanding works of art.

Painter Irīna Vorkale, meanwhile, reflects the world of women, fashion, and the traditions of sewing and handicrafts in her paintings. Her source of inspiration is a black-lacquered Singer sewing machine adorned with gold lettering that belonged to her family – a legacy passed down to the artist from her grandmother, Elza Kundziņa, who was a renowned seamstress.