The main subject of the artist’s works is the nature of Latvia. Main genres are landscape and still life. Interior of a farmer’s home, ordinary kitchenware, rye bread, honeycomb, vegetables and fruits, ceramics and a lot of flowers – all of these things live their own life in the works of Zigrida Ilenane, which are unhurried, non-pompous, devoid of glamour and refined beauty, following traditions rather than fashion and style. Her every painting seems to be created fast, in a single burst, in one holistic mood, which is perceived at first glance.
One of her favourite motives is still life at an open window, behind which one may see a forest, or a meadow full of flowers, a lake or a river, and every such composition sounds like a hymn to summer, summer life in the country and its ordinary, vital joys.
“It is an ordinary view from the window of a farmer’s house, but it stimulates me a lot and gives creative drive,” says Zigrida Ilenane. “This summer brightness of colours!” It is a farmer’s house, where one can live from spring till autumn. But there are winter landscapes as well... I still like the traditional Latvian realism in painting, its positivism and certain romanticism.”
Zigrida Ilenane is a resident of Riga. She graduated from the famous Rozentals Art High School and the Art Academy of Latvia, where one of her teachers was the famous Latvian artist, modernist, “live classic” Edvards Grube.
The first personal exhibition of Zigrida Ilenane was held in 1984, and since then 50 more exhibitions have been held. Paintings of Zigrida Ilenane were also exhibited abroad – in Germany, China, Israel, Great Britain, the USA, Russia, the Baltic countries and Ukraine.
The most recent personal exhibition was held in Germany, in the Saxon city of Grossenhain, which was attended by over 60 thousand visitors, including the President of the Federal Republic of Germany. The core of this collection is now exhibited in Rietumu Bank.
The name of this exhibition has been chosen for a reason – VELREIZ (ONCE MORE). It reflects the artistic approach of the painter, her clear and thoughtful view regarding what actually fills the concept of picturesque – soft tones, transfers, light and shadow, light and aerial state. All of these allow one to look at the same things in a different way at different times of the day, from different perspectives, when in a specific mood and state of mind.
The exhibition of Zigrida Ilenane will be open in Rietumu Gallery until the end of the first decade of March.
This is a memorial exhibition - it presents works of the young artist, whose life ended so tragically during the collapse of a shopping centre in Riga in 2013.