Juris Dimiters, Meeting, 2022, Oil on Cardboard

Meeting. 2022. oil on cardboard,, 40x30 cm Juris Dimiters (1947) Education: 1958-1965 Janis Rozentals Art High School of Riga 1965-1973 Art Academy of Latvia, Painting Department, specialism in scenography. Solo shows: 1981- Baiba & Leo Benias Gallery, West Berlin (as part of the Skulme family exhibition) 1984- Museum of Foreign Art , Riga; Cēsis Exhibition Hall; 1986- Firebird Gallery, Alexandra; International Images, Pittsburgh, USA. 1987- Exhibition Hall, Jurmala. 1987- Exhibition Hall, Stockholm, Sweden (as part of the Skulme family exhibition) 1989- Delta Art Gallery, Nijmegen (The Netherlands). 1992- Maya Polsky Gallery, Chicago, USA. 2000- State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow and State Museum of Art , Riga. 2004- Riga Museum of History and Navigation. 2007- Imagine Gallery, Riga. 2007- Art gallery Laipa, Valmiera. 2007- Moscow house, Riga. 2009- Zurab Tsereteli Gallery, Moscow. 2009- Riga Museum of History and Navigation. 2012- Paintings about Love at Happy Art Museum, Gallery Riga. Awards: 1981- 2nd Prize, International Poster Biennial, Lahti, Finland. 1982- Faber Castell, International Triennial of Drawings by Young Artists, Nurnberg, Germany. 1982 - 1st Prize, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. 1983- 3rd Prize, International Poster Biennial, Lahti, Finland. 1983- 1st Prize, Colorado International Poster Exhibition, USA. 1985- 1st Prize, Stage Design Triennial of the Baltic Republics. 1987- Certificate of Honor, honorary diploma Artists Society International Art Achievement Awards Exhibition San Francisco, Ca, USA. 1987- Honorable Mention, Artist Liaison Competition, Santa Monica, Ca, USA. 1988- 1st Prize, Social Poster Section at the exhibition Best Poster in Riga. 1989- Certificate of Honour, International Poster Biennial, Lahti, Finland. 1989- Meritorious Artist of the Latvian SSR. Museums and Collections: Art Collection of the nascent Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia. Museum of the Artists’ Union of Latvia, Riga, Latvia. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany. Cremona Fund, Maryland, USA. New Orleans Museum of Art, USA Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, USA Private collections in Latvia, USA, Russia, Germany, Sweden. Literature: J. Dimitrers, J. Borgs“Juris Dimiters. Plakāti” – R.: Iespiests Jelgavas tipogrāfijā, Rīga, 2014. Juris Dimiters is among the most intellectual and witty artists of his generation. The characters of his works – paintings and posters – mostly are anthropomorphized fruits and objects. Placed within games of mutual interrelationships, they have become actors in the theatre directed by the artist. Over time the personages of the still-life have constantly transformed and migrated both among groups of work and media, embodying new roles in each of them. Nevertheless, they have always actively commented on one of three subjects – power, society and the everyday. J. Dimiters’ paintings and posters strike with directness and irony, uncharacteristic of Latvian art. His works are characterized by laconic, finely executed form imitating reality, that contrasts with aptly expressed visual and conceptual content paradoxes inspired by surrealism. They are endless riddles, whose meaning changes depending on time, context, the viewer’s erudition and perceptions. The exhibition “Theatre of Things” is the most substantial display of J. Dimiters’ work in Latvia in the last 20 years. Along with the popular posters, it will present the early as well as recent paintings, providing a comprehensive overview of the artist’s oeuvre. The exhibition is structured in several thematic sections, highlighting both the three most popular subjects of power, society, and the everyday, as well as turning separately to the background of the artist’s poster production and his early search for painterly handwriting. The exhibition coincides with the publication of a survey dedicated to the posters of Juris Dimiters with an introduction by Jānis Borgs. Juris Dimiters (1947) was born into the family of artist Džemma Skulme and actor Artūrs Dimiters. He graduated from J. Rozentāls Riga Art Secondary School (1965), Department of Stage Design at the Art Academy of Latvia (1973). He has earned the most acclaim with posters, in the 1980s participating and receiving awards in local and international exhibitions of poster art. Many of the posters have been mass-produced, and, thanks to their current socio-critical content and precise, easily-readable subjects, have attained wide recognition in the society. J. Dimiters’ posters can now be counted among the classics of Latvian art.