Latvian Museums Association Annual Award 2016:
Art Exhibition of the Year
Latvian Museums Association has recognized the retrospective “Miervaldis Polis. Illusion as Reality” as the Art Exhibition of the Year 2016.
On view from May 4 - July 24, 2016 in the new LNMA exhibition hall, the “Illusion as Reality” is the most ambitious retrospective of Miervaldis Polis’ artworks to date. Being the first exhibition in the museum after reconstruction, it attracted a record number of visitors (85 601) to become the most attended LNMA exhibition in the last 25 years.
This exhibition is the first retrospective of Miervaldis Polis and encompasses the entire trajectory of the artist’s creative interests, showing paintings, drawings and performance documentation of various periods in his career and testifying to his significance in Latvian art history. The aim of the exhibition was to address Polis’ unique artistic heritage by researching the contemporary developments in the history of Latvian art and for the first time presenting a retrospective of the artist’s works, most of which are currently stored in museums and private collections abroad.
The exhibition was accompanied by an extensive education and outreach programme, ranging from free guided tours led by staff and trained volunteers, workshops, lectures, digital and printed guides (available in Latvian, English and Russian), to the creation of new artworks in the form of essays and performances.
Exhibition curator:
Daina Auziņa