SIVIA

Māris Čačka. Blooming at the GORS

On 12 May at 3.00 PM, the Art Gallery of Latgales vēstniecība GORS will host a meeting with Māris Čačka and the opening of his solo exhibition Blooming.

The exhibition approaches blooming not as a visual motif, but as an existential state. At Latgales vēstniecība GORS, the exhibition will be on view from 12 May until 12 July.

“Blooming is not about flowers. It is about the moment when everything accumulated unfolds and becomes presence,” says Māris Čačka. The exhibition Blooming reflects a stage in life when accumulated experience takes on visible form — not as a culmination, but as a quality of presence matured through time.

Māris Čačka is a Latvian artist who has developed a unique hybrid method of abstract expression, combining painting and graphic art. His artistic language is characterised by a free yet controlled use of colour, where gestural expression merges with structured composition. He has participated in exhibitions since 1997 and, since 2001, has regularly organised solo exhibitions and taken part in group exhibitions, symposia, plein-air workshops, and other art events in Latvia and internationally.

The Art Gallery of Latgales vēstniecība GORS is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 12.00 PM to 9.00 PM.

Māris Čačka. Direct Dialogues in Chișinău

On 8 April 2026, the National Museum of Art of Moldova opened Direct Dialogues, a solo exhibition by Latvian artist Māris Čačka, organised in partnership with the Embassy of Latvia in Chișinău.

The exhibition presents recent large-scale works where painting and graphic elements merge into a layered abstract language. Čačka’s practice explores dialogue not as words, but as a field of tension between thought, emotion, presence, and silence.

Through a process of applying, removing, and reworking paint, the artist builds surfaces that resemble ongoing conversations. Layers overlap, interrupt, and respond to one another, creating compositions that remain open and unresolved.

These works function as visual journals of encounters and reflections, inviting the viewer to enter the space of dialogue and continue it from their own perspective.

The exhibition is on view from 8 April to 17 May 2026 in Chișinău.

Māris Čačka. Satellites Exhibition Opened in Šiauliai

On 20 March 2026, the solo exhibition Satellites by Latvian artist Māris Čačka opened at Šiauliai Art Gallery.

The exhibition brought together a new body of paintings exploring the idea of personal “orbits” shaped by people, memories, and encounters. Through layered colour fields, pulsating lines, and graphic elements, Čačka reflects on presence and absence, connection and distance.

The works unfold as visual signals, tracing emotional imprints left by those who move through our lives. Some remain close, others fade, yet continue to resonate as quiet points of light.

Satellites extended Čačka’s ongoing exploration of dialogue, here shifting towards a more introspective and poetic reflection on human connection across time and space.

The exhibition on view until 11 April 2026.

14th Latgale Graphic Art Symposium Exhibition Opened at the Rothko Museum

On 7 March 2026, the 14th International Latgale Graphic Art Symposium at the Rothko Museum concluded with the opening of a group exhibition presenting works created during a two-week residency.

Nine artists from Italy, Canada, Poland, Ukraine, India, Lithuania, and Latvia developed new printmaking works through an intensive process of exchange, experimentation, and collaboration. The exhibition reflects a wide range of approaches, from traditional techniques to contemporary interpretations of the graphic medium.

Curated by Tatjana Černova, the exhibition captures the energy of the symposium and the dialogue that emerged between artists, practices, and cultural contexts.

The project was conceived and produced by SIVIA Association in the framework of the Rothko Museum’s residency programme, with support from the Daugavpils City Council and the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia.

The exhibition remains on view until 10 May 2026.
Photos: Santa Suhanova

Māris Čačka’s Satellites at Valmiera Museum

On 12 December 2025, the solo exhibition Satellites by Latvian artist Māris Čačka opened at the Valmiera Museum Exhibition Hall, where it will be on view until 11 February 2026.

The exhibition marks a concentrated and conceptually precise stage in the artist’s practice. Rather than unfolding as a linear narrative, Satellites is constructed as an orbital system in which painterly and graphic works interact like celestial bodies, shaped by attraction, distance, and shifting trajectories. The exhibition proposes not a story but a spatial model of thinking.

The notion of the satellite operates on several levels. It refers to people, experiences, and encounters that have entered the artist’s gravitational field at different moments in life and continue to resonate over time. These presences are not depicted directly. Instead, they are translated into fields of colour, rhythm, and texture that register traces rather than events themselves. Memory here is not narrated but sensed.

A key structural element of the exhibition is the dialogue between large-scale paintings and small-format works. The monumental canvases establish stable orbits within the exhibition space. Their scale creates a strong physical and emotional presence, forming the gravitational core of the exhibition.

In contrast, the small-format works function differently. They act as meteorites rather than satellites. These works represent people from Valmiera who have been significant in the artist’s life at specific moments. Their presence is concentrated rather than expansive, embodying brief yet decisive encounters that altered trajectories. The reduced format intensifies their meaning, compressing experience into dense visual energy.

Within this system, Valmiera becomes more than the exhibition’s location. It emerges as an active gravitational field where personal memory intersects with shared space. The architectural arrangement of the exhibition reinforces this logic, encouraging the viewer to navigate rather than progress, to circle, return, and recalibrate their position within the visual system.

Through restraint and quiet intensity, Satellites reflects on attachment, release, and relational gravity. It is an exhibition about those who remain visible or invisible companions in our lives, continuing to circulate within memory as subdued yet enduring sources of light.

Photographs by Klavs Vasilevskis

OPEN CALL for 14th International Latgale Graphic Art Symposium

The Rothko Museum in collaboration with the Gallery SIVIA, invites applications for the 14th International Latgale Graphic Art Symposium, taking place from 23 February to 8 March 2026 in Daugavpils, Latvia.

This prestigious symposium serves as a dynamic platform for artistic exchange, bringing together leading graphic artists from around the world. Over the years, it has hosted more than 100 participants from nearly 40 countries, significantly contributing to the development of the graphic medium in the Latgale Region.

When: 23 February – 8 March 2026
Where: Rothko Museum, Daugavpils, Latvia
Who Can Apply: 10 professional artists will be selected through a competition based on submitted application materials (application form, CV, and portfolio).

Be part of this esteemed international event celebrating innovation and excellence in printmaking.

APPLY NOW

Māris Čačka’s artworks presented at the exhibition Basil Alkazzi: Artist and Philanthropist in Gdańsk

The exhibition is dedicated to Basil Alkazzi (1938–2025) and serves as a tribute to his generosity and lifelong dedication to art, recognizing his role as a true friend and patron of the National Museum in Gdańsk.
For ten years, Alkazzi supported the museum by donating his own artworks, works by international artists, and by funding the acquisition of pieces by emerging Polish painters.

The exhibition presents 26 works by Basil Alkazzi, gifted to the museum. They include abstract oil paintings from the 1980s and 1990s, as well as pieces created after 2000. Many of them, painted on handmade paper, are intended for intimate and contemplative viewing. Recurrent motifs in Alkazzi’s work include triangles, pathways, seascapes, flowers, and elements of nature.

Alongside Alkazzi’s own works, the exhibition also features donated artworks by artists he admired or supported throughout his life, organizing exhibitions for them or granting awards in his name. The collection includes 134 works by artists from the United Kingdom, the United States, South Korea, Japan, and Latvia.

Among these are works by internationally recognized names such as John Hedgecoe, David Hockney, Joe Tilson, Paul Huxley, and Keith Vaughan, as well as younger-generation artists.
The Latvian artist Māris Čačka is also represented in this collection. His paintings LA (Lady in Orange) and EM (Evening Meeting) were exhibited alongside these renowned creators, forming part of this important international exhibition.

The donated works reflect Alkazzi’s artistic sensibility and values, a deep and mindful approach to the world, refined craftsmanship, and a sensitivity to form and expression.

The exhibition is open at the Pałac Opatów, National Museum in Gdańsk, from 25 October 2025 to 1 March 2026.

Māris Čačka. Relationships… Painting as Dialogue

On 18 September at the Art Gallery (Respublikos St. 3) the exhibition “Relationships… Painting as Dialogue” by Latvian artist Māris Čačka was opened. The display will be available to visitors until 19 October 2025.

In his works, the artist sees painting as a form of dialogue – with the world, the viewer, silence, time, form, and himself. Each canvas emerges as a response to a feeling, thought, or conversation, transforming into spaces where the viewer is invited to observe, sense, and participate. The idea of painting as dialogue becomes the foundation of the exhibition, reflected in the structure, form, titles, and in the very experience of the audience.

Māris Čačka (born 1976 in Varakļāni, Latvia) is an artist, curator, and since 2020 the Director of the Rothko Museum in Daugavpils. He has participated in more than 90 exhibitions, including over 40 solo shows in Latvia and abroad.

Colours Born in Latgale: 9th International Painting Plein Air “Valdis Bušs 2025”

From 21 to 31 July 2025, the town of Viļaka in northeastern Latvia will host the 9th edition of the International Painting Plein Air “Valdis Bušs 2025”. Rooted in the cultural landscape of Northern Latgale, the plein air is both a tribute to the renowned Latvian landscape painter Valdis Bušs and a contemporary artistic dialogue between place, people, and colour.

This year, the plein air will welcome six professional artists: Devdatta Padekar from India, Ziyi Huang from China, Jelena Vragovic from Serbia, Ernesto Heen from Germany, Valentinas Varnas from Lithuania, and Baiba Priedīte from Latvia. During their stay in Viļaka, the artists will work both in natural environments and in studio settings, interpreting the Latgalian landscape through their unique artistic perspectives. The plein air encourages intercultural dialogue and offers a shared space for reflection, experimentation, and creative exchange.

Alongside the professional programme, a visual art competition for children and young people is being organised to promote awareness and appreciation of painting among the younger generation. The best works will be presented on 30 July at the opening of the final exhibition at the Viļaka Museum exhibition hall (Klostera Street 1), together with the paintings created during the plein air. On the same day, a virtual exhibition of the youth competition winners will be launched under the title “The World Is Truly Multicoloured – You Just Need to Learn to See It – Valdis Bušs.”

Valdis Bušs (1924–2014), a native of Latgale, was one of Latvia’s most distinctive landscape painters and colourists. Deeply connected to the northern Latgalian terrain, Bušs’s paintings are marked by expressive rhythm, emotional saturation, and a philosophical approach to nature. His work transcends literal representation, turning landscape into an introspective and sensorial experience that continues to inspire painters in Latvia and beyond.

The plein air is organised by the Balvi Municipality in collaboration with the Rothko
Museum, and is produced by the creative organisations SIVIA and SAVI.

Artist Residency: Māris Čačka @ ARTEFORA

From 17 to 23 June 2025, Latvian artist Māris Čačka is taking part in the ARTEFORA Residency Program, preparing a solo exhibition for the festival “The Hill Always Comes Out”.
Set among the rolling vineyards of Langhe and Monferrato, the festival will bring together 22 artists, over 40 artworks, international residencies, workshops, and site-specific installations across six municipalities: Castiglione Tinella, Santo Stefano Belbo, Castagnole delle Lanze, Neive, Barbaresco, and Alba.

The solo exhibition is on view from 21 June until 20 July 2025 at ARTEFORA, Castiglione Tinella (Langhe, Piedmont, Italy).