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Major biographical data
I was born on 3 June 1961 in Riga, Latvia.
I slept in a cot under some birch trees. I was watched over on the edge of my cot by a tame crow named Krišs.1961–1968
I spent my childhood together with my parents, ceramist Latvīte Medniece and sculptor Imants
Murovskis at Jaundubulti in Jūrmala, in the “goat shed” built by my grandfather, where once upon
a time goats really were kept and grapes grew on the sun wall. It was a wonderful time of mischief
and shenanigans.1968–1981
My primary school years have remained stuck in my memory as the drabbest years of my life. A complete contrast to my sunny childhood. The first humane relations between pupils and teachers are formed in the metalworking department of the Riga Applied Arts Secondary School (1976 –1980).
Riga 3rd Technical School (1980 –1981) saves me from army service, brings me closer to cinema and semi-conductors and issues me with a Red Diploma.
1981–1986
The LSSR State Art Academy’s Industrial Art Department seems like the ideal community to me.
It offers a creative, democratic environment, helpful lecturers and classmates. I meet Ineta Berkmane.
We get married. I develop a passion for graphic print technologies. I begin practicing screen printing.
We take part in our first exhibitions. Our son Matīss Murovskis is born.1986–1989
We print screen printed exhibition posters and other print works. Ineta and I teach at the Mazirbe
Boarding School and our daughter Lizete Murovska is born. Returning to Riga, I work as a screen
printer at the “Beāte” fashion salon and as an artist for the “Zvaigzne” publishing house, and then…1989
… I received a call from Professor Aleksandrs Dembo. My life at the Academy continued. At the Graphic
Design Department, my roles include teaching master, lecturer and associate professor (1989 –1999).
I obtain a Humanitarians Sciences Master’s degree in Art (1997), and since 1999, I’ve been
Head of the Visual Communications Chair at the Art Academy of Latvia; Associate Professor (2003);
Head of the Audio-Visual Media Art Department (2007) and Professor (2009).2010
I start growing grapes at my rural property “Murlande”.
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Creative activity and most important exhibitions
1986 5th Miniature Graphics Exhibition, “Latvia” Exhibition Hall, Riga.
Three etchings from the series “The Life of Fish”
I begin to use to screen printing in my creative activity.
1990 1st Graphics Biennial Kaliningrad*, Russia
1st Pan-Latvian Art Exhibition, Foreign Art Museum, Riga*, Latvia
1991 International graphics and photographic exhibition, Vilniaus Prizas Vilnius*, Lithuania
I discovered my personal artistic technique – cardboard and lino engraving.
1992 2nd Graphics Biennial Kaliningrad*, Russia
1993 4th Riga Miniature Graphics Triennial, “Arsenāls” Exhibition Hall, Riga*, Latvia
1994 Miniature graphics exhibition, Chamalieres Auvergne, France
Personal exhibition Study Room, Gallery “Bastejs”, Riga*, Latvia
1995 Ex Libris competitive exhibition Belgrade*, Yugoslavia
10th Tallinn Graphics Biennial*, Estonia
Latvian Contemporary Graphics, State Art Museum, Riga, Latvia
1996 Ex Libris, Latvian National Library, Riga, Latvia
1997 6th Book Illustration Triennial, Vilnius*, Lithuania
Latvian contemporary graphics exhibition, Estonian National Library, Tallinn, Estonia
1998 Personal exhibition An Evening on the Lake, Gallery “Daugava”, Riga, Latvia
2nd Graphics Biennial Inter-kontakt, Prague*, Chech Republic
Baltic Sea State Graphics Biennial “Kaliningrad – Königsberg 98”, Russia
1999 150 Graphic Pages, Reutern House, Riga, Latvia
Competitive exhibition For Riga 800 Gallery “Bastejs”, Riga, Latvia
2001 Personal exhibition Look More Closely! Gallery “Bastejs”, Riga, Latvia
I worked in cardboard engraving, scaling the prints larger digitally,
and made large-scale printouts on synthetic materials.2004 Painting of the Year, Asūna Gallery, Riga, Latvia
2005 Experimental graphics Now Art, Now Future, Lithuania
2006 Experimental graphics Now Art, Now Future, Riga Design and Art School, Latvia
2007 Graphics and digital print, Latvian Academy of Sciences, Riga, Latvia
1st NBC Tokyo Screen Print Biennial*, Japan
I restart printing screen prints.
2008 Power and People. Baltic States’ contemporary graphics exhibition,
Latvian Artists’ Union Gallery, Riga, Latvia
9th Baltic Sea State Graphics Biennial “Kaliningrad – Königsberg”, Russia
2009 Personal exhibition Look Further! Gallery “Daugava”, Riga, Latvia
2nd NBC Tokyo Screen Print Biennial*, Japan
2010 Personal exhibition New Works, Latvian Academy of Sciences, Riga, Latvia
Personal exhibition Look Further II! Daugavpils University Gallery, Latvia
Contemporary art exhibition Switch, Riga Art Space, Riga, Latvia
2011 Personal exhibition Dark Images Gallery “Daugava”, Riga, Latvia
2012 Graphics from Latvia, Schreiner Foundation Graphics Museum, Bad Steben, Germany*
2014 Grafika-S at Riga Art Space, Latvia
First large-scale screen prints on canvas.
Personal exhibitions
2014 The Incomprehensible Feeling of Distance, Gallery “Daugava”, Riga, Latvia2015 The Incomprehensible Feeling of Distance, “National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall“ Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan*
2016 Personal exhibition in a company of Taiwan screenprint artists FORMOSA. The Beautiful Isle at
Jurmala City Museum. Jūrmala, Latvia
2016 The Incomprehensible Feeling of Distance at Marka Rotko Art Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia
2017 The Point of View at gallery “Daugava”, Riga, Latvia
2018 SCENES at gallery of Kuldiga Artists residences, Latvia
2019 Another Scene at Insignia Art Gallery, Vidzeme Concert Hall, Cesis, Latvia
2019 …and Flow…Janis Murovskis…screenprint… at the Latvian National Mueum of Art, Riga, Latvia
2021 Thinking About You at gallery Istaba, Riga, Latvia
2022 Spring notes Ventspils museum, Ventspils, Latvia
2022 WORKS. SERIGRAPHS. Talsi regional museum, Talsi, Latvia
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Group exhibitions
2015 Anthology of Latvian Graphics 20 - 21st century at Art House, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
2015 MAP OF THE NEW ART. Giorgio Cini Foundation. Venice, Italy
2015 50/50: New Prints 2015/Winter. IPCNY - International Print Centre. New York, USA
2015 International Tokyo mini print triennial. Museum of Tama Art University. Tokyo, Japan
2016 FORMOSA. The Beautiful Isle at Jurmala City Museum. Jūrmala, Latvia
2016 EXPANDING THE SCOPE OF PRINTMAKING. at Taoyan Culture Centre. Taiwan
2017 The 6th China Guanlan International Print Biennial, PRC
2017 Awagami International Miniature Print 2017 Hall of Awa Japanese Paper Museum, Tokushima, Japan
2017 PRINTMAKING IN STORM OF SILENCE Large scale screen print works Shut Up! Riga, Latvia
2018 ORIGIN The Project of the Art Academy of Latvia at Riga Art Space, Latvia
2018 FRIEND'S FRIEND International Contemporary print Ikeda Art Museum, Japan
2018 100 in Latvian Art at Mark Rothko Art centre Daugavpils, Latvia
2018 9th International Printmaking Biennial of Douro, Portugal
2019 13meters per second Jurmala Culture centre, Latvia
2019 Prints of the World Informel Nakagawamura Museum, Nagano pref. Japan
2020 LATVIA - JAPAN miniprints at the GALLERY NEXT CURVE (つぎのカーブ)
Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
2020 35th Anniversary of Printsaurus Fei Art Museum, Yokohama, Tokyo, Japan
2021 BIENNALE MARINA 2021 at the Jūrmala City Museum. Jurmala, Latvia
2021 10th SPLITGRAPHIC BIENNIAL 2021 at the Old City Hall. Split, Croatia
2022 The 8th NBC Meshtec TOKYO INTERNATIONAL SCREEN PRINT BIENNIAL
at the Yurakucho Asahi Hall Square Gallery Tokyo, Japan
2023 14th Biennial International Miniature exhibition BGrace Ross Shanley Gallery, Norwalk, USA
2023 43rd Miniprint international de Cadaqués at the Taller Galeria Fort, Cadaqués, Spain
2023 4th International Art Biennale MARINA 2023 at the Jūrmala City Museum. Jurmala, Latvia
2023 FOOD at the Šiauliai Art gallery, Šiauliai, Lithuania
2023 2nd Japan-Latvia miniprint at the B-gallery, Toshima, Tokyo, Japan
2023 International Printmaking Festival PRINTMAKING IN 2023 at the Riga Art Space. Riga, Latvia
2023 4th International Print Biennial Yerevan. Armenia
2023 SERENISSIMA at the Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, Toruń, Poland
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Projects
Co-organising of exhibitions projects
2020 Stories from Japan. Creating the collection of the Japanese printmakers and organising the exhibition
in collaboration with Mark Rothko centre, Daugavpils, Latvia
2021 1st Latvia - Japan mini print. Gallery Next Curve, Tokyo
2023 2nd Latvia - Japan mini print. B-gallery, Tokyo
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Collections
National Art Museum of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
National Library of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
Jurmala City Museum, Jūrmala, Latvia
National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan
Mark Rotko Art Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia
Collection of the Douro print Biennial. Portugal
Ikeda Art Museum, Urasa, Japan
Nakagavamura Museum, Nagano pref. Japan
Collection of the NBC Meshtec, Jamanashi, Japan
Collection of the Splitgraphic, Split, Croatia
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Accomplishments
1999 Latvian Artists’ Union and Air Baltic Prize, For Riga 900 competition exhibition.2008 Jury Prize for the publication Silver-haired Latvia, under the auspices of the Baltic Book Fair and Baltic Best
Designed Books 2007 (computer graphics jointly created with Ineta Berkmane)
2009 International Exhibition Prize, 2nd NBC Tokyo Screen Print Biennial
2014 Second Prize at the competitive exhibition Yes/InDependence at Jūrmala Artists’ House, Latvia
2018 Honourable mention of jurors 100 in Latvian Art at Mark Rothko Art centre Daugavpils, Latvia
2018 First Prize at the competitive exhibition Yes/InDependence at Jūrmala Artists’ House, Latvia
2020 The Sponsor prize at the competition Grata Prize 2020 The fifth civilization at the Grata gallery. Riga
Jānis Murovskis ©
