Jānis Murovskis ©

Berta.me

  1. 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”.

  2. 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, Latvia 

    2015   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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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