Reports: "Laipa Gallery"

Before start talking about this gallery I should start about the experiences I have walking and walking in other galleries, being on Latvia or another country. The first thing is that average galleries are usually humble and small, where they can host as maximum two exhibitions at the same time. Other thing I should add is that gallery´s space is usually a renewed building which served before for another purpose.

With this, I want to add that Laipa gallery was a very well standard gallery and it doesn´t have anything to envy from other ones I have visited, for example, on Riga or other bigger cities. Laipa gallery is, in fact, a good gallery considering it´s in a small town...well, at least not a very big one.

The first impression I got it is the building looks like a furniture shop rather than a gallery; on my first time I walked through this street I even didn´t notice there was a gallery or that building was actually a gallery. Probably due the “art gallery” description it´s a bit too small against the Wall, as we can see in the following photo:

This was probably the biggest hándicap. Once inside there was a curious impression: half of the gallery is the “gallery” itself: the space which hosts art works of the present artist; this space also hosts several old paintings from 2009 that are still there:

The current exhibition...

..and the veteran paintings.

But then, the other half part of the gallery is not precisely a hosting piece of works...well, yes, I saw considerable amounts of works stranded on boxes and corners. But the interesting part is that this other half is most likely a shop. Well, about this I have a dilemma: for one hand, a gallery must attend the artist´s exhibitions and works; galleries serve for this purpose, to show artists´ works; putting another role in the same building makes the gallery outcast and poorer in level. But on the other hand when I saw this part of the gallery and its position (you need to pass slightly through it to head into the gallery space) I remembered that most of the museums always have a “gift shop” section, aren´t they? not to mention that Laipa´s shop sells mostly design stuff or at least cultural settings such pieces for musical instruments:

In short, I´m saying that having a mid-chaotic and varied “gift” shop in a gallery it´s something that could ward off from the gallery´s main intentions in the world of culture...or could give a close picture about the main´s current space of art: the museums, which they have a commercial space in most of them. And as I said, Laipa´s shop doesn´t sell something foreign from the cultural fluff, as I saw, aside of t-shirts, hand-made earings with latvian motives, rings and wristbands with latvian simbology and postcards from an artist (guess that these postcards were made by the artist himself, thought).

  I talked with the gallery´s warden there and she told me that the building hosts free time art classes too, seemingly art classes for third age people as I briefly heard. I asked this expecting that some art materials were for sale too, but sadly they were materials for the gallery´s pupils. Would be good that, having the gallery their own shop, sell art materials too; it would be interesting and different because not many museums sells painting materials on their own souvenir´s shop:

I could say again the setback of the idiom. But actually the gallery hadn´t too many writings on it. The warden/receptionist was able to speak english with me very correctly and well too. The exhibition didn´t have anything in english however, but as long as I know about a gallery´s function, this part is more a problem of the hosting artist him/herself rather than a problem of the gallery: this means, that an artist who wants to put some of his/her work in a gallery he/she will be responsible in how and what will put on it, including explanations and selling banners; gallery will support and assist at this job but is the artist who can have the final word. Of course “Laipa” could always recommend to artists who are interested in exhibit their works there to write his/her main story in english. This, for example, could have happened when explaining the current exhibition, where the definition is only in latvian:

Book of dedications for the artist.