RIGA.- The Creative Studio of the ARSENĀLS Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga is hosting Hanele Zane Putniņa and Amanda Ziemele’s exhibition of the Eimanda Zeina Collection.

The exhibition turns to the process of assembling a collection and making collection exhibitions as one of the possible exhibition formats. Systematically converting a mass of associations and ideas into objects, Amanda Ziemele and Hanele Zane Putniņa have set up the Eimanda Zeina collection of objects. The exhibition investigates the principles on which collections and collection exhibitions are made. What are the criteria that confirm the significance, longevity and obviousness of collection items? Who determines what becomes a treasure of the collection and what will forever gather dust on the shelves or become lost in order to remain unnoticed?

Created by both authors, Eimanda Zeina is a character, which during the process of making the works is assumed as a shared identity – the originator of the idea, driver of collaboration and author of the exhibition. Eimanda Zeina’s collection includes large-format painterly and printmaking finds, remainders, an ancient mural, linguistic creatures and other bearers of meaning, forming a staged situation which is built according to the principle ‘from the concrete to the abstract’.

The exhibition is accompanied by an educational programme. On 22 August at 18.00 there will be a creative workshop for children aged 6 to 10. On 25 August at 15.00 Talks at the Museum and finissage of the exhibition with Eimanda Zeina and curator of the exhibition Līna Birzaka-Priekule.

Hanele Zane Putniņa (1990) lives and works in Riga. Hanele’s prints are based on mythological creatures from folklore and legends, often transformed by the artist in large-format linocuts. The impressive, apocalyptic figural compositions are interspersed with the modest absurdities of everyday life which she calls ‘Bruegels’.

Hanele is interested in historical printmaking techniques and the history of typefaces as well as their realisation. Following the release of her sizable book Smurgulis un īscaurule [The Brat and the Branch-Pipe] in 2012, artist established the underground publishing house Rakete in Riga. She has held several personal exhibitions in Latvia: The Witch of Riga in Low Gallery and Father Ubu in the Elephant Stable of the Riga Circus as part of Kvadrifrons exhibition programme.

Amanda Ziemele (1990) lives and works in Riga. She sees her creative work as an open field. Artist is interested in the formal qualities of painting and the accompanying field of ideas and contexts.

Amanda Ziemele graduated from the BA programme of the Department of Painting at the Art Academy of Latvia. In 2018, she completed diploma studies in the study programme of interdisciplinary and experimental painting at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. Her diploma project earned the Freundeskreis der HfBK Diplompreis award and was nominated for the Startpoint Prize 2018 for European art graduates.

Amanda has held several personal exhibitions in Latvia and abroad: The Crocodile Dilemma (2016, 427 Gallery), Being Like a Sponge (2018, Candyland Gallery, Stockholm), The Fish with Legs (at the turn of 2018/2019 in the Elephant Stable of the Riga Circus as part of Kvadrifrons exhibition programme), Quantum Hair Implants (2019, kim? Contemporary Art Center). The latter two were nominated for the Purvītis Prize.