“Art should raise questions, providing a space for imagination and reflection. It must inspire.”

The painting series “Time Line” confronts the viewer in the city’s center, in the social forest, where the viewer is immersed in the artist’s personal stories. The collection of works depicts the author’s space-time flow, which generates new dimensions as she interacts with the audience. The author reflects on regular occurrences, observations, and symbolic language that serve as a keeper of personal memories. In return, the depicted images reflect on the realities of this world. The relationship between temporal and spatial information produces an intimate and personal atmosphere into which the viewer emerges as if they were rewinding the author’s social media timeline. Social media profiles are becoming significant in our professional and personal lives. Everyone chooses what to share, what not to share, and how to accept what they see – whether to Like or Share. The timeline refers to the past and present while reflecting on the future, recognizing that daily decisions affect and influence this flow. We each build our own timeline, yet nothing is linear; there is always uncertainty. As a symbolic metaphor for time and the interconnectedness of cause and effect, “Creation” is the artist’s interpretation of Michelangelo’s fresco “The Creation of Adam” (1512).

Self-evaluation of painting. Line, space, and thinness in a large form. Entering into unreality that arises at the time of drawing or painting. It is like escaping time and space, creating your own time window with your protagonists and a different environment, and putting it in exact symbols containing a message, with self-irony and a grotesque representation of reality, permeated with emotion through simplified forms.

Laura Daina Upeniece (1994) has an academic degree and works primarily in painting, graphics, and sculpture. She completed her Master's degree at the Art Academy of Latvia, Department of Painting (2023). She improved her knowledge by participating in exchange programs and master classes at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma in Italy and the École supérieure d'Art et Design de Saint-Étienne in France. She has participated in group exhibitions in Latvia and abroad: in the first virtual exhibition of the Latvian Artists’ Union “Mākslas dienas 2020. Covid-19” (“Art Days 2020. Covid-19”) with the work “Society” and in the student exhibition of the Art Academy of Rome Hanami 2022 at the Botanical Garden of Rome with the installation “White Cube”. Her first solo exhibition “Kokgrauzēji” was presented at the TVAIKS Art Center at the end of 2023.