Kaspars Groševs
The multifaceted, consistent work of experimental sound artist Kaspars Groševs (1983) is a significant phenomenon in the development of Latvian contemporary art. The artist is also a curator for exhibition projects both locally and internationally.
The work “Another Room” is an autobiographical artist’s space where we find all the characteristic elements of Groševs activity, i.e. painting, drawing and sound art, as well as revealing his experimental style and employment of grotesque figures. In Groševs’ installations, music is just as important as irony or references to the conceptualists. In this work, he transforms a story about himself into an artistic experience, inviting the viewer to enter another room – his room. In reality, Groševs invites the viewer to get inside the artist’s skin, to sense another person without words, only perceiving the visual stimuli produced by the work and the energy of the electronic music.
Observation plays an essential role in the artist’s portraits and self-portraits, in which both subtle observation and critical and self-critical reflection can be seen. The work "Evita" – a portrait of the artist Evita Vasiļjeva – characterizes the personality. "Hai!" in turn, is a comment on Valdis Āboliņš – the barely perceptible portrait contains a reference to Āboliņš's favourite greeting, with which he begins his message in mail art postcards. "Dopesmoker" is the artist's self-portrait in everyday and self-reflective observation. The works already mentioned, as well as "Dzērājs / Drunkard", were initially exhibited in the TUR space, at the artist's solo exhibition "Café de Paris" in 2024, and were created during the "Cite Internationale des Arts" residency in Paris. In the works "The Old Man Becomes a Tree" and "I Played, I Danced", a captivating world appears, different from everyday life, in which surreal processes take place.
Grošev's painting style is specific, he questions painting and abandons conventional formal techniques, especially in colour. The situations depicted in the works are based on real experience – in the urban environment, in bars and also in the imagination, becoming signs of the times. As in other cases in Grošev's creative work, impressions from music are significant. For example, the composition "Life is Peachy", which depicts ordinary, but also grotesque everyday life in the suburbs of Riga, contains a reference to the title of the 1996 album by the American nu-metal band KORN. Romanticism, excesses and loneliness coexist in equal proportions in Grošev's paintings.
Another Room. 2020.
Evita. 2024.
I Played, I Danced (Š). 2023.
I Played, I Danced (T). 2023.
Dzērājs / Drunkard. 2024.
Pašportrets / Self-Portrait (DOPESMOKER). 2024.
Hai! 2020.
Life is Peachy / Dzīve ir burvīga. 2025.
Vecs vīrs pārvēršas par koku / The Old Man Becomes a Tree. 2025.
Vecs vīrs izlaiž saknes / The Old Man Grows Roots. 2025.
