Aleksejs Naumovs – Painting Exhibition “Landscapes” (Oct 8 – Nov 21, 2021)

Aleksejs Naumovs is one of the most prominent contemporary Latvian plein air painters and an outstanding master of the interplay of colour and light. In the summer of 2021, the artist painted in France while staying at the art residency at Château d’Esparrou. All the works were created outdoors, reflecting his deep appreciation of France and its natural landscape.

Aleksejs Naumovs is a virtuoso of fleeting moods, precisely capturing and poetically revealing the unique character of atmosphere while incorporating his traveller’s observations and reflections into the landscape. The ever-changing scenery – with its shifting clouds and emerging shadows in the inevitable passage of daylight – has led the artist to refine the alla prima, or “one-sitting”, technique. This style of painting is characterised by spontaneity, without preliminary sketches, with works begun and completed outdoors.

Professor and Rector of the Art Academy of Latvia from 2007 to 2017, Naumovs is an active cultural figure in Latvia. He has served on numerous jury commissions, acted as Cultural Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia to France, and worked as a visiting professor at several European art academies. He has initiated, led and curated exchange programmes and exhibitions within collaborative art projects in Italy, France, Japan, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Russia, the United States and elsewhere. He has regularly participated in exhibitions since 1979 and has held more than sixty solo exhibitions.

For almost thirty years, Aleksejs Naumovs has also worked consistently in book illustration. In 2011, he received the Jānis Baltvilks Prize for the illustrations and design of Māra Cielēna’s book Princess Aurēlija and the Tree Ghosts.