Zane Lūse – Exhibition “Stories with Happy Endings” opening on April 12, 2020

As Ogre was adorned in festive splendour, sparkling with lights, a Christmas tree, and angels, the Ogre History and Art Museum hosted the city’s central cultural event – an exhibition by painter Zane Lūse titled Stories with Happy Endings.

This is Zane Lūse’s tenth solo exhibition, with most of the paintings created in the last four months, making it particularly special.

The clasp of two hedgehogs’ tiny paws, the human-like gaze of seals, a moth in unexpected sunglasses, large heads with singing mouths on long matchstick necks, a kind bear’s striped sweater in a caraway field – these are just a few fragments that, like colourful shards of glass, fall into place, forming patterns on the mirrored walls of a kaleidoscope. Through painter Zane Lūse’s illuminated prisms, they reveal our world, reflecting ourselves, our realities and our attitudes.

Zane Lūse’s paintings – whose titles also serve as keys to witty narratives – are characterised by distinctive imagery. They evoke associations with Alice falling into Wonderland, where the living sometimes seem lifeless and the lifeless strangely alive, where animals resemble humans and humans resemble animals. However, unlike the tale of Alice, this is not a fictional story. It is the world in which we live, breathe and think, and just like the hedgehogs depicted by the artist, we choose either to hold hands or to extend our quills in defence or attack.

Often, having expressed herself ironically with brush and paint on canvas, the artist herself quietly stands behind her distinctive characters, observing the viewer before her paintings with a human warmth and a gently philosophical gaze – at times wistful, at times playful. And she smiles as she sees our own smiles unfold, because we have glimpsed the living world around us in a new light and realised that we are not alone in this world and that most stories have happy endings.

The artist obtained her Master’s degree in 2001 from the Department of Figurative Painting at the Latvian Academy of Arts and works in the classical oil-on-canvas technique. She has been participating in exhibitions since 1999, some of which have been displayed in Paris.

One of her exhibitions was dedicated to the composer Raimonds Pauls. The paintings were named after his song titles or the most recognisable lines from his lyrics, beloved and familiar to many – for example, Seagulls Speak to Me Again, Here Is My Homeland, and Wild Rose.

Alongside her work for adult audiences, the painter has also illustrated children’s books – Māra Cielēna’s On the Way to Christmas, Rudīte Raudupe’s Brincis the Cat, and Imants Ziedonis’ Tales of Bear Andrejs – infusing them with a lively spirit.