The exhibition explores the boundary between the personal and the public. The paintings become a space where silence collides with information overload, revealing how conditional and shifting our understanding of private space has become today. Together, the works form a reflection on social structures, our mechanisms of adaptation, and collective and individual tensions, creating a distinctive documentation of our time.

Dārta Madara Cielava is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in painting. Although she is trained as a painter, other media and materials also play an important role in her practice. Each technical solution is chosen deliberately, allowing painting to become a language that freely extends beyond the boundaries of a single medium.

The artist reflects:

“I am a student. I have school, work and a home. And at home I also work, paint, write, and send endless strings of emails. Routine emerges from a combination of comfort and small problems and joys. I am affected by the expensive heating in my rented home; I am affected by stupid, thoughtless remarks made by people whose staged plays we are all subjected to. My bed is my safety; it is like the starting point of a coordinate plane. I am not untouchable; I am in a cage I have built myself. Stepping out of it marks the beginning of a new act.”

In her work, Dārta Madara Cielava approaches everyday objects as signs that form a personal visual language. Her compositions emerge intuitively, seeking connections between what is seen and what is experienced, between the physical environment and its emotional resonance. Rather than attempting to provide unequivocal answers, the artist draws attention to questions and experiences that characterise everyday life today.

Her paintings bring together impasto brushstrokes, vivid colours and areas of unpainted linen canvas. This contrast creates a balance between presence and absence, allowing meaning to emerge not only from what is depicted, but also from what remains unspoken.

Dārta Madara Cielava was the laureate of the 2025 competition exhibition “Artists of Ogre Municipality”, receiving the award for her work Opis nezin manu vārdu (Grandpa Doesn’t Know My Name), which portrayed a deeply personal story from the artist’s life.

The jury consisted of Māris Grosbahs, curator of exhibitions at the Ogre History and Art Museum; photographer Georgs Avetisjans; art historian Māra Lāss; graphic artist and art historian Valdis Villerušs; and scenographer and multimedia artist Ineta Sipunova.

As the winner of the competition’s main prize, the artist was given the opportunity to hold a solo exhibition in the museum’s Grand Hall in 2026. Through Opis nezin manu vārdu, the artist addresses a relatively new and increasingly relevant subject in Latvian painting — dementia.

For the Ogre History and Art Museum, supporting emerging artists from the municipality, fostering their professional development, and increasing the visibility of their work within the broader cultural landscape are important aspects of its mission.

Exhibition artist: Dārta Madara Cielava

Project manager: Elīna Cērpa

Creative process mentor: Madara Kvēpa

Graphic design: Kristīne Martinova

Photography: Oksana Okmi Mizgajeva

“It’s nice when you accidentally spill some paint and no one gets angry, but quickly helps you clean it up.”
— exhibition / creative workshop participant

The programme was created as an inspiring and educational experience, giving participants the opportunity not only to engage in creative activities, but also to explore different forms of art, ask questions to professional artists, and learn more about their everyday work, creative journeys and the specific nature of their professions.

The exhibition “ART IN MOTION – SUMMER IN OGRE” is a beautiful conclusion to the museum’s summer creative workshop series, which brought together children and young people throughout the summer to explore various forms of contemporary and traditional art through hands-on workshops led by professional artists.

During the summer, participants experimented with batik, creative writing, performance art, sculpture, oil painting, acrylic painting and abstract art techniques, while also learning about the artists’ everyday work, creative processes and professional practices.

The exhibition showcases not only the techniques the participants learned, but also the personality, imagination and creative growth of each young artist. These are both small and large stories about a summer filled with colour, movement, ideas and the joy of creating.

The workshops were led by fashion designer Liena Subatiņa–Brazeviča, writer Laura Ikauniece, performance artist Māra Gaņģe, sculptor Oto Holgers Ozoliņš, painter Dārta Madara Cielava, monumental painter Ilze Krastiņa, and visual communication artist Auce Biele.

The exhibition opening took place during the Ogre City Festival in the Small Hall of the Ogres Museum of History and Art.

Project manager: Liena Subatiņa–Brazeviča
Graphic design: Kristīne Martinova

Photos: Liena Subatiņa–Brazeviča, Voldemārs Polis and Laura Tuča

Pēteris Zelkāns–Kūkseliņš (1896–1941)

Laikrakstā 1941. gadā publicētie sludinājumi par Jumpravas pagasta izpildkomitejas darbinieku veiktajām laupīšanām bēgšanas laikā.

Jumpravas pagasta partizāns Kārlis Balodis (1911–?)

Laikrakstā 1941. gadā publicēts piespiedu kārtā aizvesta šofera meklēšanas sludinājums.

The exhibition “Between Two Occupations” tells about events in the Ogre region from June 22 to July 6, 1941. It was a time when the troops and officials of the communist occupation regime were leaving the territory of Latvia, while the period of Nazi occupation had not yet begun.
It was a complex and chaotic time, characterized by uncertainty, looting, deaths caused by military actions, and the murder of civilians. At the same time, it was also a moment of bold and sometimes desperate hope, when many inhabitants of Latvia, with weapons in their hands, tried to drive the communist occupation regime from their land, believing that the worst was already behind them.

Exhibition author: Inese Dreimane
Design: Rolands Vēgners
Graphic design: Estere Vītola

Sound design: Krista Dintere

In the images:
Notices published in a newspaper in 1941 about looting carried out by employees of the Jumprava Parish Executive Committee while fleeing.

A notice published in a newspaper in 1941 searching for a driver who had been forcibly taken away.

Jumprava parish partisan Kārlis Balodis (1911–?). Arrested on April 30, 1949. On July 18, 1949, the Military Tribunal of the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) of the Latvian SSR sentenced him to 25 years of imprisonment and 5 years of exile. He was imprisoned in Krasnoyarsk Krai. Released on June 11, 1955.

Pēteris Zelkāns–Kūkseliņš (1896–1941). Lived in Riga. Taken off a train at Ogre station and shot on June 24, 1941, on suspicion of attempting to seize a Red Army officer’s pistol on the train.

Ārija Skudra. Experience. 1976. Linen, batik. 92 x 81 cm

Ārija Skudra. 1965.

Ārija Skudra at work. 1975.

Ārija Skudra. Photograph from the pages of “Rīgas modes” magazine. 1991.

Ārija Skudra. Photograph from the pages of “Rīgas modes” magazine. 1988.

Ārija Skudra. Photograph from the pages of “Rīgas modes” magazine. 1988.

Ārija Skudra. Song for Riga. Linen, batik. 116 x 130 cm

Photo: Oksana Okmi Mizgajeva

Photo: Oksana Okmi Mizgajeva

Photo: Oksana Okmi Mizgajeva

Photo: Oksana Okmi Mizgajeva

2026. On March 13, a solo exhibition by artist and fashion designer Ārija Skudra, “The Queen of Hats and Her Batiks,” was opened at the Ogre History and Art Museum. The exhibition showcases her vibrant creative life’s contribution – from felt hat design to batiks.

Ārija Skudra (born March 3, 1942, in Ciemupe) is one of Latvia’s most significant fashion and hat designers. From 1970 to 1994, she worked at the Riga hat and felt products factory “Rīgas Filcs,” where she created prototypes for women’s, men’s, and children’s headwear for mass production. These works became a benchmark for good taste and quality; they were regularly showcased at fashion shows in Riga, Minsk, and other USSR Fashion Houses in Latvia and abroad.

“An elegant woman cannot exist without a felt hat!” – this conviction characterized the aesthetics and professional approach of her era. Hats were made from high-quality felt – goat, sheep, merino, rabbit, and hare wool, with minimal chemical fiber admixture. Fashion trends changed, and the designer, who worked for a long time at “Rīgas Filcs,” followed them, creating several hundred prototypes. Her hats vary in shape, ranging from the popular canotiers, berets, and wide-brimmed hats of the 20th century 60. to the compact, close-fitting hats with exquisite details popular in the 20th century. 80. The headwear created by the artist was frequently used in fashion shows, and after their introduction into production, many bought and wore them. However, at that time, the names of mass production authors, including hers, were not indicated on the product trademarks. Therefore, the exhibition “The Queen of Hats and Her Batiks” is a conscious step to include Ārija Skudra’s name in the history of Latvian fashion design of the second half of the 20th century.

The artist received her art education at J. Rozentāls Riga Art Secondary School. Ārija Skudra did not manage to obtain higher education. However, throughout her life, parallel to her work at the hat factory, she engaged in painting. 1966. In 1976, she began attending the Painting Studio at the Culture House of the Tram and Trolleybus Department and regularly participated in exhibitions organized by amateur artists with landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and figural compositions in oil technique. Following the advice of the studio director, artist Nikolajs Petraškevics, Ārija Skudra mastered the batik technique, developing her individual style. In batiks, created from the 20th century 70. to the beginning of the 21st century, the artist’s ability to create generalized figural compositions and nature motifs with a distinctly decorative character and virtuoso line rhythm is most convincingly revealed.

Ārija Skudra has been a member of the Latvian Designers’ Union since 1990.
The exhibition features hats from the collection of the National History Museum of Latvia, batiks from the artist’s collection, as well as copies of images from the magazine “Rīgas Modes” from the National Library of Latvia.

Exhibition Curator: Mg. Art Irēna Bužinska

Exhibition Scenographer: Ineta Sipunova

2026. On January 10 Ogre History and Art Museum opened an exhibition of drawings by artist Modris Brasliņš “Two”, in which portraiture is revealed as a visual practice in the study of the border zones of human consciousness and unconsciousness. The exhibition offers more than 20 black and white drawings made with minimal means of expression — paper and pencil.
The exhibition “Two” highlights portraiture not as a fixation of external resemblance, but as a process that reveals the tension between the visible and the invisible, between the surface of consciousness and the deepest layers of the psyche. Modris Brasliņš’s series of drawings covers both models personally close to the artist and more distant ones, bringing a psychological and existential perspective to the forefront.
Braslins seems to think in images, created through the process of drawing, while most of us think in words. Unlike verbal thinking, which structures experience in linear, logical sequences, pictorial thinking maintains a connection to more archaic perceptual mechanisms, in which time and meaning are not subject to rational hierarchy. In this context, drawing becomes a medium in which time expands multidimensionally—it is both linear and measurable, and lateral, recessive, and vertical, revealing experience as a continuous, endless process.

The title of the exhibition “Two” marks the dualism that runs through the entire exhibition: consciousness and unconsciousness, viewer and image, presence and distance, external and internal. This division is not static, it exists as a dynamic tension, in which each portrait acts simultaneously as a reflection and as a mirror.

Modris Brasliņš graduated from painting workshops of A. Naumovs and K. Zariņš of the Latvian Academy of Arts. He has participated in several international drawing biennials in India, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, as well as actively involved in the processes of contemporary art in Latvia. He was an artist for the magazine “Rīgas Laiks”, received several awards, for example, recognition at the international drawing biennial in India and the Latvian Book Publishers Association competition “Golden Apple”. Modris Brasliņš lives and works in Ogre.

The creation of the exhibition was supported by an author’s scholarship from the AKKA/LAA association.

The exhibition was on display at the museum until March 29.

Exhibition Curator: Māris Grosbahs

Graphic Design: Modris Brasliņš

Exhibition Design: Modris Brasliņš, Māris Grosbahs

Communications Specialist: Laura Tuča

Technical Implementation: Guntars Andersons, Nils Miķelsons

The exhibition “Geoprocesses” was unveiled at the Ogre History and Art Museum — a multidisciplinary art and research project that explores, through visual and spatial narratives, the landscapes of the Ogre region, their historical layers, and human impact on nature. Geoprocesses are natural phenomena that significantly influence the formation of the Earth’s surface. The exhibition raises questions about how human activity intensifies, alters, or slows down these processes, and how such changes are reflected in the landscapes we inhabit.

The exhibition pays special attention to five elements — wood, peat, subsoil, soil, and water. These reveal both human daily needs and natural processes that affect the ecosystems we inhabit.
How have we changed the environment around us over centuries? Is it possible to achieve a balance between the use of natural resources?
The exhibition “Geoprocesses” offers an opportunity to see the environment beyond conventional perceptions — as a dynamic and living system in which humans are just one of the participants.
The author of the exhibition concept is designer and environmental communication researcher Mg. art. Ance Janevica. Her master’s thesis focused on the challenges of environmental communication, analysing public attitudes and the role of design in addressing environmental issues. Ance Janevica’s work has received international recognition and has been exhibited in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Taiwan, China, the United Kingdom, and Latvia.

Exhibition concept and design: Mg. Art. Ance Janevica
Project management: Elīna Cērpa
Texts: Dr. Phil. Anne Sauka and Mg. Art. Tīna Alise Drupa
Sound design: Krista Dintere
Graphic design: Ance Janevica and Bumbierkoks

Photo: Oksana Okmi Mizgajeva

On October 10, 2025, the exhibition Krape Cemetery Stories: Religious Beliefs of Krape Parish Based on Archaeological Material was opened at the Ogre History and Art Museum.

The exhibition was based on archaeological finds from burial sites in the Krape area, covering the period from the 4th to the 17th–18th centuries. It offered a unique opportunity to explore a little-studied period in the history of Krape parish, as well as ancient ideas about life, death and faith.

The arrival of Western European Catholicism marked a turning point; however, although the local people were baptised, Christianity as a religion took root slowly. Archaeological finds in Latvia indicate that over the centuries syncretism – the merging of Christianity with pre-existing religious beliefs – developed in the territory of present-day Latvia. The Krape cemetery, which was not associated with a church, reflects traditions practised by the local population, where elements of paganism intertwined with Christian symbols.

What do the grave goods tell us? How did the inhabitants of Krape perceive death? The exhibition’s content and its creators offered answers to these questions.

The exhibition was open to visitors from October 10, 2025 to January 4, 2026.

Historian: Kristīne Zaķīte
Project manager: Māris Grosbahs
Exhibition artist and scenographer: Georgs Avetisjans
Technical implementation: Guntars Andersons, Nils Miķelsons

From October 18 to March 1, the solo exhibition “Journey in Silence” by painter Valdis Kaprālis was on view at the Taurupe Manor Granary, organised by the Ogre History and Art Museum in cooperation with Taurupe Manor Granary. This was the first exhibition created by the Ogre History and Art Museum in this newly opened cultural space, and the collaboration is expected to continue as a tradition.

Valdis Kaprālis (born 1954) is best known as a landscape and still-life painter. In his oil paintings, motifs from nature acquire symbolic and generalised meaning, shaped by the principles of tonal painting. Painting has been his way of life and passion since childhood. The works presented in the exhibition resemble personal stories rooted in the artist’s lived experience. His self-portrait, along with the paintings “Cesvaine Castle” and “Autumn Evening”, reveal both his professional mastery and his deep connection with the landscape and environment in which he lives and works.

“I seek nature’s energy and its connection with humans. If a person tries to perceive it within themselves, they don’t feel superfluous; they draw energy from it for themselves. And if you put this energy into your work, it remains there. Then the person who comes tolook can also take a little for themselves,” says the artist.

Valdis Kaprālis was born in Amur Oblast, where his family was exiled in 1949. He returned to Latvia at the age of four and continued his life in Cesvaine, where he was active both as an artist and a public figure. Kaprālis was one of the founders of the Cesvaine branch of the Popular Front of Latvia, served as head of the municipality, and held positions at the Environmental Protection Fund and Riga City Council. Since 2001, Valdis Kaprālis has lived in Ikšķile.

The exhibition venue, Taurupe Manor granary, is a significant cultural and historical site that has recently undergone restoration and been transformed into a multifunctional community centre. In the second-floor exhibition spaces, characterised by light and openness, Valdis Kaprālis’s works create a distinctive meditative atmosphere that resonates harmoniously with the spirit of the place.

The exhibition was open to visitors from October 18 to March 1, 2026.

Exhibition organisers:
Ogre History and Art Museum in cooperation with Taurupe Manor Granary

Exhibition curator:
Elīna Cērpa

Exhibition scenography:
Ineta Sipunova

Graphic design:
Anitra Eglīte–Poikāne / SIA “Bumbierkoks”

Public relations specialist:
Laura Tuča

Exhibition supported by:
Ogre Municipality

Photo: Oksana Okmi Mizgajeva

At the Ogre History and Art Museum, the exhibition Ogre’s Dawn was on display, dedicated to one of the less exhibited yet significant elements of the city’s cultural and historical environment – historic fence posts.

The exhibition highlighted the development of Ogre as a resort town from the second half of the 19th century, when the construction of summer houses became a key factor in shaping the urban landscape. During the Soviet period, Ogre was transformed into an industrial centre, which altered its historical structure and architecture. Nevertheless, despite these changes, historic fence posts have survived in many parts of the city, bearing witness both to former property boundaries and to the craftsmanship of local builders and the taste of property owners.

In 2018, the Ogre Development Society identified historic summer houses in Ogre and created several informative walking routes. While studying the urban environment, attention was drawn to fences – a form of small-scale architecture marking the boundary between public and private space. These fences feature decorative elements on the façades of their concrete posts – ornaments, symbols and patterns that carry both aesthetic and historical significance. A stylised sun motif often appears on the posts. What might be the origin of this symbol? Are the decorations purely ornamental, or do they hold a deeper meaning?

The exhibition offered insight into the early development of Ogre and the Latvian state – a time when the urban environment was still taking shape. Perhaps it is precisely in these small architectural forms, where practicality and symbolism from the past converge, that we may find answers to whether the romantic spirit born more than a century ago remains relevant today.

The exhibition featured original concrete fence posts discovered in the Ogre area, analogue photographs showing them within the urban landscape, and thematic displays on their types and manufacturing techniques. Its aim was to provide historical insight and to encourage the preservation and restoration of fences characteristic of Ogre’s cultural and historical environment, thereby emphasising the uniqueness of the city’s urban identity.

The exhibition Ogre’s Dawn was on display from August 8 to October 10. On the opening day, admission was free, and visitors had the opportunity to create a unique concrete post print on a T-shirt.

Exhibition concept author and curator: Zigmārs Jauja

Project manager: Ilze Staģīte

Photographer: Zigmārs Jauja

Historical research and concrete post survey in the urban environment conducted by: Zigmārs Jauja and Uldis Apinis

Educational section artists: Signe Kraukle and Karīna Kēberga

Exhibition graphic publicity: Signe Kraukle, Zane Kalniņa

Drawings: Sarmīte Munde

Video story author: Pēteris Zilberts

Description of manufacturing technology: Laura Zunda-Poča

Concrete post measurements and drawings: Laura Zunda-Poča and Ilze Mekša

Newly manufactured concrete post by SIA “MT Sēta” production facility, Intars Sniedze

Ogre History and Art Museum working group: Jānis Ziņģītis, Elīna Cērpa, Laura Tuča, Māris Grosbahs, Nils Miķelsons and Guntars Andersons

The exhibition was created with the financial support of Ogre Municipality and the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, as well as with the technical support of the Ogre History and Art Museum, SIA “SND”, SIA “Parrot Telpa”, and SIA “MT Sēta”. Thanks to the Cinītis family, Jānis Balodis, Edīte Kalniņa, and all members of the Ogre Development Society and their families for their support in creating the exhibition

Photo: Oksana Okmi Mizgajeva

On June 7, 2025, Dace Voitkeviča’s solo exhibition Boy, Listen! opened at the Ogre History and Art Museum.

The exhibition is the photographer’s personal visual story, enriched with interactive elements, about a child’s life with autism spectrum disorder. The challenges associated with autism are sometimes invisible, yet public understanding can significantly strengthen support for diverse needs. People with autism spectrum disorders have a rich inner world but often find it difficult to share it with others. Like everyone else, they explore the world and seek connection and security in their own way. By highlighting both differences and shared experiences, the exhibition encourages greater awareness of the realities of everyday life.

In Latvia, several initiatives dedicated to autism have taken place to promote public understanding and provide support. However, exhibitions specifically devoted to autism spectrum disorders have been relatively rare.

On June 7, Ogre celebrated Family Day with an extensive programme. For the Ogre History and Art Museum, it was important to involve the public in this conversation and to support family values, with particular attention to children with special needs and their parents. The museum environment is accessible to people with functional disabilities.

The exhibition’s author notes:
“Sometimes support does not require much – just an understanding of the challenges that people with autism face every day.”

Dace Voitkeviča is a photographer whose work focuses on documentary stories about contemporary society, communities of interest, and the environment. She holds a Master’s degree in Art History from the Latvian Academy of Arts and a Master’s degree in Art Management from the Latvian Academy of Culture. For more than ten years, she has organised photography events and exhibitions for wide audiences, bringing together professionals, amateurs, and representatives of various socially vulnerable groups.

The exhibition was open from June 7 to September 28, 2025.

Spatial design: Māris Grosbahs
With thanks to Līva Veigure for her support in developing the exhibition.

Photo: Dace Voitkeviča