Alongside Reality

Kristīne Upīte (LV)
22/01-28/02/2026

[..]Well-designed things pass unnoticed. In everyday life, we rarely register a chest of drawers whose drawers open smoothly, a door that yields without effort, steps no one stumbles over, a pencil that glides across the page, or a glass that rests comfortably in the hand.
Things draw attention only when they suddenly fail us: when a drawer sticks, when a door hinge creaks and the handle breaks, when a pencil’s tip snaps, when a cracked glass threatens to cut our fingers.
Perhaps the best furnishings and pieces of furniture are those we hardly notice at all, their presence absorbed into a quiet, reliable ease of use.
But what happens if we set aside the view of things solely in terms of handiness or unhandiness? Might they then disclose themselves in their own being?[..]

Kristīne Upīte is an artist and painter who employs a wide range of techniques in her practice, including watercolor, folding paper and metal, ready-made objects, and textile works. Everyday objects often appear in her works, drawn from mass media, advertising, devotional items, museum exhibits, art history, or her personal daily life. These objects are transformed and rearranged, forming a fragmented, subjective, and dreamlike reality. The line frequently becomes a guiding motif in her works, evolving into figures that enact various events within the boundaries of the page. Kristīne Upīte graduated from the Painting Department (MA) of the Art Academy of Latvia and has participated in several exhibitions; the most recent is the solo exhibition “Gentle Primordiality” in Andris Eglītis’s installation Cube No. 4 (2025).

Text: Ainārs Kamoliņš
Graphic design: Elīna Salnāja
Exhibition supported by SCCF