Art lectures and masterclasses to be held at the Karosta Water Supply Tower on Sundays in July

Thanks to the support of the Liepāja Culture Department, the Artists’ Residence of the Liepāja Karosta Water Supply Tower opens its doors for the fourth summer and welcomes you to art lectures and masterclasses on July Sundays at 17:00, hosted by Egons Peršēvics, a doctoral student at the Art Academy of Latvia and curator of the Karosta Artists’ Residence. The lectures, as well as the tour of the tower, are free of charge!

The Karosta Water Supply Tower Artist Residency project, which was awarded this year’s Latvian Public Media Award "A Kilogram of Culture", is a great opportunity to experience not only the historic architecture of the water tower and its impressive interiors, but also to feel the creativity vibe as you peek into the daily work of outstanding artists.

Sculptor Egons Peršēvics is a prospective Art PhD and teacher with more than 10 years of experience, currently teaching at both the Art Academy of Latvia and the Liepāja Music, Art and Design High School. Among his popular large-scale artworks are the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre’s Ghost Horse, Lotus Milda Sitting, and the popular “Kidnapping of the Sea Mother”. The dominant motifs in the artist’s oeuvre are large-scale public space projects that ironically raise deeply charged political concerns such as ecology, gender equality, various forms of discrimination and the idea of freedom.

This July you are welcome to 4 different lectures and a masterclass:

on 9 July at 17:00 “The Image of Venus in Art – Praxiteles, Botticelli, Ķempe and Me”;

on 16 July at 17:00, plaster cast of the sculpture “Admiral Juris Raķis” - Portrait of a Historian”;

on 23 July at 17:00 “Art as a Language Form – An Insight into Doctoral Research”;

on 30 July at 17:00 “What Art Historians Don’t Tell You – A Practitioner’s Perspective on Art History”

Each lecture will conclude with a guided tour of the tower artists’ studios, under the guidance of the residency’s curator.

For the fourth season, Egons Peršēvics is the curator of the Karosta Water Supply Tower Artist Residency, prompting some of Latvia’s most distinguished artists to relocate their studios and exhibit their works for public review during the summer. Past years have included painters Ritums Ivanovs and Agate Apkalne, Atis Jākobsons, Elīna Zunde and Andris Vītoliņš, Veronika Voļska and Reinis Liepa, while this summer it will be Līga Ķempe, Klāvs Loris and Gunta Lante. To make the most of the water tower’s stunning grounds, only professionals with the undisputed reputation for quality are considered for contributing to the project.

Egons himself also spends his summers working on site in the tower to make it more exciting for the public to watch the artists in action. Last season, he created a number of sculptures there, including the legendary Karosta mermaid and the “Artist’s Manifesto”, which has just been displayed at the sculptor’s personal exhibition in Jūrmala and remains on display above the entrance portal of the Jūrmala Museum. Last summer, the sculptor turned to portrait studies, while this summer his focus shifts to a large-scale sculpture.

The artist residency at the Liepāja Karosta Water Supply Tower has been possible for four years thanks to the support of the company “Liepājas ūdens”, the Karosta Rescue Society, and the Liepāja Culture Department, and can be visited free of charge until the end of the summer every day from 13.00 to 17.00, except for the Līgo holidays on 23 and 24 June.

Follow the latest news about the artist residency at the Karosta Water Supply Tower at: www.facebook.com/karostas.udenstornis and www.instagram.com/karostas.udenstornis.

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