MAKSLA XO

In his works, Janis Sneiders is able to grasp the dramaturgy of the emptiness of the world, revealing it both as a metaphorical and as a spatial phenomenon. For the artist, the space of the painting is a task of a philosophical nature, it is literally a space for thought, because the intellectual tension of depicting goes hand in hand with the technical one. The illusory self-sufficiency of the physical reality in his works transforms into a meditative, all-surrounding existence. With simple means of expression they represent seemingly ordinary pairs of opposite visual elements – dark and light, objects and shadows, background and foreground, black and white, visible and invisible. He works with mirroring his own human condition in existing as well as imagined environments, objects and events. The works ought to be looked at as if they were icons or symbols of thoughts, feelings and memories. Jānis Sneiders’ titles appear just as straightforward and simple as the pictures. Each time, image and title evoke memories, but the associations suffocate for lack of feeding details. Never can we locate, or assign. We read and see something, but understand nothing. By confronting us with this nothingness, Janis Sneiders puts us in a state of limbo in which feelings of attraction and repulsion oscillate. He opens a door in us to the subconscious – and that is fascinating and disturbing at the same time.

Janis Sneiders born in 1995, Tukums, Latvia. He is graduated from the Painting department of the Art Academy of Latvia (2019) and the Visual Communication department of the Art Academy of Latvia (2022). In 2018 he studed at Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (Belgium). In 2020 Janis Sneiders received Claus Michaletz Prize as the best young Eastern European – Baltic artist, from Secco Pontanova Foundation. For his solo exhibition “Vieta” he was nominated for the most prestigious Latvian prize in fine arts – Purvitis Prize 2021. In 2019 he received best Young Painter Award from Nordic and Baltic Young Artist Award, connecting Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Finnish art academies. Since 2014 Janis Sneiders has participated in more then 30 group exhibitions in Latvia and abroad, as well as held 10 solo exhibitions in Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Sweden. Janis Sneiders’ works in public collections: Latvian National Museum of Art (Riga, Latvia), Secco Pontanova Foundation (Berlin, Germany).

Since 1999 the Maksla XO Gallery has developed its focus on contemporary and emerging art-painting, sculpture and works on paper-ranging from traditional representation to contemporary forms of urban and social art.