Inga Meldere

Inga Meldere (1979)

“The content of Inga Meldere’s (1979) paintings involves the processing of personal memories. Her work and exhibitions are inspired by her family or deeply personal events. Although she sometimes reveals the specific sources of her inspiration, she more often chooses to remain silent on this matter. As a result, the tonal painting itself comes to the foreground. Meldere paints lightly and quickly. She covers the underdrawing with only a few fields of colour to create general shapes and then blends the contours of the fields to soften the form. By creating a fragmented composition and leaving it in a certain state of incompleteness, she gives the viewer room to create his or her own interpretation.

Currently Meldere paints on relatively small canvases and in various formats, which, when exhibited in a scattered manner, highlight the evanescence of her beloved pastel tones. Meldere often chooses fairly fragile combinations of materials and techniques, such as oil paints on paper. The fragments of reality contained in her work and the way she brings the surrounding atmosphere into the foreground lead the viewer to ponder the ephemeral nature of people and things. Thus Meldere frees herself of details and convincingly reveals the inevitability painful feeling of loss.

Meldere has a Bachelor’s degree in pedagogy (2001) with a specialization in visual art and art history from Department of Pedagogy and Psychology at the University of Latvia. She also has Bachelor’s (2005) and Master’s (2007) degrees from Department of Restoration at the Art Academy of Latvia. Her work has gained the attention of curators outside of Latvia, resulting in her participation in a number of international group exhibitions. Author and curator Jurriaan Benschop has described Meldere as “definitely one of the most interesting painters working in Latvia at the moment. Her work deserves to be noticed and regarded in the wider context of international contemporary painting,”
Kulakova Ieva. Latvian Contemporary Art 2007 – 2012: The Purvitis Award. – Riga: Arterritory.com, 2013.

Inga Meldere’ works are in public collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art (Riga, Latvia), Finnish State Art Collection and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki, Finland).