Leonards Laganovskis

Leonards Laganovskis (1955)

“My works encourage viewers to read, remember and think, and getting a pleasure from the work of the grey cells.” Leonards Laganovskis.

Leonards Laganovskis is one of the most visible conceptual artists in Latvia. His works are riddles for the mind that are based on science, literature, memories and associations. Leonards Laganovskis works in different fields of art, like stage design, graphic art, painting, drawing, photography, objects, etc.
In the early 1990s, Laganovskis increasingly turned his attention to the destruction of specific archetypes, often employing both irony and humour. Today, his work tends to concern social policy, consumer society and culture.
Laganovskis’ art is ruthlessly topical, where irony and imagery coexists, and their tandem creates several layers of perception. All of his works are creations of intellectual observations. Although artist’s works are formal, extremely filigree and masterful, their aesthetics are secondary. Therefore, to perceive such art, similar tools of how it was created are required – an intellectual interest to look in the eyes of self-evident assumptions, see the processes more widely. In this moment of revelation, emotions are eminently present, making seemingly intellectually and cold conceptualism into perceptible, interesting and even emotional art.
Laganovskis doesn’t feel like he belongs to the present. Maybe it is the feeling of being half-step into the future. He is always interested in all that is new, the processes. It shows in the fact that he doesn’t enjoy the “taste” of things that have already been seen and discussed. And texts are the only means of how he is able to go back to the past. He believes in the principle that the WORD was the first, hence the text has more essential role in his works than, for example, colour.

Leonards Laganovskis (1955) has studied at the Department of Interior Design and graduated from the Department of Set Design (1979) at the Art Academy of Latvia. The artist has wide international experience and reputation. Since 1984, he has participated in more than 70 group shows around the world and organized 32 solo shows. From 1988 to 1994, he was a resident in Berlin, participating in the local art life, organizing solo exhibitions, as well as taking part in the group exhibitions. He has received various grants and scholarships in Germany, such as Kunstlerhaus Bethanien (1991, Berlin, Germany), Landeskulturzentrums Salzau Grant (1992, Kiel, Germany), The Banff Center for the Arts Grant (1992, Canada), Culture Senate Berlin (1995) and others. During this time, his works were acquired by such recognisable German art collections as Neue Berliner Kunstverein (Berlin), Kupferstich Kabinett (Bremen), Kunsthalle Bremen (Bremen), Reha-Klinik Lubben (Brandenburg). His works are also in other important art collection – Latvia National Museum of Art (Riga, Latvia), Latvian Contemporary Art Museum Collection (Riga, Latvia), Artphilein Foundation (Vaduz, Liechtenstein), Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA), Art Museum of Estonia (Tallinn, Estonia), National Centre for Contemporary Art (Moscow, Russia), S.P.Diaghilev Museum of Contemporary Arts (St. Petersburg, Russia), Eesti Pank (Tallinn, Estonia), and various private collections around the world.
In 2010, Laganovskis was invited to take part in Kunst am Bau Competition Berlin Brandenburg International Airport BBI, Berlin Schoenefeld, in the waiting area Berlin, Germany.
Leonards Laganovskis lives and works in Riga, Latvia.