27.08. - 10.10.2026

Galerija "Māksla XO"

Elizabetes iela 14, Rīga, LV 1010

OLGA SHILOVA

Surface Tension

Surface tension is a physical phenomenon, but in the exhibition it becomes a metaphor for embodied and emotional experience. We are subject to various visible and invisible forces: we adapt, resist, contract, expand, lose our balance and search for it again. At times we try to take up less space in order to protect ourselves; at times we blend into our surroundings; and at other times we keep moving despite resistance.
Surface Tension is a threshold state: between stability and change, vulnerability and strength, the desire to preserve one’s wholeness and the need to change. Yet tension is not only resistance. It also contains the energy that enables us to keep moving, form new connections and seek our own trajectory.
My new exhibition began with a chance discovery: an unfinished figure modelled in wax several decades ago and left for years among sketch folders and papers. Under the effects of time, temperature, gravity and pressure, it had lost its original shape, spreading and flattening. What might initially have appeared to be damage to the material gave the figure a new tension and unexpected vitality. This discovery became the catalyst for two years of work and experimentation.
The laws of physics intertwine with human relationships and inner states. The droplet strives to preserve its wholeness, the vortex draws forms into motion, communicating vessels seek equilibrium, while gravity both binds and drives apart. Here the body is not a fixed, closed form: it deforms, fragments, joins with another, becomes a network of lines, a shell or an imprint, or almost disappears into the surrounding space.
The process of making is also central to the exhibition. Alongside traditional bronze, steel, polystyrene foam, polyurethane and other materials are used to explore their relationships. A welded line becomes a drawing in space, emptiness becomes part of the body, and vivid colour alters the familiar weight and perception of the material. (Olga Shilova, 2026)

Olga Shilova is one of the most recognised Latvian contemporary female sculpture artists, known for her distinctive artistic style. Since 2003, when her Kissers was installed in Limbaži, her sculptures and environmental artworks have adorned and enhanced the urban landscapes of Latvia, including Riga, Jūrmala, Liepāja, Ventspils, Roja and Cēsis.
Olga Shilova’s works attract attention through their humanity and simplicity, while at the same time possessing a profound conceptual foundation and resonance. Their surfaces are delicate and sensitive, resembling living, breathing skin. The artist devotes a significant part of her creative and technical process to the meticulous working of the surface. Perhaps this is precisely why her works seem to call for a place within their surroundings – in public spaces and interiors – where their presence brings both emotional warmth and a sense of poise, becoming a kind of tuning fork for the space. (Ilze Žeivate)

Olga Shilova (1966) has graduated from the Department of Sculpture of the Art Academy of Latvia (1991). Since 2010, she is an associated professor at the Department of Sculpture of the Art Academy of Latvia. Since 1987, Olga Shilova has been participating in exhibitions in Latvia and abord, and has organised more then 17 solo shows.
Olga Shilova’s works are in public collections of Latvian National Museum of Art (Riga, Latvia), Jurmala Museum (Jurmala, Latvia), Ventspils Museum (Ventspils, Latvia), Zuzāns Collection (Zuzeum Art Museum, Riga, Latvia), ROCHE Latvia Art Collection (Riga, Latvia), Art Collection of the Bank of Latvia (Riga, Latvia), Swedbank Contemporary Art Collection (Riga, Latvia), Ventspils Nafta Collection (Ventspils, Latvia), Latvian Bank collection (Riga, Latvia), Royal Copenhagen (Copenhagen, Denmark), Fundacion Murcia Futuro (Murcia, Spain), Toyamura Sculpture Biennale Committee (Hokkaido, Japan).