Exhibitions

For over fifty years, the name of textile artist Egils Rozenbergs has been prominent in Latvian, European, and international fiber art. The exhibition “Transfiguration” presents the textile artist’s large-format fiber artworks, which convincingly confirm that ancient textile art, constantly changing the external form and materials and developing current ideas, has the opportunity to develop creatively in the future.

The title of Egils Rozenbergs’ solo exhibition “Transfiguration” can be interpreted in three ways. Firstly, it evokes the biblical story of the transfiguration of Christ; secondly, it denotes an enthusiastic, uplifting change; and thirdly, a change of external form – metamorphosis. The third explanation is directly related to the artist’s oeuvre since his first exhibition in 1968, with its constant change of style, techniques, and materials from classical tapestry to three-dimensional artworks.

Egils Rozenbergs admits that the solo exhibition “Transfiguration” is dedicated to a new revelation of the interesting, changing, and dynamic times we live in: “In our youth, we were fascinated by vinyl records, by the music phenomena of the time, the Beatles. Then came the era of tape recorders with big reels, a time that could be described as Pink Floyd, when small machines replaced wide tapes with narrow reels. Then video took over the whole field, in music, information, and film, and made it possible to find out what was happening internationally because it was impossible to see the latest films in the cinemas. But now that era has also passed, we have come to discs. All the previous technologies are “spiritually” obsolete and forgotten, but the materials, once unique inventions, have survived, and I use them in my woven works. This is to say that the era of fiber transformation has evolved as fast as the latest technologies.”

A conscious move towards art began in 1958 when Egils Rozenbergs enrolled at the Janis Rozentāls Riga Art High School. To be free from dogmatic prejudices, Egils Rozenbergs registered at the Textile Art Department of the Art Academy of Latvia in 1966, where, under the guidance of Professor Rūdolfs Heimrāts, he was able to develop an individually innovative creative handwriting.

However, he felt a strong urge to turn to textile art when he first saw an exhibition of old French tapestries at the Hermitage. However, the young artist followed only the basic idea, expressing original, masculine robustness and expressiveness in his large-scale figurative compositions. The 1990s marked the next cycle of change, perpetuating the romantic, ever-changing image of the infinity of the sea.

Today, in his art, Egils Rozenbergs continues searching for new materials, forms, and signs of the present and the past. Weaving with polyester and polypropylene, successfully combined with natural fibers, Egils Rozenbergs wants to prove that the transition to synthetic materials is natural and correct. Whether good or bad, new technologies are coming into our lives and should be used as a characteristic of our times.

Egils Rozenbergs’ textile works are in museums in various countries and private collections in the USA, Canada, the UK, Denmark, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Latvia, etc.

His talent and creativity are particularly appreciated in France. Two sketches of his creative work have been realized in large-scale tapestries in France, in two historically famous tapestry weaving manufactories – “La Manufacture des Gobelins” in Paris and “La Manufacture des Beauvais” in Beauvais.

Entrance fee: adults EUR 2.00, pupils, students, and senior citizens EUR 1.50.