Elīna Vītola
Elīna’s conceptual work features expressive painting, complex objects, and site-specific projects inspired by personal stories. Elīna works with the medium of painting as a performative element, often combining this technique with ready-made objects or already existing everyday backdrops, which she imbues with new meaning by emphasizing their visuality. Within the framework of her themes, she addresses family history and related topics, which she examines in depth. Through her work, she comes to terms with the information she uncovers, further processing and contextualising it.
Elīna earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in painting from the Latvian Academy of Art. She is the winner of the 2018 Nordic and Baltic Young Artist Award and she was shortlisted for the Purvītis Prize in 2021. Her works are in the collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art and the European Patent Office Collection. In the past, Elīna was a curator at Riga Circus Elephant Stables and LOW gallery.
Double Truth: Reveal
solo exhibition of Elīna Vītola
curated by Diana Kněžínková
Emil Filla Gallery in Ústí nad Labem (CZ)
12. 9. — 9. 11. 2025
The exhibition project aims to explore the topic of truth disclosure that includes a close person – a friend, a partner, or perhaps a family member. The exhibition presents works of the Latvian artist Elīna Vītola, who, in recent years, has been untangling the life and legacy of her relative while also using it as a source of inspiration for her own art practice. As she knew he was as well an artist and disappeared in the Second World War. However, while Vītola was looking for traces of his later life, she unmasked the truth.
Through this exhibition project, we are exploring how to use, exhibit, and talk about artworks inspired by the person who had been uncovered, and overall, how to personally deal with such a discovery. The exhibition will feature both new works inspired by the exposure of the truth, as well as works that were created earlier in connection with the inspirational elements of Vītola’s relative; these works will be shown in a new context and updated interpretations.
