1) Mushroom mania in Rīga
Even city dwellers who can't make it into the forests themselves will have a a fleeting chance for fungal fun this weeked with the last couple of days of the annual mushroom exhibition at the Lavian Nature Museum, as we reported earlier this week. To be perfectly honest, the enjoyment comes as much from watching other people examining mushrooms, toadstools and slime molds as it does from enjoying the wealth of fungus on offer.
More info: https://dabasmuzejs.gov.lv/lv
2) Symphonic season in Liepāja
September 16 sees the opening of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra's 143rd concert season at the concert hall “Great Amber”. The first concert of the season will see chief conductor Guntis Kuzma will take the baton for Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2 with Israeli prodigy Yoav Levanon at the piano.
The concert program also features the Concerto for Orchestra by the Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski and a coposition by prominent Liepāja composer Agris Engelmanis.
Even if you don't manage to get a ticket to this particular concert, it is well worth checking out the upcoming season's program.
More info: https://lielaisdzintars.lv/
3) Abstracts and ceramics in Daugavpils
The Mark Rothko Art Center in Daugavpils is currently a hive of activity with several attractive exhibitions being staged at once. This weekend will be your last chance to see the exhibition of British artist John Hoyland, who has been called ‘Europe’s answer to Mark Rothko’ (notwithstanding the fact that Rothko also originated in Europe – Daugavpils to be precise) and his fellow artist Damien Hirst said that he is "by far the most important British abstract painter".
Equally alluring is the exhibition of the 2023 Martinsons Award. This is the fourth time the Latvia Ceramics Biennale has brought together some of the world’s leading ceramicists, throwing Latvia into the spotlight as the current epicentre of activity in ceramic art.
Incidentally, September 15 sees the Rothko Center starting its International Mark Rothko Painting Symposium 2023. Each year, the Mark Rothko Symposium attracts the artist’s followers and admirers – painters who continue to embody his ideas in their own artistic practice, filtering them through their individual stylistic prism. The artists spend two weeks away from their regular setting, mingling and interacting, finding inspiration and creating new artworks for the symposium exhibition.
More info: https://www.rothkocenter.com/en/
