The show, open free-of-charge to the public until October 18, is organized by the Art Academy of Latvia in collaboration with the Embassy of Latvia in London.
Five works each by five Latvian artists are now on view at the Latvian Children’s Book Illustration exhibition – Aleksejs Naumovs, Anita Paegle, Indra Sproge, Zane Luse and Juris Petraskevics, who are among Latvia’s most distinguished illustrators of children’s books.
Children’s book illustrations have become a very popular art form in Latvia, for the genre’s combining of images and text, space and time, allowing the artist to express his creativity through the wonderful interplay of literature with visual arts.
Aleksejs Naumovs is the Principal of the Latvian Academy of Art and known for his mastery of landscape painting as well as children’s illustrations.
Anita Paegle is one of Latvia’s favourite illustrators whose meticulous technique produces stunning visual images.
Zane Luse illustrates not only what is read in silence or spoken out loud, but also songs and singing. She is able to visualize moods and intonations with her nuanced coloration, and composition.
Indra Sproge addresses the issue of finding more creative ways to teach children to read and count and has been very involved in children’s education projects.
Juris Petraskevics is a Professor in the Department of Graphic Art at the Latvian Art Academy. He has long been involved in book publishing but also in animation and many of his characters live parallel lives in book illustrations and animated cartoons.