CURATORS

Roberta Atraste (LV) holds a bachelor's degree in art history and theory and a master's degree from the curators' programme at the Art Academy of Latvia (AAL). In 2024, Roberta pursued further studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna through the Erasmus+ programme. As curator, Roberta has organised several group and personal exhibitions in Latvia and abroad. She edited the visual arts magazine Creative Bureaucracy (Mākslas Žurnāls, 2024), in which she gathered her contemporaries' visual and textual records of bureaucracy in Latvian art. In 2025, Roberta received the award "Emerging Curator!" organised by the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2025 and AAL.

Inga Bruvere (LV) is an artist based in Latvia. In 2001, she also began curating, and in the past 20 years she has organised several projects and exhibitions in Latvia and abroad. Bruvere is the author of the idea for Riga Photo Month and one of the festival's founders (2012). She directed the first Riga Photo Month in 2014 and is also one of the founders and directors of the Riga Photography Biennial (2015). Bruvere's work is included in several collections, including the Latvian National Museum of Art, Daugavpils Mark Rothko Centre and Swedbank's art collections.

Irēna Bužinska (LV) has received an MA from the Art Academy of Latvia. Since 1977 until 2022 has been working at the Latvian National Museum of Art as exhibition curator. She has published more than 300 articles on Latvian art history and contemporary art exhibitions. Since 1989, she has focused on the research of Latvian art history, especially on the legacy of Voldemārs Matvejs, and the activities of artists-photographers, which resulted in the exhibition Hybrid Overflights. The Artist as Photographer. Mid 19th century – 2010, LNMA, Arsenāls Exhibition Hall (2011) and an exhibition of 19th century art photo reproductions at the Art Museum Riga Bourse (2019). Curator of several photography exhibitions by Voldemārs Matvejs, Inta Ruka, Andrejs Grants, Egons Spuris, Aivis Šmulders, Valdis Celms, Atis Ieviņš. Currently, her focus is on the use of photomontage in the 1920s-30s press in Latvia, as well as amateur photo postcards. The book Vladimir Markov and Russian Primitivism: A Charter for the Avant-Garde (in collaboration with Z. S. Strother and Jeremy Howard) has been published by Ashgate (USA, 2015, 2nd edition 2019).

Kristians Fukss (LV) is an artist, curator and journalist who organizes exhibitions at ALMA Gallery.

Iveta Gabaliņa (LV) is a curator and practicing photographer, co-founder and director of the ISSP Gallery. She received a master's degree in curatorial studies from the Art Academy of Latvia, where she is currently continuing with her doctoral studies in art. She has received several international awards for photography, including the C/O Berlin Talents Award (2013), the Burn Magazine Award and the CDS Documentary Photography Award, as well as having been nominated for the Sony World Photography Awards and Leica Oskar Barnack Award. Her works are held in important collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and are regularly exhibited in Latvia and abroad. Alongside creative work, she is one of the organisers of the Annual Art Award of Latvia.

Uldis Jaunzems-Pētersons (LV) is an art historian, curator and is the director of the Talsi Municipality Museum. He received a bachelor's degree in visual/plastic arts and art history from the Art Academy of Latvia and has gone on to do master's studies in art history and theory. He built his professional career as a curator and pedagogue, teaching art history and the history of architecture at RISEBA and visual communication at Riga 41st Secondary School. He has managed dozens of exhibitions in Latvia and abroad, working with a broad circle of contemporary artists. Since 2020, he has been director of the Talsi Municipality Museum, working to strengthen the institution's research work, the development of its collections, and the region's cultural identity. He has been the curator of the Latvian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, and the recipient of the Valdemārs Tone Scholarship.

Paulius Petraitis (LT) is an artist, researcher and curator based in Vilnius. His work explores the expanded field of photography and the ways images function within contemporary sociocultural and technological conditions. He holds a PhD in Art History and Theory from the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, completed in 2024. His research and exhibitions have been presented internationally, including at The Photographers' Gallery, the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tromsø Kunstforening, and the Latvian National Museum of Art, where he curated On Photographic Beings in 2020. Petraitis is a co-editor of And Then It Fades (Away) (2024), a publication on contemporary Lithuanian photography. His artist books are held in major public collections, including the libraries of MoMA, the Met, the International Center of Photography, and the Danish Design Museum.

Maija Rudovska (LV) is an independent curator, art critic, educator and writer. She holds an MA in art history from the Art Academy of Latvia, Riga (2009) and has completed postgraduate studies in curating from Curatorlab at the Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm (2010). Over the past 15 years, Rudovska has curated projects in collaboration with various arts organisations across Europe and overseas, such as: MO Museum (Lithuania), the Manifesta Biennial (for the 13th edition in Marseille), PARSE NOLA (United States), the Fondation Ricard (France), Komplot and the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts (Belgium), Futura (Czech Republic), the Moderna Museet (Sweden), the Kim? Contemporary Art Centre (Latvia), Rupert and the Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius (Lithuania), KUMU Art Museum (Estonia), the Living Art Museum (Iceland), HIAP (Finland), and other locations. Currently she is running an art space, Studija, in Kuldīga and is a PhD student at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Marie Sjøvold (NO) is a visual artist and works with photography, video and photo books. With her camera she explores the outer limits of consciousness, human behaviour, relationships, and rites of passage. A recurring question in her work is how we perceive reality. By way of continuing this, she has examined established concepts and existential issues such as the home, motherhood, time, heritage and new technology. Sjøvold has exhibited at numerous renowned museums, galleries, and art centers, including Deichtorhallen (2014) in Hamburg, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen (2023) in France, Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian in Paris (2015), Liepāja Art Museum in Latvia (2018), Fotografisk Center (2023/2021/2014) in Copenhagen, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (2021), Galleri F15 (2015), Kristiansand Kunsthall (2016), Sandefjord Kunstforening (2021), the Nobel Peace Center (2013), Bomuldsfabriken (2022), and Hå Gamle Prestegård (2023/2016/2015). Her work is represented in collections such as the Preus Museum, the City of Oslo Art Collection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Education and Research. Sjøvold has published several photo books through Journal Förlag, including Dust Catches Light (2011), Midnight Milk (2015) and How Much Silence Can You Take? (2022), in addition to five self-published titles. In 2012, she was awarded the European Photo Exhibition Award by Fritt Ord, and since 2016 she has been cooperating with Riga Photography Biennial as a curator.