Krišs Salmanis

Krišs Salmanis is one of the leading personalities in Latvian art, who works with animation, video, photography, installations and other media. Salmanis creates laconically precise works with multifaceted meanings in which he seemingly strives to find the complex within the simple and vice versa. The artist encodes his reflections and impressions by using common objects in atypical combinations, while at the same time preserving clarity of imagery so that the viewer can comprehend the artist’s message without words. 

In the photography and animation series “Metro Surfer’’ Salmanis employs a fragile stand construction with appended colourful geometric figures to tell us about his three-month-long trip to China. Living in Sichuan province, the observations made with everyday tourist eyes have been turned into constructivist-form choreography in which each real event has an applicable conceptual sign, while the title of the work serves as a key for moods and emotions familiar to viewers to once again emerge from the stand construction.

Construction. Mixed media installation. 2019.