Daiga Grantina
Daiga Grantina (Saldus, Latvia, 1985) lives and works in Paris. She studied at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
Grantina’s sculptures investigate the encounters between materials and their consequent relationships of dissonance and consonance. Her material gestures resonate with the structural shifts of organisms and environments, navigating relations of volume and form at the point where microscopic and macroscopic overlap and intersect. Her abstract vocabulary borrows from bodies and landscapes to explore indescribable matter, a plastic investigation of the formless and misshapen. Intuitively concocted forms self-consume and self-produce, at once a continuous development of a shared idea and a space of tension where the hierarchies of perception find themselves rearranged.
Venta (after Orta) is one of the principle works from a series created during Grantina’s residency in the Alpine region of Piedmont, nearby Lake Orta. Observing nature’s negotiation of minute physical phenomena on the water’s surface – between the tensioned ripples, reflections of light and water-straddling insects – influenced Grantina’s sculptural research with the investigation of colour at its core. Orchestrating a novel encounter with materials and space, the project unfolds through a rhythmed pattern of small-scale sculptures. Comprising various moments of transformation and geometry, the materials are poured, stretched and moulded into dilated shapes that extend from the wall, scaffolded by planes of ink-stained wood.
Daiga Grantina studied at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Her recent solo shows include Lauka telpa, Riga Bourse, (Riga, 2022); ATEM, LEHM “FIATO, ARGILLA” at GAMeC (Bergamo, 2021); What Eats Around Itself at the New Museum (New York, 2020); Saules Suns, Latvian Pavilion, 58th Venice Biennale (Venice, 2019); Toll at the Palais du Tokyo (Paris, 2018).
Grantina has also taken part in numerous group shows, including Crazy, Cruel and Full of Love, curated by Kathleen Buhler at the Kunstmuseum Bern (Berne, 2020); Words at an Exhibition, Busan Biennal, Yeongdo Museum of Contemporary Art (Busan, 2020); GIVE UP THE GHOST, Baltic Triennal 13, curated by Vincent Honoré, Contemporary Art Center (Vilnius, 2018); CHILDHOOD Another banana day for the dream-fish, curated by Sandra Adam-Couralet and Yoann Gourmel at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2018); Solar Bodies, curated by Ø at the Musée d’Orsay (Paris, 2018); Biotopia, curated by Sabine Rusterholz Petko at the Kunsthalle Mainz (Mainz, 2017); Adhesive Products, curated by Praxes at the Bergen Kunsthall (Bergen, 2016).
Her works are to be found in the permanent collections of international institutions such as the Kunstmuseum Bern; Tate London; LNMM Latvian National Art Museum, Riga; CNAP Centre National Art Plastique, Pantin (France); and FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkirk (France).
Upcoming projects and exhibitions include Frieze Los Angeles, Emalin, Los Angeles, CA, US (2023); and Kunstmuseum Bern, CH (2024).
Anda Klavina’s conversation with Daiga Grantina / shortlisted for the Purvitis Prize 2023
