We are pleased to participate in the inaugural edition of Riga Contemporary with a presentation of work by Amanda Ziemele and Casey Bolding. Organized by Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga's first institution to hold an ongoing program of contemporary art exhibitions, the fair will take place from July 10–13 at Hanzas Perons in Riga, Latvia.

Amanda Ziemele (b. 1990, Riga, Latvia), negotiates space with her defined approach to painting; her oversized shaped canvases, voluminous and biomorphic, result in a palpable atmospheric intervention. Ziemele's artistic practice considers architecture, philosophy, history and collective memory in dialogue with the formal qualities of painting, and the ideas and contexts that surround it. Her works inhabit space in uncanny ways, triggering situational associations which are often humorous and paradoxical. In turn, her measured use of form and color belies the outsized spatial and aesthetic impact of her paintings.

Ziemele lives and works in Riga, Latvia. She earned a BA in painting from the Visual Arts Department of the Art Academy of Latvia and a Diploma degree in Interdisciplinary and Experimental Painting at Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where she was awarded a Post-Graduate Scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In 2024, Ziemele represented Latvia at the 60th Venice Biennale. She was awarded the 2021 Purvītis Prize for her exhibition 'Quantum Hair Implants' held at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre (2019). As part of the Prize, she was invited to develop a solo exhibition, 'Sun Has Teeth,' at the Latvian National Museum of Art's Cupola Hall (2023). Ziemele’s work is included in the collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art (LNMA), the VV Foundation and the Zuzāns collection.

Casey Bolding (b. 1987, Denver, CO) summons memory and personal ephemera as he paints figures that emerge from vast landscapes or intimate interiors. Bolding's subjects shift dramatically in scale, moving through a continuum of time and space. He conjures an indeterminate narrative, the way latent memories surface and non sequitur thoughts bubble up before becoming fully formed in the mind. Bolding builds up his surfaces with industrial paint and plaster, later subjecting them to a vigorous process of scraping away, reworking, and reconfiguring. His works are informed by years spent painting and graffiti writing; outdoors, in abandoned buildings and on freight trains. He excavates imagery on the canvas as if on an empty wall he might happen upon: one that's cracked, sun-bleached, and stained by the elements in a way that seduces.

A self-taught artist, Bolding lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He has presented two solo exhibitions at Polina Berlin Gallery (2025, 2024) and has been included in group exhibitions at Pond Society, Shanghai (2025); Jack Siebert Projects, Los Angeles (2025); Shoot the Lobster, New York (2023);and Mamoth, London (2022), among others. This August, Bolding will be the artist-in-residence at Castel Caramel in Castillon, France.

Observer | Polina Berlin Gallery | Riga Contemporary Charts a New Course for the Baltic Art Scene