About Ilgvars Zalans

Zalans. He came into the eyesight of the wide circle of international collectors and art-lovers after his world-wide tour of action-painting – 25 minutes long performances, staged in 33 countries around the Globe, on the streets, in halls, museums, galleries, river banks and any other places one can only think of.

His passion for colour, vigorously poured on canvas with a joy of a 15 year-old, for an external spectator can even look excessively spontaneous and playful. However, the artworks of Zalans are always the result of his rigorous “eye-thinking”, hard work and thorough study of everything generations of artists did before him. His works discover the sensitivity for colour one can hardly overestimate.

Being born in a tiny town of Latvia, he was brought to painting solely by his intuition and destiny – none would ever think he could make it with “just being an artist”. Spending years and years in torturous attempt to fit in, one day he realized the inevitable – for him to paint means to live.

Ilgvars Zalans creates lush, vibrant pieces that are at once unsettling for their mashed up textures as they are awkwardly beautiful. Of his art, he says: ‘I focus on images and motifs that are fundamental, archetypal, and universal in human experience, as opposed to those that are socially determined’.

Any object, creature or place, which Zalans takes as a topic of the new work, becomes a puzzle piece in the discovered picture of his world – full of life, joy and love itself.

You are welcome to join in.