Congratulations to Agita Keiri
Finalist for the BP Portrait Awards 2011
Agita Keiri was born in Riga, Latvia in 1978. In 1991, her father
enrolled her the J. Rosenthal Art School, then Latvia’s
leading secondary art school. In parallel to a general education,
she studied painting, drawing, composition, and art history.
Over the next six years, Agita further developed her technical
skills and mastery of composition. It was a time of self-reflection
in which she experimented with different media and artistic
styles, spending hours in the library studying reproductions
of works by the world’s greatest artists. In 1997, she
enrolled in the painting department of Latvia’s Academy
of Art. After graduating in 2001, she completed a a master’s
degree in figurative painting and drawing.
Each of Agita’s paintings is a masterpiece born of a combination
of her understanding of shape and scope, her talent, and continuous
hard work. Keiri tells stories about the people and things around
her. She contrasts the inner world of a person—a fragile,
unique, and momentary expression of individual truth—against
the backdrop of eternity. Her paintings preserve these moments,
using symbols and subtle details to communicate meaning to viewers.
The Art Expo of New York wrote about her paintings „Agita
Keiri’s lush, elegant canvases celebrate beauty in all
its forms . . . regardless of color palette or subject matter,
each of Agita’s dreamlike paintings beckons with a certain
signature mystique”. This mystique has indeed found a
receptive audience in North America.
Congratulations to Agita Keiri
Finalist for the BP Portrait Awards 2011
The BP Portrait Award is the most prestigious portrait competition
in the world, promoting the very best in contemporary portrait
painting. With a first prize of £25,000, the exhibition
has proved the launch pad for the careers of a number of
successful portrait artists.
The exhibition runs at the National Portrait Gallery from
June 16th until September.
