“It’s not really an exhibition, but rather a panic attack in porcelain, viewed in slow motion. Moving through the labyrinthine spaces of the Riga Porcelain Museum – from the top floor to the basement and in between – Skuja Braden’s works encompass spatial chaos with wide-open arms and tightly clenched palms”, this is how Skuja Braden describe their exhibition. The collective identity of artists Ingūna Skuja-Breiden and Melissa Skuja-Breiden have been offering the world their vision, observations and criticism, expressed in porcelain, for 25 years.

“This exhibition is for a world that has lost its mind (or has it ever had one?). We gladly accept fragmentation, layering baroque narratives, geopolitical critiques and absurd mythologies, linking the exhibition showcases like porcelain evidence boards. A birch grove draped in a shroud of post-apocalyptic splendor, the wilderness is all around us in porcelain chaos – carefully arranged, slightly insane and completely purposeful,” say the artists.

Skuja Braden’s solo exhibition “Up, Down and Around” at the Riga Porcelain Museum takes place after a break of more than ten years, since the last solo exhibition “A Dog’s Life. Unchained” in 2013. During this time, Skuja Braden has had solo exhibitions elsewhere in Latvia, Europe, USA and Asia, they have participated in group exhibitions, received nominations and local and international awards, and in 2022, with the exhibition “Trading Water by the River”, represented Latvia at the 59th International Art Fair. That year, the Latvian pavilion received such a great and positive response as never before, and it can be unequivocally said that Skuja Braden is one of the best known internationally, currently actively working ceramic artists in Latvia.

Now more than ever, Ingūna and Melisa have matured and perfectly mastered the ceramic medium. Skuja Braden’s creative heritage is diverse, and the current trajectories of creativity are also marked by new searches for form, experiments with materials and technological possibilities, as well as a shameless and unapologetic engagement in dialogue with socio-political reality and cultural narratives. The exhibition will then travel to Milan, Italy, and New York, USA.

At the Riga Porcelain Museum, Skuja Braden’s solo exhibition “Above, Below and All Around” will be open to the public from April 11, 2025 to June 8, 2025. The exhibition will be complemented by printed and digital materials in the museum and online on the museum’s channels.

Publicity image: Skuja Braden. “Uģi (pladētāji)” and “Acs”. 2008, 2022. Photo: Gvido Kajons / Riga Porcelain Museum