DOLLHELL
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The center of the exhibition is the image of a doll, derived from an industrially produced toy doll. It resembles a person. “Dolls are usually played with. Sometimes it looks like hell. Games can be different, but a doll is a very grateful model,” says artist Jānis Mitrēvics. The image of the doll will be visible both in paintings, which are a typical form of expression for Jānis Mitrēvics, and in porcelain sculptures, which will be in his exhibition for the first time. The entire show consists of new works created especially for the “DOLLHELL”.
In “DOLLHELL” Jānis Mitrēvics tells stories about both the world and art as such. In his world stories, the artist is interested in figurative generalizations. For example, how society manifests itself and in what generalizations it can be shown. How an era manifests itself and in what generalizations it can be shown. How politics manifests itself and in what symbolic images, colors, and relationships it can be shown. Social and political “bubbles” in Jānis Mitrēvics’s images are important sources of metaphors. The titles of the paintings and sculptures concisely name the state, symbol or insight that guided the creation - “Choice”, “Stairs”, “Back”, “Babel”, “Instruction”, “Discovery”.
The world in Jānis Mitrēvics’s works is revealed as a kaleidoscope of events and rules flashing at a tremendous pace, which time constantly shakes into new and new constellations. It seems that the exhibition “DOLLHELL” admires the free fall into infinity of its complex aesthetics and the enormous speed of its story, which rushes through intuition.
An essential aspect of Jānis Mitrēvics’s art is the study and discovery of painting. He sees himself in the context of schools and traditions, because the tradition of art is to always deconstruct itself and always renew itself. “Since the eighties, I have been creating my own alphabet and grammar. You could say that if there were fifty letters in the beginning, now many have been discarded, but two hundred and fifty more have been added,” says Mitrēvics about his painting. When in the nineties there was a tendency to question the usefulness of painting, Mitrēvics emphasized painting as a universal artistic language, as a basis for artistic expression, even if he used alders, strings, leather, plastics, Soviet-era high-rise buildings, ducks, text and video cameras in his works. The painterly nominal will certainly be noticeable in Jānis Mitrēvics’ porcelain sculptures at the solo exhibition “DOLLHELL”.
The exhibition “DOLLHELL” collaborates with the architectural identity of Dubulti station. Curator of the exhibition is Inga Šteimane.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Since the 1980s, Jānis Mitrēvics (1957) has been part of a group of painters who, at the end of 1990, realized a significant exhibition in Latvia during the times of the Third Awakening - “Gentle Fluctuations”. The focus of this project was not only the artworks, but also the time of creation and the image of the author. Critics called it a “painter’s theater”, because the exhibition began in an empty hall and the artworks were created before the eyes of the audience. With projects such as “Marmalade (Poussin and dry flowers)” (1991), “Works” (1992), “"Jānis Mitrēvics exhibits Vilhelms Purvītis…” Ivars Runkovskis” (1994) and “Hula Hoop” (1996), he implemented an unprecedented application of the postmodernist principle of reference in Latvia. The exhibits pointed to each other and Purvītis could no longer be distinguished from the grains. Changing direction drastically and focusing on the reflections of reality in art, four solo exhibitions were created: “Paris. New Reality” (1997), “Landscape. New Reality” (1998), “Act. New Reality” (1999) and “Sin. New Revelation” (2001). In 2000, Jānis Mitrēvics founded the company “Dd studio” and for more than twenty years, abandoning individual works, has been working on the modernization of museum exhibitions and the introduction of digital products in them. “Dd studio” created more than forty expositions in Latvia and abroad, including the Ventspils Museum (2001), the Latvian Popular Front Museum (2013), the Anatomy Museum of Riga Stradins University (2020). The exposition of the Gobustan Petroglyph Museum created by “Dd studio” won the European Museum of the Year Award in 2013. Since 2021, Jānis Mitrēvics has resumed painting in an individual studio and held a solo exhibition “RE-EVOLUTION” in 2024. The solo exhibition “DOLLHELL” is Jānis Mitrēvics’s most ambitious show in latest years.
ABOUT ART STATION DUBULTI
Art Station Dubulti is a space that, since 2015, has redefined how contemporary art can inhabit and activate public infrastructure. Rather than being repurposed from one function into another, the Dubulti station has evolved into a hybrid environment where passengers and gallery visitors coexist. Being both a professional cultural institution and a public space accessible to everyone, it offers an example of how art can meaningfully engage with society - not by isolating itself, but by integrating into the daily rhythm. Exhibitions at Art Station Dubulti are curated with high professional quality and attract a wide audience - both local and international. The exhibition program of Art Station Dubulti is implemented with the support of the Jurmala City Council and the State Culture Capital Foundation. The founder and director of Art Station Dubulti is art historian Inga Šteimane. https://artstationdubulti.lv
The exhibition "DOLLHELL" at the Art Station Dubulti is on view from February 26 to May 24, 2026, daily from 9:00 to 18:00. Admission is free.
Artist and curator talk :
March 1 at 2:00 PM
March 14 at 2:00 PM Jurmala Spring Excursion Week
March 15 at 2:00 PM Jurmala Spring Excursion Week
April 19 at 2:00 PM
SUPPORTED BY
Jūrmala City Council
State Culture Capital Foundation
Contact information: Inga Šteimane +37129548719, steimane.inga@gmail.com