Ceramic artist Juta Rindina calls herself an eclectic and a chatterbox. Her tales, told in porcelain, clay, and stone mass, are visually striking, clever, and unorthodox, and therefore captivating. The artist's chosen topics may seem mundane, but her unusual approach catches the audience off-guard.

With her bold and expressive style Juta Rindina has firmly made her name in the world of Latvian ceramics. She loves to arrange compositions with several elements, creating still lifes or figural compositions. Figures - human and animal - dominate the artist's work. Attentive viewers may notice many references and connections to her sources of inspiration: Chinese culture and its symbols - dogs, lions, dragons; and classic art, such as works of the 16th century Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel and 15th-16th century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. Juta Rindina also likes to switch up her style according to her mood.

Exhibition Variations on a Theme includes both earlier artworks to which new elements have been added and new works made especially for this solo exhibition. The characters created by the artist seem joyful and affectionate, dominated by round forms and curved lines. The objects and other, more geometrical figures, create a background that reminds of a stage set. Monolithic forms are combined with elaborate sculptural details. Juta Rindina love using contrasts: smooth versus rough, shiny versus matte. The surfaces are finished with ornamental decoration, lines,  artistic brushwork or paint splashes, as the artist uses full range of expression offered by ceramics - in creating the form of the object, as well as painting and drawing on the surfaces.

Juta Rindina (1953) was born in Riga. She has graduated from Riga Secondary School of Applied Arts (1972) and the Ceramics Department of the Art Academy of Latvia (1977). She has taken part in group exhibitions in Latvia and abroad since 1977 and has held several solo exhibitions. Her works range in scale from garden ceramics, large format vases and architectural interior objects to intricate figurines, and are found in private collections and museums in Latvia, China, Russia, the USA and other countries. This is the artist's first solo exhibition in Riga Porcelain Museum.

Photo by Gvido Kajons.