JANA BRIKE

"I was born in year 1980 in Latvia, a small country in the North-East of Europe, which was at that time under soviet occupation.

My inspirations have been as diverse as: folklore fairytales, children book illustrations, imaginative soviet animation films and supernaturally real classical painting; the colorful forbidden rare secret imagery of the western pop culture surrounded by mystical, almost religious tone for us, soviet children; the terrifying war and deportation stories that my grandparents, and their little brothers and sister witnessed as small children; pompous alienated eerie atmosphere of the catholic church ceremonies, and the breathtakingly beautiful ballet performances in the opera house, where I was taken since the age of two etc. – all the bitter-sweetness and irreality of the every day.

But most of all, life is my inspiration. The way I comprehend it, and myself. People are my inspiration. The state of a human soul - dreams, longing, love, pain - that is what my visual images are about. 

I have been exhibiting my artwork internationally since age of 15." JB