dreams

Dreams, Secrets and Treasures at Māksla XO Gallery

Māksla XO Gallery will be delighted to welcome you to the opening of two new exhibitions – 

LUCIANA MARIANO     

DREAMS, SECRETS AND TREASURES


Luciana Marianos
Maze of Life. 2024, acrylic on canvas, 150×100 cm 

We always have what we need to survive and we lose what no longer serves us. We adapt, we keep secrets, we play. The truth is in front of us and we keep chasing hope, butterflies, dreams and bubbles. We are captives to our stories, conditionings, time, and yet, absolutely free to dare,” – Luciana Mariano, 2026.

Luciana Mariano is an outsider of contemporary painting with a vibrant, colourful, humour-filled and provocative feminine narrative. Her work possesses both a childlike lightness and directness, an analytically sharp observation, and at the same time a warm, accessible manner of expression. Luciana Mariano is a storyteller both on her canvases and in the texts and poetry that accompany her paintings. She is not a quiet, standoffish observer – rather, she is a rebel and an outspoken documentarian of reality. In her latest solo exhibition the artist explores the hidden emotions of the human experience, the symbolism of memory and objects, through dreamlike compositions – the quiet poetry of everyday life. Combining contemporary naïve art with the visual language of surrealism, she invites the viewer to enter worlds where tenderness, mystery and humour coexist.(Ilze Zeivate)

Luciana Mariano (1971) was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. Currently she lives and works in Pirkkala, Finland. Since 2008 she has participated in more than 40 group exhibitions and arranged 20 solo shows worldwide.

Works in public collections: MIMAN – Museu Internacional de Miniatures de Arte Naif (Paraty-Rio de Janero, Brazil), MIAN – Museu Internacional de Arte Naif (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Museu de Arte de Batatais (Batatais-San Paulo, Brazil), Museu do Sol (Penápolis-Sao Paulo, Brazil), Musée d’Art Spontané (Brussels, Belgium), Bulgarian Naif Museum (Sofia, Bulgaria), Castle Lysice Collection (Lysice, Czech Republic), Kondase Keskus Museum (Viljandi, Estonia).

At Maksla XO, this is already Luciana Mariano’s third solo exhibition in Latvia, captivating both contemporary art professionals and international art enthusiasts.

https://lucianamariano.com

Support:

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ANDRIS KALININS

PRUSSIAN BLUE


Andris Kalinins
Prussian Blue No. 12. 2026, oil on canvas, 32x24x3 c

““Prussian Blue” is a new series of monochrome paintings in which I continue my long-developed creative position – “Paint as The Protagonist”. The colour is not used merely as a means of artistic expression to create an image, but itself becomes the subject of the work. I look at colour as a material with a specific name, whose physical properties, history of use, and context most often carry references to history, power, politics, and aesthetics”- Andris Kalinins, 2026.

Andris Kaļiņins (1994) is a painter and set designer who graduated from the Scenography Department (2021) and the Painting Department (2026) of the Art Academy of Latvia. His painting practice is grounded in the study of the physical properties of colour and an intuitive process, resulting in conceptual and minimalist yet visually saturated and expressive imagery. The artist regards painting as a process of thinking, inviting the viewer to perceive the essence of colour rather than its illusion.

Andris Kalinins is the laureate of the SEB Scholarship in Painting 2025. He has organised 4 solo exhibitions and participated in 5 significant group exhibitions, including “Figure in the Field” – Morgan Lehman Gallery (2024, New York, USA); “In the Name of Desire” – National Museum of Art of Latvia (2024, Riga, Latvia); and “How I’ve Been Feeling Lately” – Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine (2023, Riga, Latvia).

Andris Kaļiņins’ solo exhibition “Prussian Blue”, on view at Māksla XO gallery, is part of a more extensive series of works, which can also be seen simultaneously at the 2026 Graduate Exhibition of the Art Academy of Latvia.

https://kalinins.lv


Māksla XO Gallery will be delighted to welcome you to the opening reception of:
LUCIANA MARIANO’s solo exhibition “DREAMS, SECRETS AND TREASURES” and 
ANDRIS KALININS’ solo exhibition “PRUSSIAN BLUE”
on Thursday, 4 June 2026, from 17.00 – 20.00 
Both exhibitions will be on view from 4 June to 11 July 2026

https://www.makslaxogalerija.lv/eng/gallery

https://www.artsy.net/partner/maksla-xo

Choose your dreams

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Tem realidade demais pra ser digerida nesse mundo gorduroso.
Sonhos, por outro lado
São doces e não engordam
São assustadores mas não matam
São confusos mas não importam

Neles, voar é possível
Sonhar é passível
Viver é passável

A madeira escorre
O chão flutua
Os potes transbordam
De nada
E nada existe
Nem tudo é.

Sonhar
Profundo, tranquilo como o cosmo
Revolto e indecifrável
como o mar
Um mar de sonhar.

Lá a loucura é permitida.
Andar nu, sentar-se, subir ou olhar
Entrar ou sair, exitar…
Lá tudo pode
Porque nada é.

Escolha o seu sonho
Um raro e um caro produto
De mentes sãs e perturbadas.

Escolha enquanto há tempo
Enquanto o tempo gira
Nos relógios que pairam

Que bela a vida que se contempla
daqui de fora
Daqui de cima
daqui do lado
Daqui de dentro
De onde viver e sonhar
Só depende do desejar
Só depende do desenhar.

making a living

ciranda

I didn´t know how hard it would be. And yet rewarding…

This is no holliday. I need to make a living, pay my bills, take care of my son and to paint. 8 hours, 12 hours, 16 hours daily. With no promise of a salary in the end of the day, month, year. Only promises of new projects, new shows, new possibilities. So much hope inside. Meanwhile, on the outside, canvas growing wild in my bedroom, livingroom, everywhere around me. People come and go, they appreciate it and they say: I wish I had the means to buy one… (YOU DO!) …no, I have other priorities now. Of course, colorful naive images on the wall are not made for the busy, struggling, simple man. So I am the busy, struggling, simple woman that must consider a second or third job in order to make life happen too. My heart gets heavy; I worry about being completely absorved by this workingman day that some call job and leaving my soul behind on the paintings I´d never be able to paint. I have plenty of work, it´s just not providing [yet]. It´s like considering a sabbatical just before the big break. It´s like choosing between love and money as they would be inconcievable essencials, forbidden by destiny to be reached or recieved at the same time.

I feel trapped, but i´m not giving up. I feel lonely but not hopeless. Dreams of new paintings polulate my sleep and new, exciting images keep appearing before my eyes: that must be a sign.

Or I´m just really naive.

wouldn´t it be nice…

sol

… if I could only lay down in my bed and be reached by the sun light, gentle, warm, peacefully.

…if  all my troubles could be about deciding what to wear today.

…if the worst confusion of my life was the messy pattern of my quilt.

…if  I could stop time, and decide wisely wich way to go… and keep walking until I reached it?

wouldn´t it be nice if I could dream with no guilt and live with no fear?

On canvas and paint everything is possible.

one more [one less] day

something will happen

i wish some dreams could just be true

i´m missing a certain feeling of plenitude and joy

longing for a place where fear and loneliness do not insist on existing

and the confort of warm, long and quiet hugs are easy and abundant

sometimes i wish i could dream endlessly (and not wake up into reality).