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M/Gallery presents a solo exhibition dedicated to the Latvian contemporary textile and visual artist Emma Sofia. Emma creates work that questions issues in society, environment, and human behaviour in our fragmented post-digital world. Here’s the Key will present 11 large-scale works by the artist, which will aim to attract an audience by making them outthink the obstacles that trigger these issues.

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Emma Sofia’s artistic oeuvre across various mediums – from paintings, to tapestry, to tufted wall hangings – propelled Emma to gain international recognition and be dubbed as one of Latvia’s most promising young artists, having won the public vote at the Baltic Young Artist Award in 2017.

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In these strange times, we are becoming more aware of the hidden problems in our society – mental health issues, addictions to drugs, alcohol, abusive behaviour, self-critique, but also self- denial. Through her work, Emma aims to re-introduce the idea that we already possess the tools needed for living a better life. While her hands are busy weaving, Emma expresses herself about these topics through art. Enveloping serious, sometimes difficult, issues and objects in fluffy, soft materials and light colours make her work a unique blend of contrasts in both metaphorical and literal senses.

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The exhibition title Here’s the Key, stands for the key to Emma’s world, to the gallery, to yourself or someone’s heart. Explore what goes on in the artist’s imagination, find your own associations and meanings in every object and figure. Receiving a key is an act that symbolises trust and an offering. At M/Gallery, we also invite you to grab a literal key at the entry to the exhibition and enter our space with an open mind and a tool to unlock a secret box at the end of the exhibition.

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Elen Salina, the curator of M/Gallery, says, “When I got familiar with Emma Sofia and her work, I knew the power of vulnerability in her art was something I wanted to explore and highlight through the curation of the gallery. This resulted in creating an immersive environment symbolising a journey into Emma’s world, where objects come out of the tufted wall hangings, colours flow out and spill onto the surfaces of the walls, and artworks find themselves flying in the air, hanging off the ceiling and onto the floor.”

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Emma Sofia was born in 1990 in Riga, Latvia, where she currently lives and works. Her work can be found in collections of Latvian LOTO, Upītes Cultural Space, and the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design.

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Press links: Arterritory, TV Net, LTV News (video)

Press release: LV, ENG, RUS

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