Artist Kristaps Ģelzis. Sparky as gunpowder. A deepwater thinker. My Dad. Since obtaining his degree in graphic art, he has worked in various artistic media – graphic art, video installations, installations, objects, sculpture, environmental art, digital prints, drawing and watercolour. He's also been involved in book illustration, scenography and exhibition design. He spent a decade in the advertising business, in the art director's chair, where he sits no longer, preferring to devote himself fully to a life in art. A curriculum vitae generally only includes the results achieved, but a whole bunch of additional pieces of the puzzle are useful, if we are to sketch the course of his life in full: sunny childhood summer's at Saulkrasti, violin-playing at music school, the sewing skills learned in his student days, how he cut his finger when creating the 'Virtuale' exhibition, his collection of McDonald's toys and his psychedelic exhaustion from painting in luminescent colours by the light of neon lamps. Put the pieces together, step back and take a look at what you've got.

Anna Iltnere