The exhibition 'Sweet River of Hope', created by the Glass Art and Study Center, can be seen in the small exhibition hall 'Menzendorff House. Riga House Museum of the 17th–18th Centuries' until January 21, 2026. The exhibition features artists Vineta Groza, Ruta Strausa, and Ilze Dudina with their glass works.
Artist Vineta Groza is a professor at the Latvian Academy of Arts and head of the Department of Visual Plastics. Vineta Groza's work in the field of artistic glass is characterized by the search for innovative solutions and the use of various glass processing techniques. The artist strives to combine intellectual provocation and aesthetic pleasure in her works, constantly discovering new nuances and possibilities in the 'collaboration' with such a fragile yet durable material as glass. In the exhibited works 'Patterns of Patterns' and 'Winter', Vineta Groza 'wove' reflections on the unifying structure and spirituality of the universe, emphasizing the all-encompassing power of the color white.
Artist Ilze Dudina is an associate professor at the Latvian Academy of Arts, a longtime director of the Glass Art and Study Center, and the author of the idea for this exhibition. The artist's works 'Labradors', 'Three Suns', 'Equilibrium', and 'Dawn', presented at the exhibition, reveal the multifaceted nature of her 'play with glass'. 'Hot glass needs to be mixed and swirled like honey; when it cools, it can be shaped. This is also the 'sweet river of hope', when something completely new is born from hot sand. Glass is a wonderful, perfect material, but it also has a dangerous side. In the hands of the artist, the material remains reliable, ringing, and sparkling. A glass artist must possess both imaginative and rational thinking, as well as technical knowledge — it is necessary to consider the properties of glass to create thought, illusion, and beauty within it, so that glass becomes a miracle of art. Glass is a partner of the artist, the embodiment of the idea,' Ilze Dudina explains the subtleties of creating a glass artwork.
Artist Ruta Strausa is a young artist who received her bachelor's degree from the Latvian Academy of Arts in 2025 with her thesis 'Daughter of the Sun'. She continues her studies in the master's program at the Latvian Academy of Arts. The exhibition presents the message of Ruta Strausa's creative thought, the interaction of glass and light, expressed in the works 'Refuge', 'Silver Ignorance', and 'Hope', about the infinity of hope and its enduring strength.
'Sweet River of Hope' — in the title of the exhibition, the artists agree that in the flow of the river of time, through the bends and turns of personal and public life, hope, in its all-encompassing spectrum, like an alloy of white glass, is a source of energy for existence and creative power, symbolized by the presented work 'Hope' by Ruta Strausa.
