Indrikis Gelzis (b. 1988, Riga, Latvia) received his Master degree from the Visual Communications department at the Art Academy of Latvia (2014) and graduated from the HISK – Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten (Higher Institute for Fine Arts), in Ghent, Belgium (2016).
Indrikis Gelzis’ metal sculptures solidify abstract representations of graph stocks, but with a refusal to use actual data. For the artist, data stems from personal experiences, imagination, memories, art history references, situations, and other material and immaterial information. Fleshed out of a virtual image, the sculptures contain a laborious process of cutting, welding, burning, bending, assembling, oiling, and sewing, and ultimately weld together sounds, tensions, and cavities that end up performing an uncanny visual language collectively. With a conscious, sartorial gesture, Gelzis amplifies his metal sculptures through visible nodes of connection, diverse textures of garments, as well as micro-architectures that stage the works themselves. The multiple viewing angles place the sculptures in different zones and invites the promise of becoming data for something else.
Selected solo and group exhibitions: Yawn Holding Fields (2022), Tatjana Pieters Gallery, Ghent, Belgium; Daily Charts (2021), Suprainfinit gallery, Bucharest, Romania; Still life of a still life (2020), Tatjana Pieters gallery, Ghent; Figure of Everything (2020), Castor gallery, London, UK; Pause for the cause (2019), Cinnnamon gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Tableau (2019), ASHES/ASHES, New York; Skeleton of the wind. Together with Viktor Timofeev (2018), Suprainfinit gallery, Bucharest; Rest and vest (2018), Vartai gallery, Vilnius; Black Market + NADA Miami (2020), kim? Contemporary art centre, Riga; Dark Mode (2019) ASHES/ASHES, New York; Doors of Paradise (2018), Union Pacific gallery, London; Heavy metal (2018), Jerome Pauchant gallery, Paris; NNN, (2017), National Art Museum of Latvia, Riga.
