Jana Brike

Jana Brike’s whimsical, magical paintings allow us a glimpse into an intimate world of what she describes as a ‘poetic visual autobiography’.  Over the span of her career, she has explored different interests and subjects as a reflection of her own personal journey. Common to all of her works is the wondrous and regenerative presence of nature, especially the archetype of water, as well as butterflies, birds and flowers. Her detailed dreamscapes show human figures, often adolescent females, in playful and unselfconscious discovery of the world around them. Through this intuitive and personal symbolism, Brike’s works engage with themes of exploration, growth, innocence, curiosity, transcendence and love.

Born in Soviet-occupied Latvia in 1980, from the age of five Brike began a strict technical education in painting and drawing, intended to train children for careers as social realist painters for the Soviet propaganda apparatus. In this rigid and restrictive environment, Brike sought reprieve and comfort in nature outings with her grandmother and with whatever other glimpses of beauty and poetry she could find. This idea of bitter-sweetness is important attribute of Brike’s work. She talks about the ‘dance of transcendence’ and the process of transformation of the dark and heavy parts of our lives into lightness and joy. There is often a juxtaposition of harshness with hope in her paintings, with figures showing bloody scratches, incisions or redness on their skin and surrounded by butterflies or flowers. Here, the viewer doesn’t feel pity for the subject of the painting, and the emphasis is more on the resiliency of spirit that these figures show and the gentle and persuasive power of nature in always triumphing over adversity.

Vulnerability and intimacy is also an important characteristic of Brike’s work. Nakedness and nature often go together in her paintings, and Brike has described the human body as ‘vulnerability in its nakedness’.  Although she frequently portrays naked adolescent girls, sometimes depicted in scenes of erotic exploration, the effect is never base or lewd. Instead there is an innocence and naturalness about it, where the viewer isn’t a voyeur or spectator, but transposed into the subject itself. It speaks to a playful coming-of-age, the establishment of self-identity or discovery of self, or what Brike refers to as ‘subjective, inherent feminine sexuality’. Even though we as the audience are privy to such personal acts, there’s something very ordinary and relatable about them as represented by the chipped nail polish on the girls’ hands. In the development of these works, Brike uses adult wise women to pose for the faces of the girls and boys, then alters their proportions to create a sage but childlike demeanour to her characters. Thus, these acts of self-discovery are metaphors for the continual exploration and growth we all do throughout our lives no matter what our biological age or gender.

Brike still lives and works in her hometown of Riga, Latvia. The native Latvian history, a rich inter-generational oral tradition of storytelling, folklore and close relationship with nature, continues to inspire Brike’s creativity. In some ways, her paintings themselves are a reclamation and celebration of this pagan culture that flourished before the invasions that started with the Crusades in the 13^th century and ended with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.

As when she was a little girl, Brike still seeks refuge, wisdom and inspiration in the lush meadows and forests and Baltic beaches – the same scenes that are portrayed in her paintings. She speaks about the deep abstract symbolism of ancient Latvian poems and their insights about the relationship of humans to nature and the cycles of life and death that connect them. In Brike’s words, she seeks to portray ‘a real pure wild woman in her girlhood body, her path, trial, catharsis, symbolic death and revival’. Her works in this way act as a paean to free-spirited femininity, a celebration of Earth and nature, and freedom from oppression.

Beginning her career in her teens, Brike has a considerable international exhibition history of 13 solo exhibitions, 100 other projects and group exhibitions. Given her restrictive upbringing, it is perhaps unsurprising that Brike now favours poetic and personal expression above all else.  In developing her works, Brike describes her process in terms of a free-flowing stream of consciousness. She abstains from having a prescriptive method in order to maximise her own intuitive personal symbolic expression. Whilst her sketches act as standalone pieces, she develops her paintings with the support of reference materials such models, landscapes, and moodboards. Old Russian traditional painters, especially Symbolic and Romantic, are visual inspirations for her work, as well fairytale illustrations. Ultimately, living an inspired life, her relationship with her native environment, and her role as a mother, all combine to create Brike’s uniquely personal yet universal visual language.

Jana Brike is represented by Beinart Gallery. Her work has been featured in Lush group exhibition (2017), Dark Art (2020) and Small Works (2016, 2017). She had a solo exhibition 'Don't Go Back to Sleep' in October 2021.

Interview with Jana Brike.

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