Reporting from Riga Contemporary

Riga Contemporary 2026

2–5 July 2026

Hanzas Perons
Hanzas iela 16a, Riga

 

Words by Koshik Zaman

 

This is only my second time visiting the Baltics, following a quick day trip to Tallinn just two weeks ago, and to say that I am excited is an understatement. I am well aware that the region has made its mark internationally. Artists like Eglė Budvytytė, Jaanus Samma, and curatorial favorites Pakui Hardware, all of whom have exhibited at the Venice Biennale, immediately come to mind. Samma is also participating in the public programme for the event that brings me to the city: the second edition of Riga Contemporary.

The art fair is co-organised by the city council and Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, one of the premier art institutions in the region. To encourage attendance, the fair offers free admission with prior registration. As one participant wrote on social media before the opening, there are “no excuses not to go.”

From the outset, the programme reveals a remarkable and unexpected number of participating galleries from outside Europe, particularly from the United States, for such a young fair. Some names on the list I have previously only followed from afar. Despite being relatively new, many of these spaces are already fixtures on the international circuit, with many backed by a prior stamp of approval from Liste Art Fair Basel. 
There is a notable presence of galleries from Chicago. Two of them bear such similar names, Weather Proof and Good Weather, that mixing them up would be easy. Because the fair is still in its infancy, participation fees have likely been kept moderate. One NYC-based gallerist even notes that she brought the artworks in her luggage. In this economy, smart logistics are crucial.

The venue for the fair, Hanzas Perons, is a former railway station turned cultural center. It is a sleek edifice of glass and wood, perfectly suited for a contemporary art event of this scale. Attending the preview on Thursday evening, I find the atmosphere relaxed and the dress code undeniably snazzy.

 

 

Within just a few minutes of strolling around, it’s evident that the fair presents both highs and lows, at least in terms of its curatorial approach. Some booths offer surprisingly minimalist presentations, which are welcome in a busy fair context.

An immediate favorite is one such presentation: Milan-based Castiglioni’s presentation of São Paulo-based Maria Luiza Toral’s assemblages of found materials, including acrylic glass and rubber, elegantly pinned to the wall. Toral, born in 1998, is set for a solo exhibition at the Milan space later in the year, making it her gallery debut.

 

 

Another early moment of awe is found at Margot Samel, where painter Cathleen Clarke’s paintings, both on paper and canvas, evoke beauty and the uncanny at once.

When I return for a second visit the following day, late in the afternoon, the designated space for one of the public talks is completely full, with people even standing outside waiting to grab a seat. While the public talks programme is impressive, with several notable international guests (a fact confirmed by a fair director I know from back home, herself also a participant), I am still pleasantly surprised by the turnout.

 

 

Having now seen the fair properly, it’s the low-key moments that stand out most, a reminder that sometimes less is indeed more.

At Met him pike hoses, another Chicago-based gallery, Simon S. Belleau’s film strip-like installation with stills from films, including Chantal Akerman’s 1975 cult classic Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, calls for closer inspection, as does Brussels-based Gauli Zitter’s series of smaller, texture-heavy, abstract paintings by Danish painter Morten Knudsen, neatly installed, leaving the booth’s side walls empty.

 

 

 

Elsewhere, a moment of subtle beauty is found at the shared booth of London-based Galerina and NYC’s Jenny’s. Though each gallery has curated a separate presentation, Nilo Goldfarb’s timeless black-and-white photography at the former and Sarah Staton and Ewa Poniatowska’s paintings and textile sculptures at the latter are united by a cohesive, neutral palette despite their differing media.

 


Blockbuster names are generally few at the fair, and offered only by a handful of galleries. For instance, at Provence, also operating like a creative studio, names like Jonathan Monk and Sylvie Fleury are represented. Fleury, who for the fair has brought forth a limited edition silkscreen print, Égoïste Platinum (2026), of a work that forms part of the spectacular Wet Work Over Lap, curated by Zane Onckule at the temporary space of Kim? right across the street, is presented there as a wall painting in neon-red and silver from 1995. 

 

 

As the fair’s second day wraps up, I head over to Kim? for what is surely the most hyped event of the public programme: LA-based artist and researcher Mindy Seu’s A Sexual History of the Internet, following previous dates at respectable institutions like MCA Chicago, Pioneer Works in NYC, and KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. The project is part artist book of 700+ pages, dressed in black in a format reminiscent of a Bible, and part performance lecture where audience members are invited to read excerpts out loud.

 

 

Waiting around for the event to begin, the level of anticipation is tangible. Chairs are randomly scattered around the space. The lecture is participatory. Everyone will be reading, reminds Seu at the beginning, but in unison, she continues reassuringly. For the lecture, members of the audience are given instructions, including finding the account @asexualhistoryoftheinternet on Instagram, where saved highlights serve as lecture slides. For anyone unsure of the technicalities, Seu is there for tech support. It’s equally unsettling and enlightening as Seu guides us through not the, as she’s pointed out, but a sexual history of the Internet.

As I’m typing, not only is my laptop battery running low, but so is my social battery, so I pass on a generous invitation to a late-night karaoke event at some place called Happy Ending. While the fair and my rapport with Riga’s art scene have only just begun, it’s off to a promising start.

 

Koshik Zaman is a freelance writer and independent curator based in Stockholm, Sweden. He has been a contributing editor to Daily Lazy since 2026.

 

Images: 

1. Riga Contemporary 2026, photo: Ģirts Raģelis, courtesy of the fair

2. Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, photo: Kristīne Madjare, courtesy of the fair

3. Krišs Salmanis, Milda, 2026, photo: Ģirts Raģelis, courtesy of the fair

4. Maria Luiza Toral, Pequeno horizonte / Small horizon, 2026, Castiglioni, photo: private

5. Cathleen Clarke, Semblance, 2026, Margot Samel, photo: private

6. Public talks programme: In search of new platforms, new possibilities, new collaborations, and new friendships, moderator: Juliana Halpert, participants: Edd Schouten, Marie Karlberg, Audrius Pocius, and Nicolaus Schafhausen, photo: private

7. Simon S. Belleau, Met him pike hoses, photo: Met him pike hoses 

8. Morten Knudsen, Gauli Zitter, photo: private

9. Ewa Poniatowska, Galerina, photo: private

10. Sylvie Fleury, Égoïste Platinum (2026), silkscreen on paper, Provence, photo: private

11.  Sylvie Fleury, Égoïste Platinum (1995/2026), wall painting in neon-red and silver, in Wet Work Over Lap at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, photo: private

12. Mindy Seu, A Sexual History of the Internet (2025), photo: private

 

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