Latvian veteran visual artist Livia Berzina on Thursday, November 18, opened a 10-day art exhibition at Ipfundo Art Gallery during which she looks forward to sharing the best of her art works with Rwandan artists and art enthusiasts in Kigali. The opening of the art exhibition was attended by Israel’s envoy to Rwanda Ron Adam, US Ambassador to Rwanda Peter Vrooman and Russian ambassador to Rwanda Karen Chalyan among other art enthusiasts. After eight years of her stay in Tanzania, Livia suggested to her sister to visit Rwanda before going back to their home country. They have been in the country for two years now. The duo arrived at a time when there was a wave of Covid-19, and they decided to stay in the country where she has been doing different activities associated with arts. She also had enough time painting during the lockdowns and later thought of where to present her art pieces until she found Ipfundo Art Centre as the right place to showcase her works. “I found this gallery and I am so happy with this platform. This is really important for me because, like a very exhibition, it shows how much people like your works,” she added. A number of Livia’s art pieces are already in place for exhibition at Ipfundo Art Centre while the painter is also welcoming people to have experience on her live painting sessions. Livia is an artist by both passion and profession, ever since she graduated at Art and Design School in Riga, Latvia. She had her works of Art previously exhibited in her home country Latvia, Germany, Burundi, Tanzania while Rwanda remains her home of art since 2019. The 10-day art exhibition at Ipfundo Art Gallery will showcase the best of Livia Berzina art works with Rwandan artists and art enthusiasts in Kigali. Many of Livia’s paintings were bought by private collectors in Latvia, Germany, United States, Russia, Canada, China, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania and Rwanda. Livia had created and fulfilled a number of residential houses, apartments as well as VIP areas of commercial banks in Europe. She had private arts studios in Latvia and Tanzania before she shifted to Rwanda where she opened her art studio in Kigali. She uses the same place to conduct painting classes for children and adults. The exhibition is open to the public from 9am to 8pm every day until November 28. Opened in December last year next to Cathedral Saint Michel, Ipfundo Art Centre is home to a number of artists of all sorts, established and upcoming, led by renowned visual artists and painters Serge Maniraguha and Pascal Bushayija, one of Rwanda premier visual arts gurus. Masterjerb Paul Birungi, Ipfundo Art Centre’s chairman The idea to establish Ipfundo Art Centre was initiated by Masterjerb Paul Birungi, the art centre’s Chairman, alongside a few Rwandan artists with a shared objective to create a centre for empowerment of young artists in Rwanda for them to show art enthusiasts from all walks of life the best they can offer through art. “We started the idea during the covid-19 early days because I thought it would be a very nice moment to get young talents busy. We have so many kids around the country that have these wonderful skills [in art] but seated in their villages and not given that opportunity to express them,” Birungi said in an interview. The Centre is showcasing the best of Rwandan art, not just in painting and sculpture as it looks to establish itself as a home for talents in music, fashion, poetry and filmmaking among other sorts of arts. One of the art works showcased at the exhibition Some of the art pieces were made by young talents trained at Ipfundo through the centre’s routine workshops held in Kacyiru, in what Birungi sees as a very big platform for discoveries of talents where they meet and brainstorm the best they can do with their art skills. The workshops are assisted by Ipfundo’s chief artists who mentor those kids and the best of their art pieces from the workshops are taken to the gallery to be sold. As the centre seeks to see Rwandan arts to get international exposure, Ipfundo Art Centre is hosting Livia Berzina’s art exhibition as one of the paths to help them attract more renowned international artists from whom local artists can learn different art skills that can help them produce art pieces that can attract international market. “This exhibition is very important for our art centre because we are training and empowering young artists and, in this particular exhibition, if you look at Livia’s art, it is unique, abstract and its size, it is extraordinary and different from what our artists are used to,” Birungi said. “They are going to learn something from her while it is also an opportunity for our art to get international exposure to the rest of the world other than Rwanda. Once this session ends, and we get our art promoted to the world, then we can host more art exhibitions from artists from different parts of the world,” he added. After Livia’s exhibition, the centre will host a photography exhibition with photographers from India before organising a photography exhibition by only Rwandan photographers. In the future, the centre now wants to start moving out of Rwanda and especially use their embassies across the world for them to host them and do a series of art exhibitions.
