Zoja Golubeva

I am a Latvian visual artist working with figurative painting, mixed media and installation. At the core of my practice is Micopainting - an original technique in which I use forest mushrooms as an artistic medium.

The mushrooms leave organic pigments, stains and structures on the surface, creating unpredictable traces that I later develop through painting. For me, these marks become a metaphor for memory: experiences leave traces in us, becoming embedded in the body and shaping identity.

My work often focuses on the human body as a place where vulnerability, intimacy, emotional experience and memory meet. I am interested in what remains beneath the visible surface - what we carry, conceal and inherit.

Allowing natural material to partially determine the image is an essential part of my process. I do not completely control the result; instead, the work develops through a dialogue between intention and chance, with nature becoming a participant in the creation of the image.

Alongside my current practice, my profile also includes selected earlier works in oil painting, including landscapes, still lifes and portraiture. These works reflect different stages of my artistic development and remain available to collectors.

2014-2018, Latvian Academy of Art, BA in Visual Arts, Painting, Riga, Latvia
2017, Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (ERASMUS+), Painting, Textile and Public Space Objects, Kraków, Poland
2001-2007, University of Latvia, Master’s Degree in Management and Marketing, Riga, Latvia
1996-1999, Riga Technical University, Bachelor’s Degree in Entrepreneurship and Management, Riga, Latvia

Additional Training
2010-2015, Drawing and Painting Studio of Ludmila Perec and Alexander Pahomov, Riga, Latvia
2010-2011, Interior Decoration Studies, Baltic International Academy Design School, Riga, Latvia

SOLO AND DUO EXHIBITIONS:
2026, January-April, “As if we had nothing to be afraid of”, Museum LV un Grata JJ, Riga, Latvia
2025, “Unveiled Nude”, Art Gallery Nosaints, Riga, Latvia
2016, “Impressions”, Art Gallery Art Studio No1, Riga, Latvia

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Selected from more than 40 group exhibitions since 2012

2025, “Chengdu. Palette of Impressions”, House of Science, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
2025, “Europe Culture Season”, CCAA, Chengdu, China
2025, “The Golden Age”, Museum LV un Grata JJ, Riga, Latvia
2024, Art Riga Fair 2024, Riga, Latvia
2021, “The Other Side of Art”, 8th European Professional Puppet Art Festival, Latvian Railway History Museum, Riga, Latvia
2019, International Painting Competition Exhibition “Marina 2019” “Storm”, Jurmala City Museum, Jurmala, Latvia
2019, Photo Exhibition of Public Space Objects “The Story of Riga Fir Tree”, European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
2018, Exhibition in Memory of Holocaust Victims, Riga Synagogue, Riga, Latvia
2017, “Heterotopia”, ASP Painting Gallery, The Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, Poland
2017, “100 Years after Revolution”, The Artists’ Union of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
2015, J. Pigoznis Prize “The Best Latvian Landscape Painting” competition exhibition, ...