Mandarins Painting

Andrejs Ko has been a professional artist and designer for more than 30 years. From 2009 he lives and works in the UK. Andrejs Ko (Andrejs Dinvalds) was born in Riga, Latvia in 1970. Having finished the Janis Rozentāls Riga Art Secondary School in 1988, he went on to study at the Latvian Academy of Art, graduating from the Department of Environment Design in 1994. While still a student he took part in many group exhibitions in Latvia, Russia, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Israel, USA, Canada and other states. He has had one-man show in Riga: „Closing one eyes” (art gallery ag7, 2008), „Pieces of reconquered space” (art gallery Slazds, 2009), „Xenotopia” (art gallery Mākslas Banka, 2013), „Xenotopia II” (art gallery Mākslas Banka, 2014), „Silence between two thoughts” (art gallery Happy Art Museum, 2018), „Blackbird’s Meal in a Sunlit Garden” (Tifāna Art Gallery, 2024). The artist’s works can be found in private collections in Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Germany, USA, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. Andrejs Ko creative path includes a diversity of media. He worked for a long time (1999–2008) with one of the leading media companies in the Baltic states as their head artist and responsible for the visual design of several television channels. At the same time, he developed his own creative interests in video art, 2D/3D animation, and graphic design. Already in the 1980 and 90s Andrejs Ko had also proved himself to be an outstanding painter and currently his talent as an artist manifests itself in painting. Andrejs Ko works in acrylic on canvas, as well as experimenting in his own technique to create both metaphorical figural compositions and stylised still life’s, landscapes and portraits. The artist has paid special attention in his works to the research and discovery of the manifold properties of materiality. He achieves fragility and depth in texture through careful multi-layered painting. The surface is enriched by a realistically clear and detailed drawing in contrast with the interplay of pronouncedly ornamental and expressively chaotic lines. The result is a painterly polyphony of nuances and rhythms, which creates a space for thought associations and sensations to unravel.