Elina Ruka

My artistic interest centres upon examining the human relationship with water and the photographic medium, questioning the knowledge on both subjects and juggling between reality and illusion. I am interested in malleability of image's physical form and visual meaning through the ideas of repetition, processing, multilayering and polarities: still/moving, abstract/representational,
knowledge/illusion, fear/comfort. The impulse to work on the subject of water came from not understanding how it can powerfully
attract me and simultaneously push away. As much as I admire water's grandiosity and beauty, I also
always feared it. Water's constant movement, its formlessness, diversity and changeability is the
motivation to research this theme further and to create art. Working on the subject is contemplating
the ever-changing aspect of life, us and photography. The moment when one thinks to have seen the
shape of water, it is already gone. Similarly, the way how we feel about water and life is dependent on
our experiences and circumstances, thus, constantly shifting.

I am recipient of Fulbright Fellowship, Follett Merit Award and Albert P. Weisman Award at Columbia College Chicago, Jānis Grundmanis Postgraduate Fellowship for Stu...

MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago
BFA in Photography from Ecoles de Conde, France

Solo shows
2018 "Immersion" at Gravy in Philadelphia
2018 "All the Waves Belong to the Sea" at the Latvian Museum of Photography
2017 River, Vedder Price, Chicago, IL
2017 Aqueous, Waubonsee Community College, Aurora, IL
2009 Could this become my home?, Creative Space Tasty, Riga, Latvia

Group shows (selected)
2018 Art unites, Global Center for Latvian Art, Cēsis, Latvia
2018 Pushed Processes: Reworking the Photographic Medium, Hokin Gallery, Chicago, IL
2018 Shadow Fixation, Perspective Gallery, Evanston, IL
2017 Top 16, Kaunas Photo Festival, Kaunas, Lithuania
2017 Water, Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, KS
2017 MFA Portfolio, Columbia College Chicago Alumni show, Spokojna Gallery, Academy of Fine
Arts, Warsaw, Poland
2016 Albert P. Weisman Award Exhibition, Arcade Gallery, Chicago, IL
2016 Photography MFA Thesis Exhibition, Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, IL
2015 Inspired at Blu, Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel, Chicago, IL
2015 Fluid Method, The Observatory Gallery, Chicago, IL
2012 Contemporary Photographers from Latvia, Cultural center, Liège, Belgium
2012 Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
2009 ISSP 2009, Cinema “Latgale”, Ludza, Latvia
2008 ISSP 2008, Goethe Institut, Riga, Latvia