Introduction
In the National Guard, Krišs Salmanis was told: “When you think that you can’t anymore, you still have 60 percent strength left in you.” Maybe that is true, but the artist would not be willing to test it.
In the National Guard, Krišs Salmanis was told: “When you think that you can’t anymore, you still have 60 percent strength left in you.” Maybe that is true, but the artist would not be willing to test it.
Krišs Salmanis (b.1977) is a visual artist based in Riga. He studied in the Visual Communication Sub-Department at the Art Academy of Latvia (MA, 2003) and at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne (2009–2010). Salmanis uses animation, video, photography and objects as well as his body in his art. His work can be perceived as a mental exercise, intellectual activity and wit as a twist of thought. Painstakingly elaborate, the works are thought out to the tiniest detail. They are often quite minimalist in terms of artistic expression and defined by their unexpected paradoxicality and intuitive quest for the truth combined with subtle irony and existential sadness.