"Healthy Friends" Jānis Dzirnieks

Jānis Dzirnieks solo show Healthy Friends

Curated by Kaspars Groševs

Kim? Contemporary Art Centre presents Jānis Dzirnieks’ second solo exhibition at the institution, following the artist’s two-month residency at ISCP, New York in the autumn of 2024, as the recipient of the Kim? Residency Award. In New York, small corner stores — bodegas — can be found on almost every block. One such store, called Healthy Friends, offers sandwiches and fast food that are far from anything actually healthy. Yet the names of these establishments often include words like healthy, natural, organic, and other slogans praising naturalness — phrases that serve no purpose beyond drawing attention to a product range oversaturated with chemicals.

The works in the exhibition include scanned scribbles and watercolor drawings, later digitally enhanced, printed, and then physically modified. These drawings depict various creatures in stages of decay and decomposition, merged with illustrations of refrigeration system optimizations. In a way, the process of decay can be seen as a form of optimization — much like the creation of these works could be viewed as a kind of self-reprocessing. Optimization, as such, is inevitable in both living and non-living organisms, as well as in economics, politics, sociology, and beyond.

Supporters: Ministry of Culture, State Culture Capital Foundation, KOMPOZITS, WMT Baltic, Absolut, Valmiermuiža, KRASO.

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About the gallery

Kim? Contemporary Art Centre (Riga) is one of the leading and most recognized contemporary art institutions in Latvia. Founded in 2009, Kim? has organized more than 150 exhibitions by emerging and established artists from Latvia, the Baltics, and internationally. Over 50 exhibitions and projects have been held outside of Latvia in partnership with renowned art institutions, including, Fondation d’entreprise Ricard (Paris), Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York), Moderna Museet (Malmö), KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), Art in General (New York) and numerous other. Kim? has been a two-time organizer of the National Pavilion of Latvia in Venice Biennale - 55th Venice Biennale, co-curated with long-time partner, New York-based art space Art in General, and the 58th Venice Biennale, co-organized with the Latvian Contemporary Art Centre. Kim?s outgoing artists' residency program is organized in collaboration with long-term partner ISCP (New York) and since this year Kim? has also introduced a new internal residency program at its future venue on Hanzas Street 22 in Riga. In 2024 Kim? launched its annual contemporary art festival "Eden" and July 2025 marks the premiere of contemporary art fair Riga Contemporary. Kim? is a non-profit, non-governmental institution.