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Jānis Dzirnieks “Healthy Friends”

5.4.2025 - 8.6.2025

Jānis Dzirnieks solo show Healthy Friends

Opening: April 4, 18:00

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. The prevailing sense of distrust in bodegas — from overpriced trivialities to the tastiest snacks — serves as a fitting

Jānis Dzirnieks’ (1992) work cuts through the facade of technological efficiency, revealing the unsettling and often sinister forms that emerge from our relentless drive for optimization. By repurposing industrial remnants into thought-provoking installations, Dzirnieks prompts viewers to confront the ecological and societal costs of progress. Solo exhibitions include: Tiled River at Gallery 427, Riga; Flat Tire at Robert Fruinstraat 56, Rotterdam; Gaidot nākamo minūti at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga; and Sharp Horizon at Nemo, Eckernförde. Duo exhibitions include: Snowlake Blockbuster (with Alise Anna Dzirniece) at Extra City, Antwerp. Group exhibitions: Soap Opera at City Surfer Office, Prague; Agents of Perception at Kai Art Center, Tallinn; Midnight Sunburn at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam; and others. He is the recipient of the 2024 Kim? Contemporary Art Centre Residency Award and undertook a residency at ISCP, New York.