Every year, the SEB scholarship competition has a specific theme. The students’ task is to reflect the topicality of the topic in the artwork. The theme of the 2020 competition was the agenda, encouraging students to think critically and analytically about the impact of the media on personal and public opinion, to see how news and social networks determine what the audience thinks about, not what to think about. The four artists selected by the jury include the concepts of identity and time in their work, as well as reflecting their human condition in their daily rush.
Objective and truthful information is not possible without diversity. Diversity lies in everyone’s head. This means that each of us must open our minds to different views, while remembering our origins and experiences. It is a never-ending process that expands the creative abilities of every artist. In other words, we often see art like the media as a window that allows us to see the world around us and society as a whole. Artists, like the media, do not reflect the world, but reconstruct it. They select ideas, images and concepts, this selection process means that they pay more attention to certain events and things, thus telling the viewer what is most important and what should be thought about today.
SEB scholarship in painting was first presented to the Latvian Academy of Arts in 2008, its winners were Neonilla Medvedeva, in 2009 – Atis Jākobsons, in 2010 – Zane Tuča, in 2011 – Elza Sīle, in 2012 – Laimdota Steķe, in 2013 – Klāvs Loris, in 2014 – Madara Neiken, in 2015 – Zīle Ziemele, in 2016 – Sandra Strēle, in 2017 – Kristaps Priede, in 2018 – Anna Pommere and in 2019 – Krišjānis Elviks.
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