Rasmus Marks "Lightnest"

Light Nest explores the poetics of living space as the site where the self achieves phenomenal presence. Guided by the logic of metonymic links, the exhibition constructs a fragmented self-portrait of the artist out of a series of painted still lives and extreme close-ups of his body. In these works, the self never manifests as the meaningful whole of traditional portraiture. Dispersed in parts, reflections and everyday objects, Rasmus Marks’ approach to self-portrait seems to deny the very possibility of a coherent and self-sufficient subject in both psychological (the subject as self) and artistic (the subject of the artwork) sense.

The technique of defamiliarization employed by the artist erases the strict borderline between animate and inanimate nature. It is impossible to tell whether we are witnessing the humanisation of things that are infused with living presence or becoming-thing of the artist’s body that is never depicted in conventional human scale. Nested in encroaching darkness, the bright light almost painful to the eye suggests the unhomely (unheimlich) at the very heart of home. Such bold use of chiaroscuro rules out the idea of peaceful dwelling conventionally associated with the room of one’s own. The reflection in the mirror has the air of a creepy intruder, suggesting that one’s private space does not guarantee a shelter from one’s own unconscious. Here, psychoanalysis’ insight that life is fundamentally discomfort finds a powerful artistic affirmation.

Curator Igors Gubenko

Rasmus Marks (b. 2005) is a Latvia-based artist, currently studying at the Art Academy of Latvia. He delves into metaphysical structures of spaces primarily through painting. Whilst trying to grasp the psychic part of objects and body parts, his works reflect the subconscious impressions of himself and his surroundings. Closeness, darkness, and coziness are motifs ever present in his paintings. Marks has been nominated for the Young Painter Prize (2024, 2025), his work has been exhibited in various group shows in Latvia, Lithuania, Belgium. He is a co-founder of the underground art space SAKNE.

Curator of the exhibition Igors Gubenko is a philosopher, writer and curator from Latvia, editor of the independent online culture magazine Satori. He has curated solo exhibitions by Daniela Vētra, MAREUNROL’S, Anna Dzērve, Krišs Salmanis, Voldemārs Johansons, Artūrs Virtmanis and Miķelis Mūrnieks. Together with Līna Birzaka-Priekule and Laura Brokāne, he curated the group exhibition „In the Name of Desire“ at the Latvian National Museum of Art and together with the association Mākslas birojs – the group exhibition „Bare Life“ at the Cēsis Art Festival 2025. He is the author of the text for the retrospective exhibition „Harmonious Collision“ by the fashion brand Fyodor Golan and the co-creator of its public programme.