Threshold
Aleksandrs Breže
16.01.2026 - 21.02.2026

The creative practice of artist and designer Aleksandrs Breže focusses on the tension between contemporary art and object design. In the exhibition Threshold, the artist presents a selection of newly created functional objects that use the language of design and sculptural thinking to revisit and update the practice of digitally expanded contemporary craftsmanship. The symbolic exhibition title marks a transition point – a space between the digital and the material, between sculpture and design, between aesthetic experience and potential utility. With an ironic and surreal view on the everyday environment, Breže “animates” interior objects, playing with associations and dissolving the boundaries between the traditional and the futuristic.

Breže’s practice is defined by his ability to work with equal confidence in both the digital environment and material reality. Digitally created structures are transferred into physical form with industrial precision into metal, structures, and surfaces, – with the artist being the one controlling the entire production process, from the initial design to the final polish. The consistently chosen materials – stainless steel, aluminum, and glass – are not passive backgrounds, but active participants: they shape forms, influence perception, and contribute to the meaning of each work.

Whether developing abstract spatial installations or functional interior objects, Breže creates multilayered sculptural narratives in which sacred symbolism, the visual aesthetics of the last 1990s and 2000s, the language of subcultures, and virtual-space utopias are interwoven. The flame-like forms associated with tribal aesthetics have, over time, become a foundation of Breže's visual identity. The artist often turns to the childhood nostalgia of the 1990s generation and images rooted in collective memory. One such motif is Zīļuks, created by Latvian book illustrator and writer Margarita Stāraste – an icon that embodied childhood innocence, sincerity and a pure view of the world for those born in the 1980s and 1990s. In Breže's sculpture “ZĪĻUX”, this character is transformed: its gaze now carries playful slyness, gentle dissatisfaction, and irony – emotions characteristic of adult consciousness, becoming a messenger of the present moment.

Aleksandrs Breže (1994) graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam (2018) and the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn (2022), majoring in graphic design. His artistic practice is closely tied to the study of the digital environment and the creation of three-dimensional abstractions that reference the visual aesthetics of the 1990s and utopias of virtual space. Together with artist Armands Freibergs, he leads the subframe.xyz project, which explores the interrelationships between the human body, the surrounding environment, graphic design, technology, and material science. Recent exhibitions: solo exhibition “Succumbing to Temptation”, Kogo Gallery (2024), solo exhibition “Optimism, Confidence, Charity” LOOK! (2023), group exhibition “SUBFRAME.XYZ” (Armands Freibergs, Tom Volkaert, Nik Kosmas, Vytautas Gečas) (2023), duo exhibition LAST HARVEST, Maboca Festival (participation together with Līga Spunde) (2022), open-air exhibition SAVVAĻA (participation together with Otso Perasaari) (2021).

Supported by: State Culture Capital Foundation