Baiba Ābelīte grew up in Mežaparks, in the family of the artist Visvaldis Asars. She has Masters in Art degree gained in the Latvian Academy of Arts. As a student, she was actively participating in art life during her studies – many art events, competitions, as well as ERASMUS programs in Great Britain, Germany and Norway, KUNO program courses in Finland and activities supported by the Teterovu Foundation in Poland. In 2015 and 2018, she received the SEB Scholarship in Painting at the LAA Audience Award, participated in joint exhibitions in Latvia and Georgia, and held several solo exhibitions, the last of which is “Permitted Illusion” at the Jurmala City Museum (2020). Baiba Ābelīte received the Riga City Council Prize in the competition and exhibition “Jazeps Pigoznis Prize in Latvian Landscape Painting” in 2020 (St. Peter’s Church, Riga). In 2021, she graduated with hon-ors from the Latvian Academy of Arts, including digital solutions in her multifaceted master’s thesis “Transformation”.
In her art, Baiba Ābelīte addresses the issue of the dynamics of the 21st century, the speed of life and the changing nature of the information space. An important role in Ābelīte’s works is played by material that symbolically reflects the influence of humanity and urbanization on nature. The artist’s work goes beyond traditional staging, she works in different directions – she creates works in author’s technique from various industrial mate-rials, which adds additional dimensions to paintings, creates installations, participates in performances, organizes and conducts master classes, and actively participates in creative and social processes.
The stage of the new, posthuman man has been created. However, it is empty. We don’t know who will fill it, or maybe already does. Author, viewer or anyone who is digitally transformed or who is forced to live in this digitally transformed world. Baiba Ābelīte’s master’s thesis “Contemporary transformation” does not provide an answer, it is not its task either, the thesis has asked questions, confusing and so far unanswerable questions. It has marked a world undergoing a shift that is difficult to pin down yet, but which is blurring the dualistic boundaries between the real and the virtual, the natural and the digital, the human and the posthuman.