Carmel International Arts Festival Welcomes Artists From Latvia

Two visiting artists from Jelgava, Latvia - Kristina Landaua Junkere and Raitis Junkers - will be exhibiting their talents at the 26th Annual Carmel International Arts Festival on September 23 and 24 in the Carmel Arts & Design District. Jelgava is one of Carmel’s five sister cities.

Kristina Landaua Junkere was born in 1964 in Riga, Latvia, into a family of artists. She studied at Riga Applied Arts Secondary School and graduated from the glass design department of the Latvian Art Academy where she obtained a Master’s Degree in art. Parallel with her studies, she started working at the Jelgava Art School as a teacher of composition and painting. She is one of the founders of the Jelgava Art School and still works there.

For more than 30 years, she has been organizing and leading summer art plein air events for both children and adults. Her focus in education is to share the beauty of Latvian nature and its small towns with the help of paint. She teaches line, area and color composition.

Junkere is also an author who has written a book designed to help visual art teachers. Her career path has taken her to art exhibits in Lithuania, Norway, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

Raitis Junkers is a designer, painter and teacher. He was born in Kuldiga, Latvia in 1959. He studied at the decorative design department of the Liepaja Applied Arts Secondary School, then at Liepaja University in the computer design department.

He worked as an artist, first as a designer in Kuldiga & Auce and managed the art studio for children in Vecauce Palace. Junkers was the professor of visual plastic arts at the Bene School of Music and Art.

Junkers has lived and worked in Jelgava since 2010. He is the president of the Association Center of Ideas and head of the art studio Mansards. He created an open-air art gallery at the Jelgava City Library. He has participated in art plein airs in Latvia, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, France and Germany.

In addition to plein air painting, he has created scenographies for Jelgava Adolfs Alunans for theater performances, poetry days and dance festivals. He painted murals in the Jelgava Railway Museum and in the Jelgava 4th Secondary School.

He is a member of the Jelgava Society of Artists and has been awarded with letters of appreciation from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia for work in preparing students for world children’s drawing competitions. In addition, the Jelgava City Certificate of Honor was awarded to Junkers for his contribution to Jelgava’s cultural life and the education of a new generation of artists. You can learn more about Junkers by visiting his Facebook at www.facebook.com/raitis.junkers.

The Carmel International Arts Festival brings more than 120 amazingly talented artists to Carmel for this two-day event. These artists come from all over the United States. Over 30,000 people are expected to attend this annual event.

The festival will take place Saturday, September 23, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, September 24, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

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