Visiting Artist: Sniedze Janson-Ruņģis

February 22, 2018
Richmond Center for Visual Arts
room 2008 at 5:30 p.m.

Working largely outside the boundaries of the conventional art market, Sniedze Janson-Ruņģis is a former Western Michigan University student who earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Commenting on her years at SAIC, Janson-Ruņģis recalls, “...It was art boot camp, where it was demanded that we make art nine hours a day. It was a great discipline which either made you reach deep, or broke you.” Upon graduating SAIC, Janson- Ruņģis earned a fellowship to explore and photograph sacred sites and holy places in Latvia. The resulting body of work became an exhibition titled Explorer/Meklētājs, which traveled to the Latvian Embassy in Washington DC, the Overbrook Art Gallery at Muskegon Community College, and the Latvian Center Garezers. Throughout her career, Sniedze Janson-Ruņģis has received a number of awards in various juried exhibitions. Her work has been featured at such venues as the Museum of Occupation in Riga, Latvia; the Museum of Jewish Heritage and Holocaust in Moscow, Russia, and the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington, Detroit. Prior to attending SAIC, Janson-Ruņģis served as the artistic director of the Whole Art Theater in Kalamazoo, MI, for more than a decade where she designed sets and directed Wallace Shawn's Fever with Tom Small and Oscar Wilde's Salome. Sniedze Janson-Ruņģis also directed A Woman in Amber by Agate Nesaule in Riga, Latvia.