On 28 March at 13:00, the exhibition “River of Ancestors III” (Senču upe III) by textile artist Zane Shumeiko will open at the Siguldas Devons Cultural Centre.
The exhibition is the third part of the River of Ancestors series, dedicated to lineage and its system across seven generations, and brings together both previously exhibited works and pieces created specifically for this exhibition.
The exhibition is the third part of the River of Ancestors series, dedicated to lineage and its system across seven generations, and brings together both previously exhibited works and pieces created specifically for this exhibition.
Zane Shumeiko is a textile artist and art educator who works intuitively, exploring the creative process and allowing it to guide her toward the final result. She uses free-motion machine embroidery, interpreting and experimenting with the technique in search of new forms of expression. A significant part of her work is devoted to exploring family history, and for the artist, art-making functions as a form of self-therapy — a way to process and express subjective experiences in a gently healing manner.
“This is already the third exhibition under the same title, presented in different locations across Latvia. Each time, I add new experiences and new works created specifically for the exhibition. I aim to raise awareness of history, roots, and the strength of lineage, exploring the diversity of forms and the heritage passed down through generations, and through this, to better understand myself.
An old shuttle found in my ancestors’ home in Vidzeme, in the parish of Kalncempji, now carries me like a boat along the river, connecting and weaving together times, people, the layered story of a family, places, memories, experiences, and emotions into a single fabric. I speak of birth, childhood, old age, femininity and masculinity, trauma, time, memory, pain, joy, and love.
Through textile materials and painterly means, I portray the women of my family who have influenced me. With embroidered and written words — through needle and thread — I try to give voice and presence to the men of my lineage. I began with a self-portrait, followed by portraits of the women in my family. Over the past year, I have added portraits of my mother and father to the collection. The process of creating these works has been a journey of inner self-discovery, producing images that feel to me like icons, goddesses, witches, magicians, guardian angels, or archetypal carriers of inner strength and resources. Each work is an autoethnographic study, a meditation, and a personal self-therapeutic experience through art.
As artist and healer Roel Crabbe has said: ‘We are all part of a river flowing through time.’ Through color, form, texture, and conceptual keywords, I wish to convey a constellation of emotions to the viewer. I invite everyone to interpret the works by asking themselves questions, allowing their own rivers of memory to flow…”
Zane Šumeiko graduated from the Textile Art Department of the Art Academy of Latvia. She later studied fashion textile design in Milan, Italy, where she also worked in the textile industry for an extended period. Since 2014, she has lived and worked in Tallinn, Estonia. In 2022, she obtained a master’s degree in textile studies from the Estonian Academy of Arts.
The artist has participated in exhibitions and art projects in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Russia, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Italy, and since 2023 has been a member of textile art associations in both Latvia and Estonia.
The exhibition at the Siguldas Devons Cultural Centre is open to visitors free of charge from 28 March to 9 May 2026.
Address: Pils iela 10, LV-2150
“This is already the third exhibition under the same title, presented in different locations across Latvia. Each time, I add new experiences and new works created specifically for the exhibition. I aim to raise awareness of history, roots, and the strength of lineage, exploring the diversity of forms and the heritage passed down through generations, and through this, to better understand myself.
An old shuttle found in my ancestors’ home in Vidzeme, in the parish of Kalncempji, now carries me like a boat along the river, connecting and weaving together times, people, the layered story of a family, places, memories, experiences, and emotions into a single fabric. I speak of birth, childhood, old age, femininity and masculinity, trauma, time, memory, pain, joy, and love.
Through textile materials and painterly means, I portray the women of my family who have influenced me. With embroidered and written words — through needle and thread — I try to give voice and presence to the men of my lineage. I began with a self-portrait, followed by portraits of the women in my family. Over the past year, I have added portraits of my mother and father to the collection. The process of creating these works has been a journey of inner self-discovery, producing images that feel to me like icons, goddesses, witches, magicians, guardian angels, or archetypal carriers of inner strength and resources. Each work is an autoethnographic study, a meditation, and a personal self-therapeutic experience through art.
As artist and healer Roel Crabbe has said: ‘We are all part of a river flowing through time.’ Through color, form, texture, and conceptual keywords, I wish to convey a constellation of emotions to the viewer. I invite everyone to interpret the works by asking themselves questions, allowing their own rivers of memory to flow…”
Zane Šumeiko graduated from the Textile Art Department of the Art Academy of Latvia. She later studied fashion textile design in Milan, Italy, where she also worked in the textile industry for an extended period. Since 2014, she has lived and worked in Tallinn, Estonia. In 2022, she obtained a master’s degree in textile studies from the Estonian Academy of Arts.
The artist has participated in exhibitions and art projects in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Russia, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Italy, and since 2023 has been a member of textile art associations in both Latvia and Estonia.
The exhibition at the Siguldas Devons Cultural Centre is open to visitors free of charge from 28 March to 9 May 2026.
Address: Pils iela 10, LV-2150