02/22/2026
Very sad to learn of the passing of Latvian artist Miervaldis Polis, whose work has captivated me since I first found his work when looking through the registrar at the at . I wrote a seminar paper on him, was awarded a Fulbright to study his work in Latvia, and his work was the subject of one chapter of my PhD dissertation. Since then I wrote countless articles and gave countless talks on his work. In 2015, my study of his work culminated in the publication in of the first monograph on him, by . I’ll never forget phoning him from New Brunswick to try to ask him some questions about his work, before I spoke Latvian in around 2003. After studying the language we had many more and lengthy conversations in Latvian. I was really happy that he finally had a retrospective at the in 2015 and that was the last time I saw him in person. A truly unique artist and person that I am lucky to have known. This is me recreating and re-performing some of his works.
