“WHEN I WAS A RIVER” JANA BRIKE

This October, Downtown Los Angeles’ Corey Helford Gallery will open its doors to a new body of work by Latvian painter Jana Brike, whose luminous surrealism continues to trace the fragile and transcendent moments of human existence. Her exhibition, When I Was a River, debuts October 11th in Gallery 3.

Brike’s paintings have always spoken in a symbolic, deeply personal language. Rooted in her childhood in Soviet-occupied Latvia, her art has long looked to nature as refuge and guide. Through this lens, Brike explores the cycles of life—love and grief, the intimacy of motherhood and sisterhood, the ache of mortality, and the small yet transformative awakenings that accompany them. Each canvas becomes a bridge between the physical and spiritual, a place where human vulnerability is held within archetypes drawn from myth and the natural world.

In this latest series, Brike turns toward the four primal elements—Earth, Air, Fire, and Water—as touchstones for the human journey. Her works are less representations of nature than they are portals: thresholds where inner landscapes and external worlds collapse into one. “Nature is not separate from us,” she reflects, “but a sacred extension of our own inner weather and shifting seasons.”

The elements in her vision transcend their literal forms. Earth, carrying memory, grounds us in our bodies and our belonging. Air becomes thought, breath, and the invisible currents of emotion. Fire ignites transformation, passion, and desire’s alchemy. And Water, ever-moving, speaks to feeling, surrender, and the unseen depths of becoming.

Through this elemental meditation, Brike invites viewers into a dialogue between what is visible and what is felt—between soil and memory, sky and breath, flame and awakening, river and self. Her brushwork, simultaneously tender and arresting, makes space for stillness, for spirit to take form, and for the soul to remember its place in the greater whole.

When I Was a River will be presented alongside two other powerful exhibitions at CHG: The Weight of Us, a dual solo show by Nigerian hyper-realist artists Arinze Stanley and Oscar Ukonu in the Main Gallery, and Where Petals Dance, a solo by Japanese artist aica in Gallery 2. Together, the three exhibitions transform the gallery into a constellation of global voices exploring identity, humanity, and the sublime.

The opening reception takes place Saturday, October 11th, from 7:00 to 11:00 pm, and is free and open to the public. All exhibitions will remain on view through November 15th at Corey Helford Gallery.