Skuja Braden

Skuja Braden is an international artist collective founded in 1999 by Latvian artist Ingūna Skuja and American artist Melissa Braden. Working primarily with porcelain and large-scale installation, the collective is known for immersive sculptural environments that engage domestic space, ornament, and cultural critique from the perspective of women’s lived experience.

Skuja Braden emerged as a significant presence in the Latvian contemporary art scene following their exhibition Samsāra at the Design and Decorative Art Museum of the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga in 2020.^[1] The exhibition was associated with multiple recognitions, including the Kilograms Kultūras Award for Visual Arts, a nomination for the Purvītis Prize, and inclusion in the final selection of artists for the Purvītis Prize exhibition at the Latvian National Museum of Art.^[2] The project also received the Delfi “People’s Choice” award connected to the Purvītis Prize.

These developments contributed to their subsequent selection to represent Latvia at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. At Venice, Skuja Braden presented the installation Selling Water by the River.^[3]

Since then, Skuja Braden has continued to exhibit internationally, including solo exhibitions at kaufmann repetto in Milan and New York, alongside group exhibitions in Europe, Asia, and North America.^[4] In 2025, Skuja Braden was awarded the Baltic Balva for Visual Arts.^[5]

Skuja Braden’s practice centers on porcelain-based installation that merges sculptural form, painterly surface, and architectural space. Working collaboratively as a single authorial voice, they create immersive environments that draw on decorative traditions, domestic imagery, and narrative references. Their work often addresses themes of gender, power, spirituality, and cultural memory, frequently using irony and visual excess.^[6]