Arta Ozola - Jaunarāja

Is a graduate of Riga Applied Art School and the Graphic Art Department of the Latvian Academy of Art. She holds a Master’s Degree in Visual Plastic Arts (2003). She is involved in various fields of graphic art: advertising, graphic design, packaging design and coin design. In collaboration with Jānis Jaunarājs she has designed books for the publishers Jānis Roze, Jumava, Daugava, Valters un Rapa, Alberts XII, Artava, Preses Nams, Rasa ABC, Nordic, Vaga and others. In collaboration with Latvian Post she has created more than 30 postage stamps and blocks of stamps, receiving first prize for the Year’s Most Beautiful Block of Stamps in a competition between the postal services of eleven countries in 1998. Her fine art prints have regularly been exhibited since 1987, and she has participated in more than 50 international exhibitions of graphic art: in Sweden, Poland, France, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Russia and Italy. She has received diplomas at the 4th International Artist’s Book Triennial in Vilnius in 1990, the Baltic States Graphic Art Triennial at Dalarna Museum, Sweden, in 1993 and elsewhere. In the competition Most Beautiful Book 2001 she received first prize in the Scientific and Teaching Literature Category for the book “Eight Centuries of the Municipality of Riga” (Rīgas pārvalde astoņos gadsimtos. Compiled by I. Celmiņa. R.: SIA Rīgas Nami, Rīgas Vēstures un kuģniecības muzejs, 2000).

In the children’s and youth literature category of the book art competition Zelta ābele 2003 she received third prize for “The Fire Book. Latvian Folk Legends, Beliefs, Riddles and Songs about Fire” (Uguns grāmata. Latviešu tautas teikas, ticējumi, mīklas un tautas dziesmas par uguni. Text: J. Mackova, S. Šteinere-Jēgens. R.: Rasa ABC, 2003), and she was nominated for the Zelta ābele 2007 book art competition and the 2008 Jānis Baltvilks Prize for the book La Roche Enchantée by M. Bauer Benidir (Brīnumakmens. R.: Jāņa Rozes apgāds, 2007).

I work very slowly at children’s books. I draw in a way that I myself find satisfying, so that the process and the result will give me pleasure. (Arta Ozola - Jaunarāja)