Dangerous Liaisons by Skuja Braden. Photo by Gvido Kajons.
Skuja Braden is the merged artistic identity of Ingūna Skuja (Latvia) and Melissa Braden (California), active since 1999. Working primarily in porcelain, they fuse sculptural craft with painting, satire, and art-historical reference. Their works draw on the aesthetics of the decorative — ornament, sentiment, beauty — while turning those languages into tools for sharp contemporary storytelling centered on women’s lives, desire, agency, and cultural pressure. The result is intimate, theatrical, and often darkly humorous: objects that seduce the viewer, then refuse comfort. In 2022, Skuja Braden represented Latvia at the 59th Venice Biennale with Selling Water by the River.
Read more: Skuja Braden: Artist Statement
