Vija Celmins creates photorealistic drawings and paintings of the natural world. Her detailed, meditative images of subjects such as ocean waves or stars in the sky are often rendered in gray, black, and white.

Celmins was born in 1938 in Riga, Latvia. When she was a young child, her family moved to Germany, and later to Indianapolis, Indiana.

As a young woman, Celmins experimented with abstract expressionism, the dominant artistic movement of the time. She later deemed the style “too decorative” and embraced representational work. Celmins began producing precise recreations of black-and-white newspaper photos and images of nature. Paintings such as Rhinoceros (1965) showcase the artist’s meticulous drawing style.

Celmins earned her master’s degree in art from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1965. She lives in New York City.