"From Opera to pop, stage to screen, drag show to dance piece no project less worthy than the next of her attention . . ."
What makes Liene Dobraja so intriguing and why are we talking about her here at the Graphic Voice? The Latvian Born artist and designer is not only worthy of our notice because of her various successes as a young international working in her field, but more interestingly because the question one is forced to pose when admiring her portfolio is where have you come from and why weren’t you a rock star?
Glitter Galka, Headpiece
Caca Chinel, Social Poster Project
Liene Dobraja
Designer of Interest
At the Graphic Voice we delight in diverse, eclectic, narrative driven design, which springs from a place of honest reaction and interaction with this faceted and somewhat overwhelming world that we live in. As a Manhattan based designer Liene is no stranger to intensity, but what sets her aside from the maddening crowd of cookie cutter designers is her kaleidoscopic perspective and what it took to foster it. Nonetheless in design, a rock start she is steadily becoming; mainly because she feels no urgency to conform, leading us with her voice, unafraid of judgment, to places we didn’t know we wanted to go.
When your trajectory reads: Graphic Designer, Audio-visual media artist, DJ, Costume Designer for stage and film, Accessory designer, gay advocate, and you are still in touch with all those aspects of your arsenal, it’s safe to say your craft is cross disciplinary. But what ties the fields together is integrity, curiosity, and simple unfiltered fabulousness.
Rigoletto Poster, Graphic Design
Rigoletto, Costume Design
Magic Flute/Higglety Pigglety Pop, Costume Design
Graduating from the Art Academy of Latvia, her interests soon grew to art as social commentary with the creation of Caca Chinel, a series of fashion magazine styled photo shoots featuring herself as the model, with ‘shit’ as the subject. After spending time living in Berlin, Liene had begun to work as a costume designer in theatre, an interest that brought her to New York, to complete a Masters in design for stage and film at Tisch, NYU.
The Lipstick Stain, Costume Design (Short film)
Blackwell, Costume Design (feature film)
Since then, her costumes have graced many stage and film productions, including Rigoletto at the National Latvian Opera under the direction of Margo Zalite. Her most recent venture is a line of accessory headdresses that are undeniably ostentatious, unabashedly colorful and refreshingly uncontrived, selling under a version of her artist pseudonym Glitter ‘Galka.’ They were seen just last week at Coney Island’s mermaid parade.
Glitter Galka, Headpieces
Her work ranges from Don Juan to Drink Slay Love; from Iphigenia to the House of the Flying Boob. From Opera to pop, stage to screen, drag show to dance piece no project less worthy than the next of her attention. Liene is gracing us with a boldness that gives completely of herself in unrepressed honesty. In a city driven by consumption, that often entraps other designers into commercial and narrow corners, it’s refreshing to see someone tell us over and over, this is me.
Please visit her website for a look at her portfolio www.galka.lv
Also visit Glitter Galka on Etsy GLITTER GALKA ETSY STORE and Instagram @GLITTERGALKA