IEVA JURJĀNE studied at the Janis Rozentāls High School for Art and received a master's degree in painting from the Latvian Academy of Art in 1996.
At the Latvian National Opera Ieva Jurjāne has created the set design for Jānis Lūsēns and Māra Zālīte's The Birds' Opera (directed by Baņuta Rubesa in 2000) and Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (directed by Viesturs Kairišs in 1999); she designed the sets and costumes for a production of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, directed by Andrejs Žagars in 2006, Richard Wagner's Siegfried, directed by Viesturs Kairišs in 2008, and Puccini's Il Trittico directed by Viesturs Kairišs in 2010.
Ieva Jurjāne has had a lengthy collaboration with Viesturs Kairišs's theater group United Intimacy, and has created the visual design for Kairišs's productions at the Unbearable Theater Artel, the Latvian National Theatre, and the New Riga Theatre, including the Kaudzīte Brothers' Mērnieku laiki (Time of the Surveyors); Inga Ābele's Tumšie brieži (Dark Deer); Māra Zālīte's Margarēta; Rūdolfs Blaumanis's Skroderdienas Silmačos (The Tailor Days in Silmači); The Tunnel, by Ernest Sabato; The Serpent based on the short story by Mircea Eliade, and Miss Christina based on the novella of the same name by Mircea Eliade.
She has worked as an artist and costume designer for Kairišs's films Tumšie Brieži (Dark Deer), Romeo and Juliet, Pa ceļam aizejot (Leaving by the Way), and Kāzas (Wedding); Aija Bley's animated film Doktora D. sala (The Island of Doctor D.), and Māra Liniņa's animated films Laiks Eņģelim (Time for the Angel) and Reiz Dievs... (Once Upon a Time God...).
She has won the 2006 Latvijas Gāze Award for the year's best production, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the LNO; the 2005 Lielais Kristaps Award for best animation artist, for Doktora D. sala (directed by Aija Bley); the 2000 Annual Theater Award for best set design, for The Serpent; and the 2000 Latvian Annual Music Award for set design, for Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.
Ieva Jurjāne received a scolarship from the Latvian Ministry of Culture to spend two months at the International Art Center Workshop in Paris in 1997, and won the Jaunrade Foundation Scolarship in 1995/1996. She has had several group and solo exhibits in Riga (at the Riga Gallery, the Danish Cultural Institute, the Daugava Gallery, the Istaba Gallery, the Arsenāls Exhibition Hall) as well as in Helsinki and Holland. Ieva Jurjāne is one of the founders of the New Theater Institute; she is also a member of the Latvian Artists Union and the Society of Young Artists.