2025

29.11.- 05.01.

ALEXEI GORDIN

Ghosts and Powers

29.11.- 05.01.

ALEXEI GORDIN

Ghosts and Powers

On Friday, November 29, at 18.00, Alexei Gordin’s exhibition Ghosts and Powers will open at Hobusepea Gallery. The exhibition will remain open until January 5, 2025.

Alexei Gordin: “In the exhibition Ghosts and Powers, I explore the complexities of architectural heritage and its profound influence on human lives. Set against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the discourse surrounding monuments erected under occupation regimes has resurfaced, exposing societal divides. As always, the truth resides in a nuanced middle ground, obscured by the weight of emotion.

The idea for the exhibition stemmed from an article in Postimees describing a mysterious bunker beneath the Maarjamäe “space rocket”. According to old drawings, a room lies hidden beneath the monument, sealed for seventy years. What purpose did it serve and what might it hide? If a hatch to the bunker could be unearthed, might it lead to a point where all conflicting aspects converge into a unified understanding?

A video in the gallery’s basement engages with Kristina Norman’s 2007 work, Monolith. While Norman’s controversial monument fell from the sky like a meteorite, causing widespread societal disarray, the current monument launches like a spacecraft into the sky. Remarkably, in the seventeen years, the debate over monuments has not waned; instead, it has intensified.

The second part of the exhibition shifts focus to a different category of monuments — Estonian manors. Originally constructed by hostile regimes, these buildings have, over time, shed their oppressive connotations and become merely cultural heritage. While manor culture depended on the exploitation of locals, these estates have been preserved and redefined as integral to national history. Their original hostile connotation was erased through the deconstruction imposed by another oppressive regime.
In this exhibition, I present photographs taken over the years of abandoned manor apartments and personal belongings found in them. By making these monuments visible, I ask: How should we approach history? Through abstract events or the lives of ordinary people? Behind major historical upheavals lies an intricate web of personal experiences, interwoven across time and space. This interconnectedness makes history so challenging to interpret — it is composed of millions of lives and countless ambivalent concepts.”

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions at the Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Alexei Gordin (1989) is primarily known as a painter but also works in photography, video, and performance art. His work uses dark humor to critique the absurdities of the (art) world and human alienation, while addressing issues such as inequality and marginalization. His work draws inspiration from cartoons and references comic and meme culture. Gordin began actively exhibiting in 2010. In his solo exhibition March 1989. August 2014 (Tallinn City Gallery, 2014), Gordin explored the darker facets of post-Soviet society and its lingering influence in contemporary Eastern Europe through photography. Having grown up in Tomsk, Russia, he has used his personal experiences to shed light on the challenges of life in transitional societies. One of his notable projects, The Artist Collects Empty Bottles (Y-Gallery, 2014), addressed the themes of art-making and poverty. Since 2015, Gordin has depicted the art world, complete with galleries, fairs, and white cubes, in a caricatured style, often portraying the artist as the underdog in this system. The atmosphere in his works is harsh, with alienated characters navigating a bleak reality, underscored by comic-like text. He has continued to explore these themes through painting and video in solo exhibitions such as I Remained Silent (Kogo Gallery, 2018) and Artists, Galleries, and Abandoned Spaces (Pamenkalnio Gallery, Vilnius 2019), How Could This Happen? (ArtDepoo Gallery, 2021), Dreams Come True In This Gallery (Vaal Gallery, 2022) and Death Mill (Maksla XO Gallery, Riga, 2024). He has studied painting in the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA, 2011) and in the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki (MA, 2016). Gordin has participated in group shows in Kiasma and Kumu Art Museum. In 2017, he was awarded the Young Painter Award. His works are included in the collections of Kumu Art Museum, Tartu Art Museum, the Lithuanian National Gallery, Kiasma and in the private collections of Poco and Zuzeum.

09.01.- 03.02.

HANNA RåST (FI)

Weak Signals

09.01.- 03.02.

HANNA RåST (FI)

Weak Signals

On Wednesday, January 8, at 18.00, Hanna Råst’s exhibition Weak Signals will open at Hobusepea Gallery. The exhibition will remain open until February 3, 2025.

I visited the basement of my childhood home and found a box containing my elementary school notebooks. As I flipped through them, I was struck by how, at that time, global warming was still referred to as the “greenhouse effect.” While discussions about the climate crisis have been ongoing since the 1960s, earlier observations of the Earth’s warming date back to the late 19th century. Despite the consistent warnings, this looming, visible, and ever-impending threat always seems to be pushed into the future.

When we examine future threats, it’s essential to recognize their deep roots in the past and their far-reaching impact on what’s to come. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Nothing happens in a vacuum. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, scientists had long warned about the dangers of zoonotic diseases. Similarly, wars and genocides—whether near or far—didn’t begin in 2022 or 2023. They are part of long histories of oppression and power struggles. These events have been predicted, they have been visible, yet they persist in our blind spots, especially when swift action is most needed.

In my exhibition Weak Signals, I explore how we might prepare for and find refuge in an increasingly unstable global landscape marked by wars, economic crises, and the climate emergency—issues that are deeply intertwined.

Given that uncertainty and threat cast long shadows over both our societies and personal lives, the works in this exhibition borrow memories from my own past—strategies for protection and escape, if only on a mental level. The title itself, Weak Signals, is borrowed from futurology and the corporate world, where it refers to an event or phenomenon that serves as an early indicator of change.

A weak signal is the first symptom of change. The future isn’t always “visible” in a conventional sense, but it can reveal itself through subtle symptoms, in various forms. By learning to read these symptoms, we can better observe and anticipate potential changes. While a weak signal often refers to something unexpected that challenges prior assumptions, even well-known phenomena can evolve in unforeseen directions. Consciously developed events, innovations, or phenomena can sometimes yield far more significant consequences than we ever anticipated.

The exhibition explores themes of safety and threat through moving images, object-based works, and drawings. These works do not aim to provide solutions but rather function as indicators, from which a seeker of weak signals can extract fragments of information (or memory) to uncover the frequencies of the future.

Hanna Rast

Exhibitions at the Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Hanna Råst (FI) is a visual artist based in Helsinki whose work explores themes of memory, trauma, and transience through archaeology, ecology, and psychology. Råst works with lens-based media, sculpture, and text-based art. Her works often begin with archival materials such as photographs, found objects, historical sites, or narratives, through which she reflects on the impact of the past on the future. Weak Signals is Råst’s first solo exhibition in Tallinn. Her work is supported by the Kone Foundation for 2025–2026.

05.02.- 03.03.

SARAH NõMM

Diaries of a Bruised Princess

05.02.- 03.03.

SARAH NõMM

Diaries of a Bruised Princess

On Wednesday, February 5th, at 18.00, Sarah Nõmm’s exhibition Diaries of a Bruised Princess will open at Hobusepea Gallery. The curator of the exhibition is Kärt Kelder. The exhibition will remain open until March 3, 2025.

Let’s play a game. I am a princess, and you are a wicked stranger. I have nine hearts; eight are bruised, and one is uncorrupted.

Sarah Nõmm’s solo exhibition, Diaries of a Bruised Princess, draws visitors into a space filled with personal narratives, elevating the themes of playfulness and the intrinsic human yearning for care. The exhibition comprises nine works that navigate the liminal space between childhood and adulthood, foregrounding issues of mental health and identity formation while underscoring the enduring desire to experience care in every role — whether assumed or imposed.

The motif of play is central to the exhibition — explored both through the innocence of childhood and the intimate practices of adulthood. As children, we play out our hopes and dreams, while in adulthood, “make-believe” becomes a safeguard for our secret thoughts and desires. The difference between a princess dress and a latex costume is not particularly vast — both serve as an escape from the mundane.

In her work, the artist employs the supposed naivety of youth while incorporating direct references to BDSM (B – bondage; D – discipline; D/s – dominance and submission; SM – sadomasochism). Through BDSM, Nõmm highlights the importance of rules within play, which safeguard against the transformation of dreams into trauma and instead bring the autonomous individual the pleasure and care they crave.

While BDSM remains a societal taboo due to its associations with force and pain, it is also a consensual, communicative physical act. To feel being listened to and have your pain be treated right instills confidence and builds trust instead of suppression towards oneself and others.

Human nature is complex, and this understanding serves Nõmm as a source of inspiration. With Diaries of the Bruised Princess, the artist seeks to bridge the childlike longing of safety and the adult pursuit of pleasure, showing how emotional scars can heal through unconventional means. Her exploration of the body transcends distinctions of gender, nationality, and age, focusing on its need to hold and to be held.

Nõmm’s aim is to challenge and expand existing narratives around mental health, trauma and sexuality, fostering dialogue and understanding across educational, private, and public contexts. By sharing personal stories, she seeks to dismantle stigma, encouraging others to confront their experiences with courage and empathy.

I am an adult and you are just a stranger. I have only one heart – hold my pain and the bruises will heal.

Kärt Kelder

Sarah Nõmm (b. 1998) is a Tallinn-based artist whose practice spans sculpture, installation, video, and performance. Her work frequently interrogates the representation of the female body and the spaces surrounding it. Rooted in personal experiences, Nõmm’s art engages with themes relating to the body through the lenses of folklore, mythology, taboos, and everyday rituals. She holds a BA degree in sculpture and installation art and MA degree in contemporary art from the Estonian Academy of Arts. Nõmm has received notable recognition, including the Young Sculptor Award in 2021. In 2022, she was nominated for the AkzoNobel Art Prize alongside Maria Izabella Lehtsaar and awarded the Eduard Wiiralt Scholarship.

Kärt Kelder (b. 1990) is a freelance writer and project manager in the field of contemporary dance, based in Tallinn. Her work focuses on the intersections of culture, exploring non-normative tendencies and societal trends that illuminate the complexity and depth of the human experience. She holds degrees in journalism and literature from the University of Tartu and cultural sociology from the University of Amsterdam.

The artist’s gratitude goes to: Priit Heinla, Kertu Klementi, Nadežda Tjuška, Edvard Vellevoog, Maria-izabella Lehtsaar, Micaela Saraceno, Marleen Mikk, Laure Paldrok, Irma Holm, Siim Preiman, Visa Nurmi, Ats Kruusing, Julika Roos.

The exhibition is supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

05.03.- 31.03.

MAARJA NURK

Hundred Laps Around the Pond, Hundred Laps Around the Bush

05.03.- 31.03.

MAARJA NURK

Hundred Laps Around the Pond, Hundred Laps Around the Bush

On Wednesday, March 5th at 18.00, Maarja Nurk’s exhibition Hundred Laps Around the Pond, Hundred Laps Around the Bush will open at Hobusepea Gallery. The exhibition will be open until March 31, 2025.

Maarja Nurk: “The fabric absorbs colour just as it does a coffee stain. The water in the fountain circulates, endlessly repeating itself and its form. The pond is stagnant. And I look at the trees and bushes.

My gaze gets caught in an unfathomable density, reducing it to conceptual, somber, and graphic surfaces. A little self-mockingly, and at times giving myself agency. Briefly engaging with the imagery – animated, grotesque, personifying – or ambitiously tackling a detailed landscape motif.

One layer, amidst this opulence of detail, consists of dense hatched or patterned surfaces. While the repeating of patterns might be a search for a constant or a means of organising one’s thoughts, getting entangled and immobilised in them evokes the notion that “I am this stagnant pond.” A stagnant and overgrown pond with a fountain spouting at its far end.

Amidst the repetition and intense density, a desire to understand emerges: through which gaze, from which perspective, and with what preconceived notions do I perceive the landscape? Perhaps, to truly engage, one must don a black blindfold, hold a black Claude glass, and circle the pond one hundred times, circling the bush another hundred.”

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
The artist thanks: Line Wasner, Theo Hermann.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Maarja Nurk (1987) currently resides and works in Berlin. She has studied painting at the University of Tartu, at the University of Greifswald, and in the master’s programme at the Estonian Academy of Art. In addition to her solo exhibitions in Estonia, Nurk has participated in numerous group exhibitions across Estonia, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Russia, Norway, the United States, and Germany. Her practice primarily revolves around conceptual and process-driven drawing and painting, with a focus on long-term processes, repetition, and intricate graphic structures. By emphasising process, her work often extends into performative formats, as well as photo and video art.

2024

28.12.- 22.01.

STEN SAARITS

It will take approximately 25 minutes to experience this exhibition, we apologize for any inconvenience

28.12.- 22.01.

STEN SAARITS

It will take approximately 25 minutes to experience this exhibition, we apologize for any inconvenience

On Friday, December 29 at 6 pm we open the solo exhibition It will take approximately 25 minutes to experience this exhibition, we apologize for any inconvenience by Sten Saarits. The exhibition will remain open until January 22, 2024.

How much of our valuable time do we unconsciously give for nothing, without receiving anything in return.. Like drifting obliviously, without noticing the surroundings and those around us. The desire to belong is fundamentally a basic human need. Studies suggest that the craving for social interactions arise from the same region of the brain where our need for food is felt, and when we are excluded, the experience is processed in the same brain region responsible for the sensation of physical pain.. And then we activate. Like toys with new batteries. Panic-induced false belonging sets in, and smart devices play a significant role in fulfilling the basic need for connection. The somewhat unsettling sense of non-belonging paves the way for digital non-spaces and fantastic, theatrical realms within it. Humans have the essential need to observe and be observed.. To be seen, heard and considered by others. It is safe to move in packs, each one still lonely, eyes staring to the non-world.. because the possibility for non-world is always present; it is nowhere and belongs to no one.. There is no accountability, neither for actions nor for consequences, I do not participate, I am just an observer.. Slightly calming, somewhat entertaining, but excellent for passing the time.

Our desire to belong pushes us to action, but it cannot happen without sacrifice. Am I willing though.. These are my experiences, my belongings, my people, my thoughts and feelings.. What if the new ones are not coming.. Will I remain stranded here, idle and free-falling in the middle world.. And so we turn, cautiously testing our trust, and walking into the future.. We sort of slowly begin to move, and then we circle back to a core familiar to us.. There is a sense of security when we know that we are for a fact present in a specific place, at least physically. “I’ll wear a reflective vest as well – so if I happen to wander too far, would you mind calling me back, okay?” If someone generous in real life would put these dots down for us, there would be a clear objective and it would be easy.. no need to think much ourselves. And so it often is, that we let our lives be curated by someone else’s dots.. thinking that these are our own choices.

Kristel Saan

Special thanks to Erko Ever, Carmen Kalata, Egle Ehtjen, Madli Kadakas, Tiina Vändre, Mart Joost, Kert Viiart, Kristel Saan, Sirje ja Rein Kuusik, Kertu Rooma ja T1 Keskus.

Exhibition is supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Sten Saarits (1987) is an interdisciplinary artist who works mainly with time based media. Saarits' art practice is characterized by a drive to turn mental spaces into material landscapes to depict the states of mind, typical of modern society, in a new form. As an avid field recordist, his installation works often utilize sound compositions comprising spoken words and auditory signifiers, constructing participatory and animated environments. Saarits' practice commonly explores themes of overstimulation and situational uncertainty.

24.01.- 19.02.

MIRJAM HINN

From the Depths of the Infinite Ocean

24.01.- 19.02.

MIRJAM HINN

From the Depths of the Infinite Ocean

On Wednesday, January 24 at 18.00 Mirjam Hinn’s solo exhibition From the Depths of the Infinite Ocean opens in Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will remain open until February 19, 2024.

In the exhibition From the Depths of the Infinite Ocean Hinn employs an abstract and dynamic painting language to engage with the contemporary human experience in today’s society. The artist directs one’s gaze into the private and delicate inner world of a human soul, commonly invisible to the onlooker. The exhibition is a continuation to her previous shows High Voltage in Tartu Art Museum and Floating Perspectives in Nuvole Arte gallery in Italy.

Hinn’s exhibition is a visual contemplation, a poetically escapist attempt to break away from a society dismayed by global discords. Ideational mazes unfold before the viewer, reminding us that dreaming is always possible and necessary. The paintings, in which the artist strives to penetrate the deeper layers of cognitive fields and map the processes of perception, can be viewed as journeys into poetic inner worlds. Into inner worlds where perfection is close yet at the same time unattainable.

The exhibition is a trip through a world of colors, where colors intertwine and collide with forms. The canvases bear curves, spikes and lines, vibrating in waves, oscillating in time and space. Combining painting and sound, the artist creates a dreamlike umwelt.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Mirjam Hinn (1990) is a painter with a characteristic abstract language, who often combines painting with installation and sound art. Hinn's works are characterized by lush brushstrokes, clean paint surfaces, intense colors, the interplay of tenderness and robustness, and intuitive compositions. To date, Hinn’s most important solo exhibitions have taken place in Tartu: Solidified Sounds in Tartu Art House (2018), High Voltage in Tartu Art Museum (2019), Island of a Thousand Eyes in Tartu Art House (2021). Her last solo exhibition Floating Perspectives took place in Nuvole Arte gallery in Italy (2022). Hinn has actively participated in exhibitions since 2011, in Estonia and abroad, in Finland, Lithuania, Italy and Germany. Hinn received the AkzoNobel art prize in 2018, won the Noor Tartu competition in 2019 and was nominated for the Konrad Mäe prize in 2020.

22.02.- 18.03.

GRISLI SOPPE-KAHAR

Mother’s World

22.02.- 18.03.

GRISLI SOPPE-KAHAR

Mother’s World

On Wednesday, February 21 at 6 p.m., Grisli Soppe-Kahar‘s solo exhibition Mother’s World opens in Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will remain open until March 18, 2024.

Grisli Soppe-Kahar: “The series of paintings Mother’s World was largely completed in 2023-2024, but the prequel to the series, in the form of paintings, started in 2021.

When living in a mother’s world, the perception of time changes. Time neither contracts nor expands – both processes happen simultaneously. This feeling also extends to some other areas of life. Personality also expands and contracts – being a huge and integral part of someone’s life. However, the autonomy that existed before motherhood is now unattainable. The child fills the mother’s life, but does not take away her own “I”. Rather, the feeling deepens and strengthens – I understand my views more clearly and express them to myself and the world more boldly than ever before.

The world and the weather always exist alongside us, they are the background that contrasts us with the surroundings. Mother is a title that epitomizes the whole, but it is still just a part. The Mother’s World series shows a fraction of my experience as a mother. A meaningful fraction, and it also underlines the shift in my focus as an artist while being a new mother. As in my earlier work, symbolism, which often explains some situations more clearly than words ever could, plays an important role in this series.”

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Grisli Soppe-Kahar (1990) is a painter who lives and works in Tallinn. She has graduated from the Department of Fine Arts of the Estonian Academy of Arts, holding a BA (2014) and MA (2016) in painting. In 2017, she had a large-scale exhibition together with Danel Kahar in Tartu Kunstimaja. In the summer of 2018, she participated in an artist residency in Mazzano Romano, Italy together with Danel Kahar. Her previous solo exhibition took place in 2021 in Tallinn Portrait Gallery (Someone Else). In addition to painting, Kahar is also a teacher for children with special educational needs, which has also had an influence on her as an artist. The main themes of her expressive paintings are drawn from her personal experience.

20.03.- 15.04.

LAURA DE JAEGER

Box Seats. Ridadevaheline

20.03.- 15.04.

LAURA DE JAEGER

Box Seats. Ridadevaheline

On Thursday, March 21 at 6 p.m., Laura De Jaeger‘s solo exhibition Box Seats. Ridadevaheline opens in Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will remain open until April 15, 2024.

Box Seats. Ridadevaheline brings together remnants of former shows – with attention to things that are tucked away yet held on to. Picking up the role of an indecisive detective, De Jaeger interrogates these objects-in-rest as vessels and fictional catalysts that must contain a multitude of narratives.

The installation contains soft and strong exchanges with practices of Ulvi Haagensen; Mark Foss; Helena Keskküla; Kaisa Maasik; Karel Koplimets; Taavi Talve; Simon Gheeraert; Visible Solutions LLC; Jeremy Shaw; Loora Kaubi; Michèle Matyn; Marcel Broodthaers, Jacques Charlier, Jacques Lizène and co; Dineo Seshee Bopape; René Heyvaert; Guy Mees; Georgia Kung; Frédéric Gaillard, Esther Johnson, Dirk Braeckman and co.; Laure Prouvost; Eva Fàbergas; Yukio Fujimoto, Atsushi Nishljima, Softpad and co; Wade Guyton; Emmanuel Berti, Fabrizia Flühler, Eliane Bertschi and co; José Maria Sicilia; Louise Bourgeois, Thierry De Cordier, Roni Horn and co; Thao Nguyen Pan; Wolfgang Tillmans; Eirik Senje; Valerie Krause; Rune Pauwels, Rebecca Quix, Germanes & Urbanski and co; Aisha Christison, Margarita Maximova; Ulla Von Brandenburg; Vanessa Dislers; Sabīne Šnē; Joe Brainard, Gina Fischli, Morag Keil and co; Nele Tiidelepp; Riin Maide, Sophie Durand, Rodion Furs and co; Tacita Dean; Jaanus Samma, Edith Karslon, Anna Mari Liivrand and co; Brigit Arop, Agné Jokšė and Anna Trell and co; Maret Sarapu, Berit Kaschan; Olev Kuma, Solveig Lill; Yilyn Ma, Denisa Stefanigova, Johanna Ruukholm and co; Helen Anna Flanagan; Andrea Büttner; Kiki Smith; Georges Braem; Sara Deraedt; Diana Tamane; Anna Hints; Louise Hervé, Chloé Maillet; Jorge Louis Borges; Chantal Akerman; John Berger; Sophie Calle; Tony Cokes; Martin Herbert; Audre Lorde, Anu Põder, Jan Verwoert; Tony Duvert; Dagmar Drikx, Remie Vanderhaegen;
Mereba; Sarah Noonan; Tim Verherstraeten, Cleo Foole, Elena Op ‘t Eynde; Pavel Bazhov; L. Frank Baum; Louise Lawler; John Lasseter; Johannes Luik; Jane Bennett; Art Allmägi; Donna Haraway; Ikea; Danh Vo, Isamu Noguchi, Park Seo-Bo; Denicolai & Provoost; Marie-france Rafael. Pierre Huyghe; Jun’ichirō Tanizaki; Richard Venlet; Aksel Haagensen; Werner Herzog; Yinyin Wong; Mark Fischer; Andrea Fraser; Antonio Tabucchi; Italo Calvino; Nina Canel; Bojana Rankovic; Immanuel Kant; Nienke Fransen; Agnès Varda; Dirk Spruytte; Henri Kutsar; Maria Muuk; Jack Stauber; Laura Merendi; Jean Paul Van Bendegem; Katariin Mudist; Georges Perec.

Graphic Design: Mark Foss
Translations: Mari Volens, Laura Talvet, Ellen Vene
Supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Trumm OÜ
Photos: Joosep Kivimäe

Thanks to Guido De Jaeger, Kaarel Eelma, Nienke Fransen, Gisèle Gonon, Ulvi Haagensen, Julien Jonas, Loora Kaubi, Helena Keskküla, Karel Koplimets, Ats Kruusing, Janne Lias, Kaisa Maasik, Elisa Piazza, Taavi Talve, Andres Toodo, Anne Van Malderen, Juliana Verbaanderd, Alex Webber, Riin Maide, EKKM and many more.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Laura De Jaeger (1995) is an artist working between Tallinn and Brussels. Through gathering, casting and paraphrasing, she searches how the quotidian charges and reshapes objects and spaces. De Jaeger approaches artistic practice as a platform that can be writing, inviting, and organizing as well as material. She holds an MA in fine arts (LUCA School of Arts / EKA), in Cultural Studies (KU Leuven) and has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Belgium, Estonia, Finland and Germany. In 2023, she received the yearly award from Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

17.04.- 13.05.

LISETTE LEPIK & BRENDA PURTSAK

Admission Not For Everyone

17.04.- 13.05.

LISETTE LEPIK & BRENDA PURTSAK

Admission Not For Everyone

Brenda Purtsak and Lisette Lepik will open their exhibition Admission Not For Everyone on Wednesday, April 17, at 18.00 in Hobusepea gallery. The curator is Kerly Ritval. The exhibition will remain open until May 13, 2024.

“/—/ But wait, at last I succeeded in catching several words on end. They were:

“MAGIC THEATER
ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY””

Herman Hesse Steppenwolf

The exhibition Admission Not For Everyone binds together Lisette Lepik’s and Brenda Purtsak’s work centred on human bodies. While Lepik, in her work, examines the body of a woman, as well as sexuality and relationships, Purtsak primarily focuses on the biological nature of the human body, interweaved with everlasting questions of birth and death. The work of the artists channels a symbiosis of x and y, twisted together, just like DNA. The symbiosis of bodily matter and the mind and the inseparability of matter and psyche are to be investigated.

In this exhibition, both artists direct their gaze within, sourcing both psychological and physiological matter to inspire their work. Lepik looks back at the men who have been a part of her life. In the exhibition, the men reincarnate in the paintings as psychological portraits. After facing her memories and experiences through the lens of painting, Lepik steps up in the gallery as a self-assertive and self-aware woman.

On the other hand, Purtsak found herself in physical pain throughout the preparation process for the exhibition. How did this pain enter her body, or how does anything gain access to our bodies? Purtsak’s new works kindle a connection with the essence of pain and the dreams of escape from pain.

The curator Kerly Ritval interprets the artists’ work through Herman Hesse’s novel Steppenwolf. According to the curator, 20 years after the publication of the work, the writer expressed regret that it had been misunderstood. In the novel, even while life’s trials and tribulations unfold before the reader, an intense experience of healing shines through. The works of Lepik and Purtsak, motivated by pain and forging a path to freedom through pain, point to a similar experience.

“/—/ Then, when I had given up and gone back to the alley, a few colored letters were
dropped here and there, reflected on the asphalt in front of me. I read:

“FOR MADMEN ONLY!””

Herman Hesse Steppenwolf

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia & Põhjala Brewery.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Curator and art critic Kerly Ritval (1996) graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a bachelor’s degree in art history and visual culture and a master’s degree in curatorial studies. Ritval’s research and curatorial interests include contemporary art, public space, and architecture, as well as contemporary dance. A common denominator is an interest in the body and how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. Ritval has expanded her professional experience at the Artrovert gallery, Kondas Center, Fotografiska in Tallinn, and the Estonian Architecture Museum. She has broadened her horizons through internships at the Performa Biennale in New York, the Listval Gallery in Reykjavik, and the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Lisette Lepik (1999) graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Fine Arts with a degree in painting (BA 2022) and has also studied installation art at the Icelandic Academy of Arts (2019). Since 2023, she has worked as a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts. The woman's body can be seen as a central motif of Lepik’s work. The more recent works analyse relationships and sexuality with their inherent pleasures and traumas. To emphasise the physicality of her work, the paintings often spill off the canvas into space and onto different materials. Hence, the viewer has the chance to physically experience the paintings.

Brenda Purtsak (1994) graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a master's degree in contemporary art (2022) and painting (2020). The biological body is placed at the core of her practice, bordering between abstraction and the body. She contemplates topics such as love, death, and everything in between. Her main medium is painting on different materials, in addition to glass, sgraffito, and text. Purtsak has participated in various exhibitions: Pretence (2020) in the EKA gallery (curator Holger Loodus, co-artist Eero Alev), A Visitor (2022) in the Hobusepea gallery (co-artists Marleen Suvi, Eero Alev) and "Urge" (2024) in the Monumental Gallery of Tartu Art House (curator Kerly Ritval, co-artist Lisette Lepik). At the end of 2023, a large-scale personal exhibition "Birth" was held in the Project Room of the ARS Art Factory (curator Aleksander Metsamärt). Purtsak has participated in various exhibitions abroad, and her paintings and stained glass windows were exhibited in the premises of the Embassy of the Republic of Estonia in The Hague (curated by Aleksander Metsamärt) for several years.

16.05.- 10.06.

JOHANNES LUIK

Forget-Me-Not: A Space in Three Acts

16.05.- 10.06.

JOHANNES LUIK

Forget-Me-Not: A Space in Three Acts

On Thursday, May 16, at 18.00, Johannes Luik’s exhibition Forget-Me-Not: A Space in Three Acts will open in Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will remain open until June 10, 2024.

Prologue:
Johannes Luik opens an exhibition that deals with the memory of a space in Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition is divided into three acts. Each fragment narrates a tale about space in remembrance.

The spaces are empty.
The characters have left.
The space is remembered.

Act One: Entering the Space

(Character 1) watched as the arch above him moved over his head. The space he was in was one of several. His days were filled with experiencing different spaces. As he was thinking of all the spaces in existence, he felt their infinitude. He had only experienced a fraction of them. He knew there were many more. He had an individual relationship with all the spaces he was experiencing daily. He took care of them.

Act Two: The Process

(Character 2) feels how the whole weight of his body drops from one leg to the other. He is walking. His head and its weight swing from one side to the other. He moves along endless corridors that twist and turn. He doesn’t remember when he got here or how long he’s been there. He only knows this space. He stops. He goes around the corner and keeps moving in a space resembling a narrow intestine, which, when spread out, seems unfathomably large.

Act Three: Apocalypse

(Character 3) stops after being on the road all day. He has reached the end. The space has a small window from which he sees the spaces outside. Spaces where he came from and where he would like to return. A momentary stasis. The end. Is this it? He wonders. Out of all the possibilities the future held, he arrived here. Either go forth or go back.

Character 1 is inspired by the protagonist of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi.
Character 2 is inspired by the Minotaur, a creature imprisoned in a labyrinth in Greek mythology.
Character 3 is inspired by the protagonist of Jorge Luis Borges’ short story The Garden of Forking Paths.

The exhibition is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, and Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Johannes Luik (1988) was born in Tartu. In 2019, he obtained a bachelor’s degree from the department of installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2021, he graduated from the LUCA School of Arts with a master’s degree. In the following year, Luik defended his master’s degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts. As a sculptor and installation artist, Luik is interested in materiality (of objects) and the parameters that describe the properties of the physical world, such as material, texture, mass, volume, and dimensionality. He is interested in the relationship between (abstract) objects and three-dimensional architectural space, but also in the functional relationship of architectural details to these objects. Luik says: “This kind of intervention points to the potential of a space to look different or be used differently. For the installation artist, the space thus becomes a material, and by activating it, it is possible to create different ways of experiencing and remembering." In 2018 and 2019, he won the Young Sculptor Award, and in 2020, he was awarded the Adamson Eric Scholarship. In 2023, Luik received the Cultural Endowment of Estonia annual prize for visual and applied arts.

12.06.- 08.07.

JASS KASELAAN

Father and Son

12.06.- 08.07.

JASS KASELAAN

Father and Son

On Wednesday, June 12, at 18.00, Jass Kaselaan’s exhibition Father and Son will open in Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will remain open until July 8, 2024.

Jass Kaselaan: “The exhibition Father and Son is comprised of portrait busts and graphic drawings inspired by the friendship my son and I share. For the exhibition, I sculpted portrait busts of myself. I drew my son. To reflect the mysterious, unfathomably layered inner world of a child, I depicted him as different vessels. The metaphor of a ship came to the aid of expressing the hopes and fears associated with the child growing.”

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Jass Kaselaan (1981) graduated from the Pallas University of Applied Sciences. He obtained a master’s degree from the sculpture department of the Estonian Academy of Arts (2008) and a master’s degree from the academy's animation department (2022). He furthered his education at the Imatra Art School in Finland and in the studio of Emil Holmer and Veronica Brovall in Berlin. Jass Kaselaan is considered one of the most recognised sculptors in the younger generation in Estonia. He has been awarded the Köler Prize (2014), the Kristjan Raud Prize (2014), and the Anton Starkopf Sculpture Prize (2011). Jass Kaselaan has been active as a lecturer at the sculpture department of the Estonian Academy of Arts and the Pallas University of Applied Sciences. In his work, Jass Kaselaan focuses on large-scale sculpture, sound, and spatial installations. His works are characterised by their totality, thought out to the smallest detail, taking into consideration both the topic and the space. His works carry an existential mentality, dealing with the points of intersection of religion, science, and technological progress. Jass Kaselaan is the author of several artworks in public spaces devised within the framework of the Commissioning of Artworks Act.

10.07.- 05.08.

SAMUEL LEHIKOINEN - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2023

Empty Calories

10.07.- 05.08.

SAMUEL LEHIKOINEN - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2023

Empty Calories

On Wednesday, July 10, at 18.00, EAA Young Artist Award 2023 laureate Samuel Lehikoinen opens his exhibition Empty Calories at Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will remain open until August 5, 2024.

The exhibition is about the ironies and dysfunction of our screen-centric existence, highlighting the cycle of instant gratification driven by our obsessive consumption of the “empty calorie” content found in social media feeds.

Despite being acutely aware of the detrimental effects on our mental health, creativity, deep thought and genuine human connection, we seem content or powerless to resist the constant distraction available for us on demand. The constant drip feed of mindless content is mirroring our relationship with low-nutrient processed foods in Western diets. While providing easy and accessible sustenance to stay alive, these empty consumption habits lower our quality of life by making us sicker and passive in the long term.

The exhibition also reflects on my personal paradoxical relationship with loneliness, and persistent struggle in connecting with the outside world. In having tendencies to self-isolate and finding comfort in solitude, I also often find myself suffering from the effects of self-imposed isolation. With my current art practice, I am interested in the escapism of video games, and experimenting with an otherwise highly entertainment based medium, in creating apathetic interactive works related to mental health. Featured here are new experimental video games, installation and 2D works. “Empty Calories” offers an ironic exploration of the malaise of the “social media age”, inspired by pixel art aesthetics typically associated with the light hearted fun of retro gaming.

Samuel Lehikoinen

Supported by: Alfred Kordelin Foundation
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Samuel Lehikoinen - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2023 (1990) is a visual artist born in Jyväskylä Finland, currently based in Helsinki. He graduated from Kankaanpää School of Fine Arts with a BA degree in 2016, and obtained an MA degree in 2023 from the contemporary art program at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Lehikoinen has mostly worked and exhibited as a painter, he has held 6 solo shows and taken part in multiple group shows since 2016, with works in the collections of Jyväskylä Art Museum. His painting works are based on the repetition of his meditative painting process. The often large scale, meticulously detailed canvases are usually featuring recognizable patterns and textures from nature, removed from their context and transformed into something otherworldly, strange yet familiar. In recent years Lehikoinen has delved into video game development as the main part of his art practice. His graduation work from the Estonian Academy of Arts “Unemployment Simulator 2018”, is a self biographical video game, dealing with the topics of male loneliness and the Finnish welfare system. The work was awarded the EKA Young Artist Award of 2023.

07.08.- 01.09.

MIA TAMME & DELPHINE LEJEUNE (BE) & CURATOR TIIU MEINER

It Never Gets Old

07.08.- 01.09.

MIA TAMME & DELPHINE LEJEUNE (BE) & CURATOR TIIU MEINER

It Never Gets Old

On Wednesday, August 7, at 18.00, Mia Tamme & Delphine Lejeune open their co-exhibition “It Never Gets Old” at Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition is curated by Tiiu Meiner. The exhibition will remain open until September 1, 2024.

“It Never Gets Old” brings together artist Mia Tamme (Estonia) and designer Delphine Lejeune (Belgium) to explore the intersection of gender dynamics, socio-economic realities, and aesthetics in lace crafts. By juxtaposing traditional techniques with innovative approaches, the exhibition encourages fresh perspectives on the relationship between craft, community, and contemporary life. It invites visitors to reconsider the role of lace in reflecting social change and the evolving nature of craftsmanship.

Mia Tamme investigates the legacy of Haapsalu lace through videos, narrative reconstructions, and historical elements. Her work highlights the tensions between preserving communal traditions and adapting to contemporary changes. Focusing on the historical importance of this craft, Mia addresses the challenges of maintaining traditional practices today.

By spending time with the Haapsalu knitting collective, Mia reveals that Haapsalu lace was integral to the cultural and socio-political fabric of the area. The craft built close-knit communities and gave women opportunities and purpose. The interviews and textiles she gathers reveal that lace shawls, cherished both as cultural artifacts and tourist commodities, serve as key touchstones for understanding women’s labor, rights, and creativity. Her immersion in the archives and the community exposes a significant void in historical records, a consequence of gender biases that left much of these women’s achievements undocumented. Interpreting these clues, Mia uses creative writing to fill the gaps in history and imagine less discriminatory realities.

Delphine Lejeune explores the relationship between women and machinery in the textile industry, particularly focusing on lace-making. Historically, this craft has been intertwined with women’s labor and artistry, yet since the early 20th century, it has faced challenges from rapid advancements in industrial technology and evolving gender roles.

Delphine reimagines the delicate beauty of lace using contemporary technologies such as 3D printing and laser etching. These modern techniques not only pay homage to meticulous craftsmanship but also comment on the evolving role of women in the textile industry. Her work reflects on how machinery has both empowered and constrained women’s contributions, highlighting the complex dynamics between tradition and technological progress.

Delphine’s works feature portraits of native flower species, crafted to evoke the timeless nature of portraiture as a medium of remembrance. Each floral portrait encapsulates the essence of these species through intricate patterns that mimic traditional lace designs. This approach invites viewers to reflect on the ancient connection between nature and craftsmanship.

Public Programme:
Craft is a social and skill-based activity. Reflecting this, the exhibition will be dynamic and evolving. On August 9th at 16:00, Kaidi-Kätlin Reimann will lead a Haapsalu Lace knitting workshop for all skill levels.

At 18:00, Mia Tamme will give a lecture on the lace narratives lost in time and conversation. These events underscore that craft is a living, changing practice, emphasizing its ever-evolving nature.

To take part of the knitting workshop please register by writing us at galerii@eaa.ee.
There are spaces for 12 participants.

Co-artist of the exhibition: Helin Põldve, tädi Piia, Anna Tamm, kuduja Austraaliast, Helga Rüütel, Pille Vana ja and other unnamed lace workers.

Thank you:
Mia:
Kaidi-Kätlin Reiman, Aasa Jõelaid, Mirje Sims, Merle Saulep, Haapsalu Lace Center knitters, Day Light collective, Vaim Sarv, Catelijne van Middelkoop, Ryan Pescatore Frisk ja Design Academy Eindhoven, Maria Nery, Paul Grünenwald, Grant Watson and Dutch Art Institute, Käsitöömaja, Video Power, Eva Mahhov, Nancy Bush and all the other dear knitters.

Tiiu:
Elin Kard, Anna Mari Liivrand, Hans-Otto Ojaste, Twan Lugten,
Travels supported by European Union Moving Europe Grant with Goethe Instituut

Delphine:
Research supported by Stiching Stokroos and Cultuurfonds
Production by Cristian Marcos Riber and Sirope Lab
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Mia Tamme (Estonia) is a visual researcher & an experimental film-maker hoovering in Tallinn, Estonia. She dances with ethnographic research, social design and autofiction to connect with marginal communities. She digs into the knowledge of heritage passed down on the glorious grounds of Estonia, and scans how folk objects and tales continue to shape individual and social identities.

Delphine Lejeune (BE) (Belgium) is a visual designer and material researcher working experimentally across 2D and 3D printed surfaces. Her curiosities lie within designed objects, and how they critically shape our social behaviours. Her source material is often found, digital images that she extrapolates into objects through layers of reformatting, delineating the boundaries between digital and physical representations.

05.09.- 30.09.

JOOSEP KIVIMäE & MATHIAS VääRSI & CURATOR LAURA LINSI

The Posts of the Safety Net Bent from Flying into the Apple Tree Are Leftover

05.09.- 30.09.

JOOSEP KIVIMäE & MATHIAS VääRSI & CURATOR LAURA LINSI

The Posts of the Safety Net Bent from Flying into the Apple Tree Are Leftover

On Thursday, September 5, at 18.00, Joosep Kivimäe & Mathias Väärsi open their co-exhibition “The Posts of the Safety Net Bent from Flying into the Apple Tree Are Leftover” at Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition is curated by Laura Linsi. The exhibition will remain open until September 30, 2024.

When does a phenomenon become culture? According to the weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress, the same amount of trampolines was sold in Estonia in 2021 as in Latvia and Lithuania combined. Could the lawn and trampoline flood be more than a random tendency? On the one hand, the phenomenon might appear alienating and self-absorbed – is it just a pose, has anyone even witnessed someone actually jumping on a trampoline? But on the other hand, the absurdity of the trampoline abundance directs one’s thoughts to more and less utopian futures – to jumping as shared experience; to abandoned trampolines as inorganic skeletons, the archaeological matter of our time.

Collective effort bounces high. In Inuit cultures, the end of the whaling season is celebrated with an event called Nalukataq. A group of people holds the canvas, traditionally made of walrus or seal skin, from its edges to allow one jumper to bounce up and down from the leather surface. The collective effort of individuals creates a temporary springboard with powerful properties. The high flight and the jumper’s aerial poses are collectively enjoyed. This is how a community celebrates.

Mathias Väärsi and Joosep Kivimäe create an image of a possible future, where shared habits and experiences, as well as the nostalgia surrounding them, are the basis for a subculture, the centre of which is also bouncing from the canvas. The steel frames of Estonia’s Best Trampolines press out from basements, and like archaeological material they carry stories from past times – of how the posts of the safety net got bent from flying into the apple tree, of how Kelly-Brigitta broke her leg between the springs. Young people who remember the heydays of consumerism and lawn mowing gather in parking lots to relive their shared experience. Do you remember how our eyes first met above the garden hedge? When dad was mowing the lawn and found our cans under the trampoline?

Graphic design: Ran-Re Reimann

The exhibition is supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Hundipea
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Joosep Kivimäe (1994) is a Tallinn-based photo artist. In his youth, he earned pocket money as a moss sweeper and lawn mower.

Mathias Väärsi (1988) is an Estonian artist, designer and ultra-cyclist, who was born on 23 December 1988 at 11:55 PM in the Tartu Maternity Hospital. He spent his childhood in Sagadi Manor and on Võsu Beach and attended the Vergi Kindergarten.

curator Laura Linsi (1989) is an architect, lecturer and editor-in-chief who is based in London and in Estonia. When she started university, her mother moved back to the centre of Tallinn from Pirita Kose, because, to Laura’s surprise, her mother had moved to the edge of the town mostly for the sake of her child.

03.10.- 27.10.

LAURIANNE BIXHAIN & KRISTA MöLDER

The sum of the words that accumulate within us

03.10.- 27.10.

LAURIANNE BIXHAIN & KRISTA MöLDER

The sum of the words that accumulate within us

On Thursday, October 3, at 18.00, Laurianne Bixhain & Krista Mölder open their duo exhibition The sum of the words that accumulate within us at Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will remain open until October 27, 2024.

Bixhain and Mölder’s work embody the conviction that the fabrication of images and the transformation of language not only enable but promote a disruption and redistribution of conventionally-assigned roles and the circulation of power, specifically all ordering in which mastery plays a part.

One of Bixhain’s key contributions here is her photo is of a dance performance inspired by the texts of Monique Wittig. In it, the image of a female face assumes the appearance of a mask, suggesting elements of the virtual or the theatrical as instances of the transformative potentials both artists’ work treats generally. The photo also suggests the multiplicity of which the ‘unitary’ self is constituted.

Using the lens of automotive glassware manufacture and diamond cutting, a key element of Bixhain’s other work here, The day begins with a loud boom, is the reciprocal nature of the phenomenon of transformation: this work explores the way in which the human is affected by the tools it deploys and by the materials which are their target. The act of transformation is itself transformative, Bixhain believes, profoundly disrupting the binary opposition between actor and acted upon, object and subject.

Bixhain and Mölder extend such concerns to notions of construction and deconstruction. Notably, their deployment of the provisional and the transitional (in subject matter, technical mise-en-œuvre, and montage) brings into play the productive participation of the viewer, in whom elements of movement, time and experience must be activated. In doing so, both artists explore the body’s potential as agent, recipient and reservoir of transformation in the broadest possible sense.

Nowhere does such multiple potential resonate more than at the intersection of the natural and technical worlds where much of Mölder’s work is situated. Her spaces are exemplars of transformative occupation by and of the body: her gliders are designed not so much to operate as cooperate within the media of gravity, movement, weightlessness. The relationships with technology and exploited material which they represent is one which forgoes imposition and submission for acceptance, vulnerability and intimacy.

Text by Cormac James
Translation by Ingrid Ruudi
Graphic Design by Kersti Heile
Installation by Hans-Otto Ojaste
Lightning solutions by Revo Koplus

Thanks to Teet Jagomägi, Anna Mari Liivrand, Jaanus Muruõis, Tõnu Narro, Maret Sarapu, Villem Säre, Anna Škodenko, Vaibla Linnujaam / Vaibla Bird Observatory, ArtProof OÜ, ArtSmart OÜ, ColorSlider OÜ, KORDONair, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery

Supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Kultur | lx-Arts Council Luxembourg
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Laurianne Bixhain was born in 1987 in Wiltz. She received a BA and an MFA from the School of Fine Arts, Bordeaux and completed a Meisterschülerstudium in photography at the Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig. Recent exhibitions include Deep Deep Down at Mudam, Luxembourg (2023) and What remains is an intermediary thing, repeated at Reuter Bausch Art Gallery, Luxembourg (2023). She was a resident at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2024); Kordon, Hiiumaa (2024); Centre national de l’audiovisuel, Luxembourg (2022); ISELP, Brussels (2021); Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2021); Biermans-Lapôtre Foundation, Paris (2018); Darling Foundry, Montreal (2017) and Islington Mill, Manchester (2016). She was included in the 2018 edition of the Rencontres de la photographie, Arles as well as the 2016 edition of the European Month of Photography, Berlin. In 2018, she was awarded the LEAP — Luxembourg Encouragement for Artists Prize.

Krista Mölder (1972) is an Estonian artist living and working in Tallinn. She works mainly with analogue photography and with issues of visual representations. Her work often revolves around dualities and complex interplays of various forces, aiming to capture the intricate imbalance of seemingly equilibrial situations and settings. Intrigued by the lure that these situations possess visually, Mölder aims to depict their potential and the inadvertent motion or flux that carries them. Her recent exhibitions include: “ …and Other Shades of Light” (with Kristi Kongi) at Tallinn Art Hall (2022), “Bluebird. To the Other Me”. Tartu Art House, EE (2021), “You Were a Bird”, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Tallinn, EE (2020) Her works are included in various collections in Europe, e.g., Art Museum of Estonia, Deutsche Bank Collection, European Central Bank Art Collection. In 2022 she was an artist in residence at the WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels.

30.10.- 25.11.

KADI ESTLAND

Menopausal Lido

30.10.- 25.11.

KADI ESTLAND

Menopausal Lido

2023

14.12.- 09.01.

TARVO VARRES

The Shadow of Time

14.12.- 09.01.

TARVO VARRES

The Shadow of Time

Tarvo Varres will open his solo exhibition The Shadow of Time in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Friday, December 16th, 2022. Exhibition will be open until January 9th, 2023.

How long this lasted I can’t imagine, it wasn’t an imaginary time, it also didn’t belong to the time of things that happen.

Maurice Blanchot

Tarvo Varres’s solo exhibition, Shadow of Time, is a site-specific text-based installation, embodying sentences from Maurice Blanchot as sculptural and conceptual objects. Revolving around the themes of multidimensional ambiguities of both the self and time, the work explores the boundaries of text and emotion, the self and the other, the real and the imaginary, while considering questions of multiplicity, the obscure and the contradictory.

In Varres’s artwork, text and language function as an especially sensitive boundary between the real and the imaginary. Therefore, the act of experiencing and reading the work can be viewed as a limit experience or a borderline case. All phrases and sentences used in the current work have been selected by the artist and removed from their original contexts in three different books by Maurice Blanchot. The issues that Varres has posed with his work are not thought exercises, even if they may first appear so. Upon closer observation the pieces aim at something else, though nothing unimaginable – to put oneself totally in question, to challenge the concept of time, to disappear into thoughts…

The artist’s gratitude goes to: Maria Esko, Marten Esko, Anti Saar, Anna Shkodenko, Kirill Tulin
Press release: Marten Esko

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Tarvo Varres (1970) currently researches the concepts of non-self and nonlinear time in his work. Varres is known for his series of photographs, Portraits (1996), Corners Series (2013), as well as videos and installations using sound, text and light, including Notes on Non-Self (2018), The Shadow of a Flame (2015), Recording Floor (2015). He started exhibiting institutionally in 1991 with the group exhibition Guide to Intronomadism in Tallinn Art Hall; is the recipient of the Young Photographer Award (1992), the Annual Award of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia as a member of Group T (1996), and was a Köler Prize 2018 nominee. He has taught contemporary art and photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn and at Tartu Art College. His works are included in the collection of contemporary art of the Art Museum of Estonia.

11.01.- 06.02.

MARIA-KRISTIINA ULAS

Clue whizzing from the Left

11.01.- 06.02.

MARIA-KRISTIINA ULAS

Clue whizzing from the Left

Maria-Kristiina Ulas will open her personal exhibition Clue whizzing from the Left in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, January 11th, 2023. Exhibition will stay open until February 6th, 2023.

“Contingency can be enlightening, a quiet nudging towards the bright side. A fresh opportunity to understand despite the fact that the remains of memory are floating in the void. The vigor of comprehension vividly explodes, clues assist us to take a turn and not to stop, to move on, to change direction, your manner will change with ease and screech, way of life becomes alive, world view will be readjusted. Direct awakening within the flow of clues – a clue from the left, a clue from the right, from the top of one’s head and under the soles of one’s feet. Fresh allusions choose the vibrations of freedom, ripples of light, murmurs of water. Purposeless destiny is constantly being weighed again and again. Why does the devilish suspicion of criminal offence undermine the hollow skulls? Where does the wary fear come from?
Disgusting proliferating foul intolerable reek is belligerently tapping in the left ventricle of one’s mind but the implacable clue is whizzing by from the left and takes you to the awakened fields. Outside political efforts, above, beneath machinations, higher, deeper, there is a silent warm sea rippling inside, and will remain the keeper of all mornings. Clues take us to understandings and every understanding must be confirmed by a trace, otherwise it will disappear into thin air, will be lost in non-existence, will be forgotten and one cannot reach it any more. A human being – an alert beast.”

Maria-Kristiina Ulas

The exhibition is supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Vunder Skizze
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Minis-try of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Maria-Kristiina Ulas graduated from the department of graphic art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1991 while following the footprints of both of her parents – her mother Concordia Klar (1938–2004) and father Peeter Ulas (1934–2008) were well-known Estonian graphic artists. Already during her academic studies Maria-Kristiina Ulas excelled at her extraordinarily unique drawing – this diverse medium has remained Ulas's main expressive means until the present day. Maria-Kristiina Ulas's emergence in Estonian art life in 1990s coincided with the pivotal era of changing paradigms. On one side, her artistic nature fitted well with the mythologicalness and neoexpressionistic powerful figurativeness of the second half of 1980s; on the other side, the borders of art were broadening and new freedom arrived both in formats and techniques. Ulas expanded the borders of drawing as an attribute of expression while powerfully bringing the medium to the fore among big art and giving common sketching, pre-work or study a wider dimension. Maria-Kristiina Ulas' drawing manner, based on classical drawing, has been always free and improvisational, reminding of the style of Ado Vabbe. Her gigantic and colourful drawings, balancing on the verge of figurativeness and abstraction, immediately caught attention and received acknowledgement. Later, Ulas's figurative world, charged with playfulness and unconcealed eroticism, has increasingly acquired mysticism and surreal elements. With theatrical downrightness, the artist has developed her unique style of self-mythology while creating startling characters and enchanting loaded compositions where the expressiveness of line prevails over colourful surface. Maria-Kristiina Ulas' artwork were first publicly displayed in 1988. Since then, she has held around twenty personal exhibitions as well as participated in several group exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. For many years, Ulas has been worked as a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts and led several courses outside the institution as well as held drawing actions at the exhibition openings. She is a member of the Estonian Artists' Association (since 1991) and the Association of Estonian Printmakers (since 1992). In 1989–1993 Ulas was a member of Uue Graafika Grupp. She received Kristjan Raud Art Award in 1992 and G Galerii Art Award in 2002. In 2006, Ulas was entitled with the Award of Noted Artist at the 12th Asian Art Biennial. In 2022, she was selected the Graphic Artist of the Year. Maria-Kristiina Ulas' artwork are part of the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia and Tartu Art Museum. Reeli Kõiv

10.02.- 04.03.

OLEV KUMA & SOLVEIG LILL

A Garden Without Borders

10.02.- 04.03.

OLEV KUMA & SOLVEIG LILL

A Garden Without Borders

Solveig Lill and Olev Kuma will open their co-exhibition A Garden Without Borders in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Friday, February 10th, 2023.

A garden is a limited ecosystem in which man is in charge of the development and growth of natural forms. The incentive for creating a garden could be either an aesthetic, experimental or a practical consideration. However wild or maintained a garden may be, its main characteristic is the authority of the gardener and his or her control over everything that takes place there. People set their borders in a garden on many levels while deciding which species to bring together, which to weed out, which to restrain and which to let grow freely.

Thousands of years of human experience has planted the archetype of the garden deep within us. We feel the power of this archetype while being captivated by an amazing view, enchanted by a blooming lily or when spending time in the soothing atmosphere of a garden. As gardeners, we cannot help but keep trying to recreate this primordial garden that exists in our soul but never quite manifests itself in external reality.

According to Carl Gustav Jung, this garden is the product of our collective unconscious. And while following the above-mentioned definition, the precondition for this product is the existence of control. Thus not a single garden, plantation or park exists without the control of people. The idea of a garden sounds beautiful, but it is nevertheless one of the primary features of the colonization of the planet. Is it somehow possible to get rid of this control? To act, to be and to dream without possessing, to express oneself without establishing authority and borders? Painters Solveig Lill and Olev Kuma are both looking for the answers to these questions. Although Lill and Kuma work in different spheres of the same concept, they are both looking for situations that would bring about a continuous re-evaluation of the concept of border—where nothing stands still and is never quite certain.

The watercolour paintings of Solveig Lill take the viewer to the microscopic level of the biological scale—from this perspective, all kinds of man-made borders seem to be immeasurably far, liberating the viewer’s perception from both physical and mental barriers. According to Lill, borders end where our vision, eye or the microscope ends. The rest is up to our imagination.

Olev Kuma approaches the subject of borders through a psychological sense. His abstract yet meticulously structured paintings are as sets of various layers of the unconscious. These refer to our perceptions, elusive changes within them, and the possibility to manipulate with those perceptions on the verge of a sense of danger. Feeling the borders of the collective unconscious is one of the intentionally manifested purposes of Kuma’s artistic practice.

The works by these two artists form a whole, which gives sensitive viewers an opportunity to study their own personal inner garden and the extent of its control. And maybe think about how much to cultivate it or how much to let it grow weeds.

Holger Loodus

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Olev Kuma (1990) has graduated from the departments of graphic design and painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts and studied in arts academies of Latvia and Slovakia. The central interest of his practice is interconnections between vision and the unconscious; he is intrigued by the relations between colour and space as well as the secret aspects of the nature of reality and the history of humankind. His artwork exhibited in A Garden Without Borders is a conceptual follow-up to his personal exhibition Transmission held in 2022. Kuma has participated in exhibitions in Estonia, Finland, Austria, and England.

Solveig Lill (1994) obtained a bachelor’s degree in the department of painting at the University of Tartu and master’s degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2020). She has also studied at the Art University of Berlin as an exchange student. Through various visual media, Lill talks about the microworld while emphasizing the key role of this strangest yet physically closest layer of nature in everything relating our perception. While bringing cells and tissues to life through her imagination, Lill opens another way to that physically inaccessible scale. Lill has participated in several exhibitions in Tallinn, Tartu, Vilnius and Berlin. Her previous personal exhibition A Microbe’s Dearest Memory took place in Tartu Art House in 2022.

08.03.- 03.04.

VALERI VINOGRADOV

Selected

08.03.- 03.04.

VALERI VINOGRADOV

Selected

05.04.- 30.04.

KADRI-LIIS RääK

Exopoiesis

05.04.- 30.04.

KADRI-LIIS RääK

Exopoiesis

Kadri Liis Rääk will open her solo exhibition Exopoiesis in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, April 5th, 2023. Exhibition will be open until April 30th, 2023.

With her current exhibition Exopoiesis, Kadri Liis Rääk reacts to social, ecological and existential crises that we are facing today while looking towards a possible future. The artist seeks answers to questions what an alternative world could be, how would it emerge and disappear and what our role in experiencing this time-space during these processes.

The artist treats her exhibition as a system of relations where transmissions from the imaginary to the physical, from the natural to the synthetic have been imbued with empathy. The borders between the inner and the outer, the natural and the artificial have blurred – the accompanying problems require the imagining of new possibilities. The relations lack recognizable contours; instead, Kadri Liis Rääk exhibits materials that are expressed as the symbiotic clusters of various sizes. This is a mucous co-existence where resources and space are being shared. And from these existences, non-human-centered subjects will arise and one can only imagine the dialogues and political ecologies that might form from their perspective.

There are all kinds of materials – soft and rigid, tough and flexible, viscous and solid, cold and warm – in this hybrid space, such as wool, metal, artificial leather, latex, foam, silicone, plaster, ceramics etc. The exhibition serves as an organic autopoietic process in which materials simultaneously take shapes and tell about themselves. With its entire amorphous body, the exchange of information is carried out by desire and intimacy.

The exhibition will open at 18:00 on April 5th with the durational performance created by choreographer Maarja Tõnisson.

Curator: Marika Agu
Sound design: Mihkel Tomberg
Choreographer: Maarja Tõnisson
Graphic design: Rasmus Einman

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Special thanks to: Raimond Põldmaa, Oskar Praus, Erik Liiv, Sandra Truija, Kerli Praks, Maarja Mikkin, Maarja Tosin, Eva Metspalu, Eesti Kunstiakadeemia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Kadri-Liis Rääk (1990) is a transdisciplinary artist who uses installations, drawings, ceramics and performance art in her artistic practice while creating all-encompassing and tactile environments. The artist combines methods of scenography and new media while simultaneously standing on the expanded fields of visual art and design. She has studied scenography (BA) and contemporary art (MA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts; in addition autonomous design (MA) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Gent (KASK). In her artwork, Rääk experiments with archetypal and symbolic narratives and discusses the ways people and various life forms get stuck in the ecological melting pot and the emerging dialogues. She has participated in exhibitions and residencies in Peru, Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland and Estonia. Since 2022 she’s the doctoral candidate at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

03.05.- 29.05.

ANU VAHTRA

along the wall, down the stairs, outside

03.05.- 29.05.

ANU VAHTRA

along the wall, down the stairs, outside

14.06.- 10.07.

PEETER LAURITS

Kingfisher in the Underworld. Spectres and Virtual Spaces

14.06.- 10.07.

PEETER LAURITS

Kingfisher in the Underworld. Spectres and Virtual Spaces

Peeter Laurits will open his solo exhibition Kingfisher in the Underworld. Spectres and Virtual Spaces in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, June 14th, 2023. Co-autors of the exhibition are Martin Rästa, Kaiko Lipsmäe & Maido Hollo. Exhibition will be open until July 10, 2023.

Visiting the underworld is like diving into yourself — vascular systems, intestines, streams, divisions, entanglements, clots. Throbbing muscles and blood. Chemical and electrical tremors. Quivers, undulations, eruptions. Strange tastes. It’s weird to sense that there are different lives busying themselves inside you, that you are all those different lives.

In the underworld you understand that there is no such thing as hell. The underground is a fizzy round dance of countless lives. Roots interlink and grow together with mushroom mycelia. Insects and nematodes, countless microscopical creatures of different shapes are breaking down the dying and decomposing into nourishing droplets, new life. Strange communication networks are woven, alliances and hotspots created. Little worms keep stimulating that warm sauna, soil microbes and moulds perform chemical acrobatic feats.

The underworld is a garden of diverging paths, soft, warm and moist. Everything bubbles and decomposes in slow motion, grows into each other, exchanges matter and consciousness. In the underworld, each other’s life juices are absorbed in a never-ending kiss, death is translated into birth and slurped back into the circle of life.

Idea and images – Peeter Laurits
Sound – Martin Rästa
VR – Martin Rästa (Salakäigud), Kaiko Lipsmäe (Salakäigud), Maido Hollo (Habitat)
Graphic design – Martin Rästa
Color tuning – Siim Vahur
Print – ArtProof, Elavad Pildid, Digra
Laser engraving – Laserstuudio
Frames – Ramino Art
Assistants – Aiko Hayashi, Lembit Jürgenson

Thank you to the Estonian Artists’ Association and Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Kingfisher is part of Biotoopia art program.

Exhibitions at Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Photos: Anna Mari Liivrand & Peeter Laurits

12.07.- 07.08.

GERDA HANSEN & JANE MUTS & MARI STEINBERG

Etudes For Blue, Red And Brown

12.07.- 07.08.

GERDA HANSEN & JANE MUTS & MARI STEINBERG

Etudes For Blue, Red And Brown

Gerda Hansen, Jane Muts and Mari Steinberg will open their exhibition Etudes For Blue, Red And Brown in Hobusepea gallery on Wednesday, July 12, 2023 at 18.00. The curator of the exhibition is Aleksander Metsamärt. Exhibition will be open until August 7, 2023.

In a good etude form and content are balanced — in the best case, they are harmonious. When the three artists plotted their first co-exhibition, the plan was also balanced and harmonious. The theme was three colors, and in the middle there would be a big collaborative work — the melding of three different artistic languages on one giant canvas, modeled in the artists’ favourite colors: blue, red and brown. But plans are made to fail! Their time together in university ended. Lives grew apart. It turns out that artistic languages also grow apart when practicing in separate studios. The collaboration never bore fruit. But the idea kept on breathing down their necks. And the colors, those rascals, kept on haunting.

Etudes For Blue, Red And Brown ties a knot, made of color and painting formalities, around the professional friendship and love between the three artists. How do embodiments of space and bodies in space share space? How do non-bodies that find themselves in non-places relate to them? Can songs in three different languages sound together if they are connected by a three-bar rhythm: “Blue, red, brown. Blue, red, brown…”?

The co-exhibition of Gerda Hansen, Jane Muts and Mari Steinberg, Etudes For Blue, Red And Brown, is a balance exercise in three artistic languages and on two floors in Hobusepea gallery.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Jane Muts (1984) graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a degree in Painting (2022). In her works, Muts mainly depicts space within space. She treats paint as a building material, and creates an illusion of space through the use of composition. Thick layers of pigment gradually applied to the canvas create rich textured surfaces, resulting in scenes of interiors that challenge the perception of space.

Mari Steinberg (1984) graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a degree in Painting (2022). Steinberg is currently studying in the Contemporary Art MA programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In her paintings she deals with emotional landscapes. The artist describes the starting point of her work as an irreconcilable situation with the monochromatic perception of everyday. Her large-scale paintings can be interpreted as sacred altars to the portraits of the soul.

12.08.- 04.09.

KRISTOFFER ALA-KETOLA & TOURISTES TRISTES & LEENA KELA & SHUBHANGI SINGH & MIKA TAANILA & ANTON VANHA-MAJAMAA & MARILIIS REBANE

Like a Windless Cloud

12.08.- 04.09.

KRISTOFFER ALA-KETOLA & TOURISTES TRISTES & LEENA KELA & SHUBHANGI SINGH & MIKA TAANILA & ANTON VANHA-MAJAMAA & MARILIIS REBANE

Like a Windless Cloud

On Friday, August 11 at 6 p.m. at Hobusepea Gallery we celebrate the opening of a group exhibition Like a Windless Cloud. The exhibition is curated by Mariliis Rebane and includes sculptures by Touristes Tristes (Dylan Ray Arnold & Océane Bruel), series of postcards by Leena Kela, video works by artists Kristoffer Ala-Ketola, and Mika Taanila and a lecture performance by Shubhangi Singh. Like a Windless Cloud remains open until September 4.

The exhibition forms a constellation in which artworks interlace through their shared reflections on the accumulation of time. The curator of the exhibition was interested in searching for possibilities while also acknowledging difficulties associated with emptiness, lingering, and putting up one’s feet. In the company of the artworks, she wanted to welcome rest, slowing down, and taking it easy, as well as watching clouds pass over a clear blue sky. Along the way, came up an inability or unwillingness to succeed in this, but also other expectations related to the fast pace of contemporary life.

During the opening evening on Friday, August 11 at 18:30, you are invited to take part in a lecture performance titled Rest/Unrest: Notes on Loitering by Shubhangi Singh.

As part of the exhibition, a column by journalist Anton Vanha-Majamaa is translated into English and Estonian.

Like a Windless Cloud is supported by Kone Foundation and Arts Promotion Centre Taike. All exhibitions at Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

The curator is now on holiday!

Kristoffer Ala-Ketola is a multidisciplinary artist from Oulu, Finland who graduated from Yale School of Art with a Master of Fine Arts in 2019. His works have been previously exhibited in 4th Ward Project Space in Chicago, Shin Gallery in New York, and Kunsthalle Helsinki, and he has also participated in video screenings at the Helsinki International Film Festival and Video Art Festival Turku. Ala-Ketola’s work engages in recurring themes of human emotion, crisis, and dreaming.

Touristes Tristes is a collaboration between Océane Bruel and Dylan Ray Arnold, Helsinki-based visual artists working together alongside their individual practices. With a material-poetic approach, they create sculptures, objects, installations, and printed matter. Rooted in the corporeality of everyday life, they look into the ambivalent material spirit of objects, places, and systems. They are interested in the compositions between static and mobile bodies, and forms as sculptural situations and images.

Leena Kela is a performance artist, a doctoral candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts Helsinki, an artistic director of the New Performance Turku Biennale, and a director of the Saari Residence. In her works and artistic research, she explores dialogues between corporeality and materiality. She makes performances that play with and twist our relationship with everyday objects, perceptions, and phenomena. She has presented performances internationally in every continent except Antarctica.

Shubhangi Singh practice often draws upon existing knowledge to address movement, identity, queries related to the body, and its relationship with its environment. Singh considers ideas of absence and absenting in her work as a way of reflecting upon what is visible, particularly in relation to history, memory, and the labour of memorialising. Singh holds a Master’s degree in Visual Cultures, Curating, and Contemporary Art from Aalto University and is the co-founder of New City Limits, an initiative to facilitate creative viewing and practice in Navi Mumbai, India. She currently lives and works in Helsinki.

Mika Taanila is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland. He works with documentaries, experimental film, and visual arts. Human engineering, utopias, failures, and man-machines are recurring themes in his films and installations.

Anton Vanha-Majamaa is a culture journalist and an author living in Helsinki, Finland. His work has been featured in Yleisradio (the Finnish Broadcasting Company), Helsingin Sanomat, Image Magazine, and others. He has written books about cannabis, movies, TV, and Finnish pop artists. Currently he's busy exercising, playing Nintendo, and hanging out with his wife and dog.

Mariliis Rebane is a curator and researcher currently living and working in Helsinki. She is interested in creative practices that engage with time, duration, and processes as well as the capacity of art to expand our understanding of the past. Rebane is a graduate of the Praxis Master's Programme at the Uniarts Helsinki and holds an Art History MA Degree from Helsinki University.

06.09.- 02.10.

KEIU MAASIK

Meadows of Change, A Place Called Home

06.09.- 02.10.

KEIU MAASIK

Meadows of Change, A Place Called Home

On Wednesday, September 6 at 18.00, Keiu Maasik’s exhibition Meadows of Change, A Place Called Home will open in Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will be open until October 2, 2023.

“For the past few years, I had buried myself in the world of computer games and preferred to spend my free time in virtuality. It seemed to be an acceptable thought exercise that in the future human life will move to the virtual world. One of the games I immersed myself in for several months was Red Dead Redemption 2. I felt like there was no other place I’d rather be than in the world of RDR2. The game takes place in 1899 in America. The story follows the ventures of a gang of outlaws at a time when the Wild West is fading and civilization is encroaching. Their time is coming to an end and fear is in the air ahead of changes bound to arrive.

I was very frightened last year when I encountered a herd of wild horses. A rumble could be heard in the distance, and the ground beneath shook gently. At some point, about twenty horses came into view, galloping at full speed through sea water. The horses and the powerful scenery seen in the game now seemed hollow in comparison. I want the world to move forward, but I don’t want to lose the galloping horses roaming about freely.”

Keiu Maasik

The artist’s gratitude to: Madis Kurss, Kaisa Maasik.
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Keiu Maasik has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a bachelor's degree in photography and a master's degree in contemporary art. In 2019, she received the EAA Young Artist Award. In 2018, she received the Wiiralt scholarship and was the laureate of the competition Young Tartu of Tartu Art Museum. In her work, she has discussed the impact of documentation on memory, identity and relationships between people. In her latest projects, Maasik has focused on the virtual world, using computer game recordings or aesthetics in her videos and installations to unveil personal stories of people.

06.10.- 30.10.

CHUN AU YEUNG - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2022

You’ve Been in My Mind

06.10.- 30.10.

CHUN AU YEUNG - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2022

You’ve Been in My Mind

Chun Au Yeung will open his solo exhibition You’ve Been in My Mind in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Thursday, October 5th, 2023. Exhibition will be open until October 30, 2023.

“It was a chilly night, so I went home after a long walk at dawn. I was sitting on the couch, covering myself with a blanket and listening to a song. The lyrics kept lingering in my head…”that’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight, losing my religion…” That night, I was not the only one in the spotlight. Suddenly, I heard a big bang noise that came from the corner. It was so dark in the room, all I could see was all of my jackets falling off on the ground. At that moment, I was thinking about someone…”

Chun Au Yeung

You’ve Been In My Mind arises from the innermost state of discrete moments to explore the tension between hope and fear, and to translate into art how the two feelings fall together, are voiced and formed. Chun creates meditative drawings and installations based on his personal experience from a living place, presenting it as an intimate but also alienating situation through fusing together the household objects and elements.

The new series of works in the exhibition develops and enlarges feelings and lived situations from Chun’s own experiences, mostly influenced by his current displacement from his original homeland. “I am bearing my soul, seeking hidden signs of hope and meaning, but the process is holding me back, somehow it makes me feel fear” Chun said. Hellos, Goodbyes (2023), is a work transformed from a cloth hanger stand. By removing all the original hanging hooks, Chun subtly attached an archery to the body of the cloth hanger stand, as if it was shooting by someone from somewhere, vaguely hinting towards something reminiscent of the archery target, revealing a wounded and destroyed relationship.

In You’ve Been In My Mind, Chun continues his exploration of the relationship between domestic elements and human nature, combined with both personal and collective emotions. Specific furniture becomes the medium that allows the artist to construct the complicated feelings of daily experiences, where each object opens a dialogue, which can be both decadent and hopeful at the same time, around the notion of home.

The exhibition is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Chun Au Yeung - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2022 (1991) graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Visual Arts degree in 2015. He also completed a master’s degree in Contemporary Arts from Estonian Academy of Arts in 2022. Chun mostly works with sculpture, installation, object and video, which are based on his observations on everyday life and intimate relation with the realities of nature, often speaking of memories, intimate situations and insecurity. His more recent work has focused on how the domestic objects can act as a reflection of emotions which resulted in a form of sculpture and installation. In his recently awarded Young Sculptor Award works Our Memories Just Won’t Die, It’s The Trip That Keeps Us Alive, Chun explores his self-emotional feeling and security by disassembling the household chairs into a tiny frame. My Heart Aches When It’s Time To Leave was awarded the Young Artist Award following his MA graduation show. His thesis’s question: what is home? had deeply dive into the key concepts related to the notion of home. In the same year, Things I Wanted To Say But Never Did received a Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Center in New York.

01.11.- 27.11.

YOUNG ESTONIAN PHOTO ART / TALLINN PHOTO MONTH '23

Group exhibition of young photography artists “What Colour Is the Sky Above the Port Today?”

01.11.- 27.11.

YOUNG ESTONIAN PHOTO ART / TALLINN PHOTO MONTH '23

Group exhibition of young photography artists “What Colour Is the Sky Above the Port Today?”

On Wednesday, November 1 at 18:00 the group exhibition of young photography artists What Colour Is the Sky Above the Port Today? will open in Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will remain open until November 27, 2023

It is an important exhibition in the history of higher education of Estonian photography, where, inspired by the spirit of our time, the current students or recent graduates of the Estonian Academy of Arts and Pallas University of Applied Sciences have their say. The themes of Tallinn Photomonth 2023 are centered around camera-based media, with a focus on photographic representations of our daily information flow.

In the 20th century, photography became a sign-creation machine and developed into a whole system that functions as an effective apparatus for reproducing the simulacrum. The canon of truth in photography is the building block of our public facade in social media, in the shadow of which our psyche sooner or later suffers.

Photography is a paradox — it can tell both truth and lies. The question is always whose narrative is followed at the moment the story is told. In today’s consumer culture, the media tries to maintain an illusion of reality at all costs to keep us shopping and entertained while our personal data or behavioral profiles are sold on a global market. We are no longer the audience of the society of the spectacle, we ourselves are the product, and for the time being everyone seems to be at peace with this.

Participating artists: Siew Ching Ang, Inger-Liis Heinsoo, Erik Hõim, Andra Junalainen, Kenter Kalbri, Birgit Kaleva, Joosep Kivimäe, Elariin Kruusamägi, Kirke Kuiv, Gregor Kulla, Kristina Kuzemko, Britta Mai Martin, Jana Mätas, Agnes Müürsepp, Anna Ovtšinnikova, Andra Rahe, Sille-Riin Rand, Andrea Margó Rotenberg, Laura Ruuder, Triin Sagen, Enlil Sonn, Imbi Sõber, Lauri Trolla, Maarja Tõnisson, Jürgen Vainola.

Curator: Kaisa Eiche

The exhibition is a part of the satellite programme of the 7th Tallinn Photomonth contemporary art biennial (6.10.–26.11.2023). More info: fotokuu.ee

The exhibition is accompanied by a public programme and a publication. More info: www.fotokuu.ee/programm

The exhibition takes place in two venues: in Hobusepea gallery 1.11.–27.11.2023 and in Tartu Art House small gallery 17.11.–17.12.2023 (opening event on November 18 at 14:00).

Exhibition team in Hobusepea gallery:
Madis Liplap (exhibition designer)
Hans-Otto Ojaste (technical manager)
Kulla Laas, Brigit Arop (coordinators)
Kaisa Eiche (publication editor)
Erkki Luuk (language editor)
Ran Re Reimann (graphic designer)

Photos: Ott Kattel

Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Tallinn Culture & Sports Department, Estonian Union of Photography Artists (FOKU), Tartu city, Estonian Academy of Arts, Pallas University of Applied Sciences, Tartu Artists’ Union, Estonian Artists’ Association, Artproof, Metropol Spa Hotel, Raamikoda (Estframe OÜ), KIU textile printing studio, Neoon Valgus OÜ.

Special gratitude to: starter-KIT editorial board, Tartu Art Museum, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and AS Liviko.

29.11.- 23.12.

ART ALLMÄGI & KATRIN PIILE

Origami

29.11.- 23.12.

ART ALLMÄGI & KATRIN PIILE

Origami

On Wednesday, November 29 at 18:00 the duo exhibition of Art Allmägi & Katrin Piile Origami will open in Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will remain open until December 23, 2023

The point of departure for the duo exhibition in Hobusepea gallery is the painting The Sculptor Modelling My Portrait by Katrin Piile. The focus of the painting completed in 2020 is set on the painter’s portrait being modelled. The identity of the sculptor working behind the portrait is concealed, indicated only by a photo of his earlier sculpture hanging on the wall. Self-centeredness, veiled in a shade of irony, is the starting point of the exhibitionn. Despite the self-centered approach, the collaboration between the two authors is built on the principle of correlation. The creative impulse of one author sets in motion the creative work of the other, which, in turn, is put into service for creating the work of the one giving the initial impulse. Due to the interconnectedness of their creative process, the artists are only partially in charge of the work, touching upon the boundaries of authorship.

The artistic activities of the two authors have prepared an excellent surface for this exhibition based on the principle of correlation to flourish: Piile has previously worked with objects that are constructed on the canvas in a hyperrealistic painting style with a framing typical of photodocumentalism; Allmägi’s previous works contain references to different artists and fictitious collaborations with other authors.

The focal point of Piile’s and Allmägi’s work process is to creatively reflect one another’s practice and to document it based on their chosen media. Through this structure, the characteristic aspects of painting and sculpture are explored – what is gained and what is lost as the subjects move from flat surfaces to three-dimensions (or vice versa). The holy trinity of the art world – author, idea, work – is redefined as an object of study. While exploring the principles of creative work as a collaborative project, the authors try to blur the relationship between the work and the author. At the same time, it takes the viewer down a rabbit hole, to a world where believing in the visible leads the visitor to the wrong path.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

ART ALLMÄGI is an installation artist with the degree in sculpture art. In his works he likes to flirt with the elements of pop, kitsch and architecture, using the classical approach towards sculpture in a contemporary way. His narrative method of telling the stories often touches socially and politically delicate subjects.

Katrin Piile is a freelance painter and drawing artist who lives and works in Tallinn. She graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2010. Piile has participated in exhibitions since 2006. She is a member of the Estonian Painters' Association since 2019.

2022

17.12.- 10.01.

DENISA ŠTEFANIGOVá & LISANN LILLEVERE & JOHANNA RUUKHOLM

Present Yet-to-Be

17.12.- 10.01.

DENISA ŠTEFANIGOVá & LISANN LILLEVERE & JOHANNA RUUKHOLM

Present Yet-to-Be

The co-exhibition Present yet-to-be by Lisann Lillever, Johanna Ruukholm and Denisa Štefanigova will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Friday, December 17^th. Curator of the exhibition is Lilian Hiob.

When I was a young person I went to the university and I learned a rational language, to think with the left side of the brain. But in the right side of the brain you have intuition and imagination. Words are not the truth; they indicate the way to go, but you need to go alone, in silence. Symbols have a language that kills the words.

– Alejandro Jodorowsky

We form stories that could have happened and that can possibly happen. We play that today’s social order, existing rules and economic system are dislocated. The time axis is upside down – linearity as well as the growth and profit ideals are neglected. We recall the cultural layers from the past and allow sharpened sensations as well as stimulated imagination. We enjoy the affective charge that raises from the experience of existing as a human being while keeping in mind that human knowledge about the world is limited.

Is it possible to make a way and build ideas for transforming the ethical and political world if we’d take imagination, play and ability to value the unexpected excursions arising from errors next to our five senses and rational approach to living? How to reach ideas and acts that are not yet existing while the knowledge about the better state of things seems to be right here – in literature, art, philosophy.

The people, animals and other beings depicted on the artwork by Czech painter Denisa Štefanigova are intermingled, blended into each other, playful and without explicit plastic form. The artist has removed the dichotomy and opposition between the man and the animal, nature and technology, desire and anger, rational and emotional. Štefanigova has painted beings from various species who interact with each other while referring to possible forms of co-existence where the dominance of a man has been disregarded and cross-species cohabitation and understanding is the new reality. The artist’s work reflects more consistent functioning where no living being is separated nor untouched from others – everyone is connected and related to each other, and the human being is not an exception. Philospher Donna Haraway has defined the abovementioned as „Chthulucene“ – that has been derived from the spider species Pimoa Cthulhu, a spider with extremely long legs. The eight legs seem to represent different points of view and possibilities yet are connected through their distinction and direction – none of the legs won’t function autonomously.

The sculptural installations and videos of the artist duo Lisann Lillevere and Johanna Ruukholm pursue the worldview of Chthulucene while mixing the cognitive orientation prevailing in contemporary society with archaic beliefs and behaviour. The artists aim at blurring the borders between existing meanings, interpretations, cognitive, personal and universal. In their artwork, Lillevere and Ruukholm refer to deep time and for human reason the length of such time is imperceptible – the artists show that the past and the present are inextricably intertwined and the connections are in constant state of flux. Perdition and recreation build new opportunities for reinterpretation and hope. This is a play with fantasy where existing social and ideological beliefs, linear perception of time as well as targeted growth and profit have been neglected.

The artists take a look at forgotten spaces, envision new corners and openings, navigate on the verge of principles, give a chance to mistakes, pleasures and unusual while flirting and intermingling with the present day, pop culture and current issues.

Sound of the video work by Johanna Ruukholm and Lisann Lillevere: Nathan Tulve, narrator: Hannaliisa Uusma, text: Lisann Lillevere, HU (Hannaliisa Uusma and Leslie Laasner), video effects: Jakob Tulve

Installation Traction has been completed in collaboration with Joonas Timmi.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The artists express their gratitude to: department of ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Maie Ruukholm, Allan Aug, Maria Helen Känd, Jaana Kormašov, Martina Gofman, Joonas Timmi, Merili Põllu, Marika Henriksson, Synlab Eesti Ltd., Uku-Kristjan Küttis, Leili Lillevere, Aivar Lillevere, Hannaliisa Uusma, Taavi-Peeter Liiv, Kristiina R.

Exhibition will be open until January 10, 2022.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Denisa Štefanigová (1995) holds a master’s thesis in Estonian Academy of Arts Contemporary Art Programme. With her last project “Violet, show me how tender you can be? (Shades of Love & Desire & Infidelity & Truth)” the artist reflected on the topic of the sexual life of colors and brushstrokes through paintings, videos and puppets. The topic of sexuality and polyamory is an ongoing interest in Štefanigová’s practice. Štefanigová previously graduated with a Bachelor degree from the University of Technology, Faculty of Fine Arts (FaVU) in Brno Czechia in 2019. She has also studied in Facultad de Bellas Artes in Bilbao in 2017, and has been on artistic residency in Budapest In Easttopics Gallery (2021) and in Stuttgart in GEDOK Gallery (2018).

Lisann Lillevere & Johanna Ruukholm are interdisciplinary artist duo who mainly use ceramics and installative spatial interventions in their creative practice. They are intrigued by the world where objects and phenomena are not strictly categorized. The artists describe their artistic practice with the concept of „permaflowing“ while valuing the new ideas and situations arising from changes. The artist duo met during the studies in the MA programme of contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts – both artists were inspired by the idea of nature as an immanent part of a human being as well as conscious distancing from technological reality. Previously, Lisann Lillevere has studied fashion design and photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Johanna Ruukholm has obtained BA degree in graphic design in the same university.

13.01.- 07.02.

MARGE MONKO & MARUšA SAGADIN

The A. B. C. D. E. F. G of Love

13.01.- 07.02.

MARGE MONKO & MARUšA SAGADIN

The A. B. C. D. E. F. G of Love

The co-exhibition The A. B. C. D. E. F. G of Love by Marge Moko and Maruša Sagadin will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Thursday, January 13th. The exhibition will remain open until February 7 th.

An exhibition is a point on a continuum.

The lives of objects—and artists—precede and follow individual events. That solid-state matter continuously self-chronicles with chemical technology preceding any digital blockchain. Their confluence and your coexistence distinguish this moment. We stand where a collective flow of mortal forms beget flickers of mechanical joys.

The personal and professional dialogue of Marge and Maruša before this moment may be invisible to you. But it’s tangible. What you see, comes from months. What you don’t, comes from years.

Describing one artist’s practice as photographic and the other’s as architectural merely skims the facts. A loose reading of their biographies defaults anyone to this conclusion. Left under-described are emotion and intent. Both artists embody honesty, sincerity, and empathy as individuals and through their chosen profession. In their first collaboration in a long relationship, their work synthesizes this extant energy.

You are amongst an assembly of characters. Marge and Maruša gave them names, but these characters invited you in. Juliana asks you to sit, Saša beckons you nearer. Lucy grants power, Marička elicits introspection.

Their names represent a catalogue of personalities. They preside over an alphabet of love. Every letter standing for a gift of self you’ll be proud to stand behind. And this is only the beginning.

Text by JL Murtaugh

JL Murtaugh founded the contemporary art platform Syndicate and is the director of Autarkia (Vilnius LT). He was born in Chicago and lives in Vilnius.

Graphic design by Kersti Heile and Indrek Sirkel.

The artist’s gratitude goes to: Raivo Plado (Plado Art Tranport), Anne-Liis Hunt (Overall), Marko Usler (Artsmart), Villem Säre.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Austrian Federal Council.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Marge Monko recently exhibited at Kai Art Center (Tallinn EE) and Museum Folkwang (Essen DE) alongside many others. She publishes a monograph this year with Lugemik (Tallinn EE). Marge was born in Tallinn and lives in Tallinn.

Maruša Sagadin recently exhibited at Christine König Galerie (Vienna AT) and Vestjyllands Art Pavilion (Jutland DK). She opens a solo exhibition this spring at Cukrarna (Ljubljana SI). Maruša was born in Ljubljana and lives in Vienna.

10.02.- 07.03.

EERO ALEV & MARLEEN SUVI & BRENDA PURTSAK

A Visitor

10.02.- 07.03.

EERO ALEV & MARLEEN SUVI & BRENDA PURTSAK

A Visitor

The co-exhibition A Visitor by Eero Alev, Marleen Suvi and Brenda Purtsak will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Thursday, February 10, 2022. Exhibition will stay open until March 7, 2022.

I don’t know what it feels to be dead, said a six-year-old girl to her father once. Her father listened, pondered, and remembered – neither did he know, but he yearned to. First, these twenty something thousand days given to us seem to last forever, but the more one moves along the axis, the days grow considerably shorter. We have a beginning and we have an end. Our visiting hours are limited and at some point, even without knowing it, we will leave all this behind. What did we find? Were we searching for something at all? How much did we ask and what did we give?

We arrive from somewhere we remember nothing about, and we are going somewhere we know nothing about.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Põhjala Brewery.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Eero Alev (1983) has obtained MA degree in the department of painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Currently he is acquiring MA degree in contemporary art programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts and holds drawing classes in the same academy. Alev is equipped with strong skills in traditional depiction methods, his style can be characterized by realistic motifs and choice of subject, often tuned by the artist according to his own visual language. Alev has paid special attention to the mood, he mainly depicts space and people. Eero Alev has participated in several group exhibitions, such as in Collective Measure held in Haapsalu City Gallery (2019); Open Collections. The Artist Takes the Floor held in the Art Museum of Estonia (2019); How to Talk About a Secret Place Without Betraying It held in Noblessner Shipyard (2000). In early 2020, Alev held a co-exhibition Pretense with Brenda Purtsak in EKA Gallery.

Marleen Suvi (1998) has graduated from the department of painting in the faculty of fine art at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2020) and currently acquiring MA degree in contemporary art programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Marleen Suvi is examining the interwovenness between body, human soul and the universe. While writing haikus, the artist contemplates on empty phrases arisen from subconsciousness that sometimes seem to belong to someone else. She prefers to work with glass and oil on canvas. Among her recently held exhibitions are So That the Body Does not Forget (Vent Space Project Room, 2021) and Collective Measure (Haapsalu City Gallery, 2019).

Brenda Purtsak (1994) has graduated from the department of painting in the faculty of fine art at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2020) and currently acquiring MA degree in contemporary art programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In her artistic practice, Purtsak focuses on biological human body while experimenting with it on the borders of abstraction. This is the only way for her to contemplate on existential subjects. As for her favourite medium, Purtsak prefers to work with painting on various surfaces. She has participated in several exhibitions, for instance Pretense held in EKA Gallery (with Eero Alev, curated by Holger Loodus). Also, her paintings and stained glass pieces are currently being exhibited on the walls of the Estonian Embassy in the Hague, Netherlands (curated by Aleksander Metsamärt).

10.03.- 04.04.

JASS KASELAAN

Monster Follows the Sheep Carrier

10.03.- 04.04.

JASS KASELAAN

Monster Follows the Sheep Carrier

Jass Kaselaan‘s personal exhibition Monster Follows the Sheep Carrier will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Thursday, March 10, 2022. Exhibition will stay open until April 4, 2022.

Jass Kaselaan: „Monster following the sheep carrier (the good shepherd) is an inevitability, a logical chain of cause and effect, natural and inescapable course of events. Current exhibition focuses on modeling of the resonation of pray-predator system and on creating a simulation. An important aspect here is both qualitative and quantitative analysis, evaluation and mapping of animated worlds as well as optimizing/organizing of these maps. Filtrating, designing and transforming of imported data. An attempt to make the unfathomable perceivable at least to some extent – to mark the indication about the deceptive state of free will.

Two mosaic murals and five sculptural objects are exhibited in Hobusepea gallery.“

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Jass Kaselaan has graduated from Tartu Art College, obtained MA degree in the department of sculpture and installation at the Estonian Academy of Arts and taken additional courses in Imatra Art School, Finland as well as at Emil Holmer and Veronica Brovall's studio in Berlin. He can undoubtedly be taken as one of the most acknowledged sculptors of Estonian younger generation of artists – Kaselaan has received Köler Prize (2014), Kristjan Raud Art Award (2014) and Anton Starkopf Sculpture Prize (2011). In his artwork, Jass Kaselaan focuses on large-scale sculptural, sound and spatial installations. One of his most popular installation „The Square of Dolls“, completed for the nominees' exhibition of Köler Prize, was later exhibited in Arsenals, Riga and that has been located in the inner yard of KUMU Art Museum since 2016.

06.04.- 02.05.

TANEL RANDER

Angelus Novus

06.04.- 02.05.

TANEL RANDER

Angelus Novus

Tanel Rander‘s personal exhibition Angelus Novus will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Wednesday, April 6, 2022. Exhibition will stay open until May 2, 2022.

Tanel Rander: “Angelus Novus means that storm is blowing and the angel of history cannot close her wings. We are all watching her fading into the unknown future, with her eyes still nailed to the past.

This exhibition is an insight to my creative sources that I used to suppress and neglect, while being focused on the outside world and its conventions. In the same time these sources were always supporting me, carrying me.

We have built a pump house on our sources. And seen from that house every source is a resource. An instrument for something. Last year I wrote an article about this: “When Turbines Rotate, while Water Stands Still”. The article opens the context a bit and is available here: https://sirp.ee/s1-artiklid/c6-kunst/kui-turbiinid-poorlevad-aga-vesi-seisab/

Not all the exhibited artworks come from my personal creative process. There are also some from my work with people with special needs that I have occasionally done during the recent years. So, this exhibition also includes contributions from Sirli, who I worked with in last winter. Her drawings hold a lot of radiating energy. Oil pastels quickly run short in her hands and drawing is a highly intensive process for her. It heals her mood and seems to protect her from something. My work with her was simply about drawing together. Neither of us had never studied drawing or painting. But we were drawing and we were painting. And it had good influence on us.

The central point of this exhibition is a personal symbol of my own. It was waiting for more than 10 years until I decided to show it in public. But then a heavy storm started to blow and my works that were mere abstractions, something that I had used mostly for myself, got exposed to it. Such storms can also be seen as teeth of time that crack all meanings that have been nailed to temporality and eat everything that is up to date. I will see what will be left of these works. The only sail in this storm that I have consciously hoisted is Angelus Novus – the fading angel of history, carried away by the wind.

I thank everyone who has supported me on my journey. Regarding this exhibition, Jelena Jokic Grobler played a very important role in helping me with means of psychodrama and art therapy. In latest times I was also influenced by Borut Holland, with who I shared some wonderous coincidences. I also thank people from Kärdla social centre, I thank Estonian Cultural Endowment and MTÜ Sada Paplit for supporting this exhibition and I also thank the people of Art Smart for being dedicated to their work.”

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Tanel Rander (1980) is an artist, curator, and writer (also goes by the pseudonyme chaneldior), whose creative work includes experimental practices based in language and psychology, and critical study of Eastern-European discourse and decolonisation. The focus of Rander’s work is the tension between subjectivity and the modifying pressure it experiences between interior and exterior. Rander has worked as a lawyer and attorney, since 2009 he is a freelance artist. In 2018 he initiated the independent exhibition space ‘Brivibas Galerija’ in Valka.

05.05.- 30.05.

SIIRI JüRIS & TIM HøIBJERG & TRIIN MARTS

Then the Edge Asserts

05.05.- 30.05.

SIIRI JüRIS & TIM HøIBJERG & TRIIN MARTS

Then the Edge Asserts

Tim Høibjerg, Siiri Jüris and Triin Marts will open their exhibition Then the Edge Asserts Itself in Hobusepea gallery on Thursday, May 5, 2022 at 18.00. Curator of the exhibition is Anne Vigeland. Exhibition will stay open until May 30, 2022.

Then the Edge Asserts Itself, which takes its title from Anne Carson’s book Eros the Bittersweet (1986), is a group exhibition that looks towards the complexities of human desire and emotional interaction. The exhibited artists share a common interest in corporal experiences – in the body as archive, material, landscape, haven. Through painting, sculpture, video, and installation, they explore what it means to be alone and together in a distressed and desolate world, with a particular attention towards the powers of touch, memory, and intimacy. In dialogue with each other and the materials and traditions that govern their work, they address how desire forms selfhood, how it makes and breaks us, and the abiding struggle to soften the edges of doubt.

The exhibition is supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Nordic Council of Ministers / Nordic Culture Point and Galleri Duerr.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Siiri Jüris (1992) is an Estonian painter, currently living and working in Uppsala, Sweden. She holds an MA in painting from the University of Tartu (2017) and an MFA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm (2021). Jüris has participated in many group exhibitions, mainly in Estonia, but also in Sweden, Slovakia, and Lithuania. She was one of the finalists for the Young Painter Prize in both 2019 and 2021, and in 2020 she won the "Young Tartu" competition. Her solo exhibition matter that (em)bodies was held at Tartu Art Museum in February 2021.

Tim Høibjerg (1986) is a Norwegian visual artist, living and working in between Oslo and Stockholm. He holds an MFA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm (2021) and a BFA from the Oslo Academy of Fine Arts (2019). Høibjerg’s work has been featured widely and recent exhibition venues include MELK (Oslo), QB Gallery (Oslo), and Sørlandets Art Museum (Kristiansand, Norway) where he was nominated for artist of the year in 2020.

Triin Marts (1987) is an Estonian choreographer and visual artist based in Tallinn. She holds a dance art diploma from Viljandi Culture Academy (2011), a BA in painting from the University of Tartu (2015), and an MA in fine arts from the Estonian Academy of Arts (2019). Her solo piece Kirke was part of the Premiere’13 programme for emerging choreographers. As a freelance performer, she has worked with several artists including Ina Stockhem, Jaan Ulst, and Robert Wilson. Marts’ work has been shown in group exhibitions in Estonia as well as in Germany, Poland, and Greece.

01.06.- 27.06.

RIIN MAIDE

It’s Like I Barely See

01.06.- 27.06.

RIIN MAIDE

It’s Like I Barely See

01.07.- 24.07.

HANNA HUSBERG & AGATA MARZECOVA

From Aurora to Geospace

01.07.- 24.07.

HANNA HUSBERG & AGATA MARZECOVA

From Aurora to Geospace

Towards Atmosperic Care, a research collaborative between Hanna Husberg and Agata Marzecova, will open their exhibition From Aurora to Geospace in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday, June 30, 2022. Exhibition will be open until July 24, 2022.

How do we depict something? Not only in artistic contexts but also in more scientific, more enlightening context? How do we agree on what is aurora and what is not?

From Aurora to Geospace explores how historical interest in visible atmospheric phenomena, notably the aurora borealis or northern lights, has contributed to the uncovering of invisible processes and regions of near-Earth space (also called geospace) that are made perceptible only with the help of science. Rather than observing atmospheric phenomena as such, the installation looks at the instruments, historical circumstances, events and ideas that make atmospheric processes visible and thereby contribute to the construction of novel atmospheric imaginaries and sensibilities. Scientifically, the auroral phenomenon can be described as the coming together of forces from the Earth’s magnetosphere, the ionosphere (the region 70 km and above the Earth’s surface) and the sun’s particles. Irregularities in the ionosphere, also known as space weather, produce auroras and similarly affect radio, communication and navigation systems.

Due to low solar activity there were very little auroral events during the medieval period, and in 1707, after an absence of more than a hundred years, great spectacles of auroras reappeared. Auroral displays were visible as far south as France and Italy, at latitudes where no-one had seen aurora before. It was the beginning of the Enlightenment, and auroras were in the spotlight of knowledge production. This also drew attention to the arctic Fennoscandian territories, which during the last centuries have became one of the most important natural laboratories for conducting scientific research on the functioning of the atmosphere as well as the whole geosphere, and therefore also as a place where global atmospheric imaginaries are shaped. Today, the region hosts the ionospheric radar EISCAT infrastructure (the second largest European research project after the Hadron Collider) which studies the ionosphere as well as auroral phenomena by transmitting and receiving signals between large antennas and facilities located in Sodankylä, Kiruna, Tromsö and Kilpisjärvi.

Thanks to the conceptual tools of ionospheric science (to which facilities and places such as EISCAT contribute), planet Earth is no longer an isolated Blue Marble in the dark vacuum of outer space. Instead, it can be understood as energetically and materially interconnected with its galactic environment. However, such planetary sensibility is not simply accessible through human senses and embodied experience. Rather, it is dependent on technoscientific infrastructures and expertise only made possible through the entanglements of science, militarisation, commercialisation and the datafication of nature. In this light, we ask how to meaningfully consider, and care for, the representational, yet material sphere between what is perceptible and imaginable, and the outer space that, while difficult to comprehend, is permeated with satellites, and other technologies and environmental processes that condition our lives?
Combining photography, historical and scientific imagery, drawing, sound and text, From Aurora to Geospace approaches auroras as an access point to the upper atmosphere. It draws on conversations with scientists and researchers encountered during field trips to the ionospheric radar EISCAT infrastructures and their surroundings, and uses academic and historical sources as well as scientific materials brought up by the people we met, such as the prevalence of diagrams for shaping how we imagine vast, yet invisible, environments out of reach for the human senses. Situated and embodied understandings of science as always historically grounded, partial and never perfectly objective do not trivialize nor diminish the importance of scientific evidence, instead they create opportunity for engagement. In line with this, the different elements of the installation are organized as a fragmentary vocabulary, or clavis, providing some keys for interpretation without presupposing hierarchical relations between the scientific, aesthetic, historical and political.

Towards Atmospheric Care is a long-term research collaborative between Stockholm-based visual artist Hanna Husberg and Tallinn-based interdisciplinary researcher Agata Marzecova which explores air as a naturalcultural phenomenon situated in the nexus of media, science and technological mediation. Using installation, performance, writing and critical analysis, the project examines the overlapping boundaries between the aesthetic, science and politics of air and atmosphere. In addition to artistic and academic outcomes, the duo advances interdisciplinary pedagogic approaches, including joint teaching at the Estonian Academy of Arts as well as co-learning workshops (Heavens Field_Notes, 2019; Fantasies of Seamless Interoperability, 2021; How to care for air? Thinking lab, 2022). Their collaboration has been supported by the Technosphere Campus (HKW Berlin, 2016), The Seed Box (Mistra-Formas Collaboratory, 2017), the Bernadotte Fellowship (Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, 2019-20), Kone Foundation (2020-22), and several residencies.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Kone Foundation
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

27.07.- 22.08.

ANDRES KOORT

Chaos and Order

27.07.- 22.08.

ANDRES KOORT

Chaos and Order

24.08.- 19.09.

KAI KALJO

Pile of Dirty Rags

24.08.- 19.09.

KAI KALJO

Pile of Dirty Rags

Kai Kaljo will open her personal exhibition Pile of Dirty Rags in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, August 24, 2022. Exhibition will be open until September 19, 2022.

„In February 2022, I created a folder Explosions and volcanoes in my computer. Actually, I had had it already for a year since I added there my first image.

After a few weeks, they suddenly started to kill people in the next room.
And then I realized that actually there has always been a war, peace is just a break between wars. These are the rules of life. And you know nothing of these.
My eyes were opening, I suddenly started to look at my home with a completely different gaze. I was amazed how many items I have that bear recollections about killing and war: drawings by Andrus Johan, silver jewellery from Afghanistan, a Kuznetsov porcelain plate that my grandmother brought with her when she left St. Petersburg in 1918, a book signed by Gustav Suits. Even my house has been rebuild on the very spot it was once bombed.

In April I took the first pictures as well, even if this first seemed an impossible effort.

Two flowers: the first one reminding of a burnt corpse that has still some blood in the biggest blood vessel. I once worked at a forensic medical lab and the acquired skills suddenly started to reappear. The other flower has a window behind it, with the view of an exploding atomic bomb.

Pictures I never took but that were inside and around me all the time: a dog eating a man. A man eating a dog. Pieces of human bodies, corpses packed in plastic bags, fields covered with graves, the only thing that will be left of you is a pile of dirty rags …”.

Kai Kaljo

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Väino Tanner Foundation.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Kai Kaljo is a diverse artist who graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian State Art Institute in 1990. Her graduation work consisted of fresco paintings for the culture house in Abja-Paluoja. The artist has participated in exhibitions since 1985 and since 1997 Kaljo has mainly practised as a video artist in the international field of art. Kai Kaljo has worked as a part-time lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1990–2021 and as a professor-associate professor of contemporary art at the Tallinn University Baltic Film, Media and Arts School in 2006–2017. She has received several art awards (such as the awards of the annual exhibitions of the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art in 1994 and 1997; Kristjan Raud Art Award in 2006 and others) and been in artist residencies in USA, Canada, Iceland, Italy, Finland. Kai Kaljo’s artwork of the recent years includes return to matter („Experiments with Microcosm” 2021; curatorial projects „Artists Painting Artists” in 2020 and „Schoolmates” in 2021).

21.09.- 17.10.

KERT VIIART

As It Came Out of The Earth, It Returns

21.09.- 17.10.

KERT VIIART

As It Came Out of The Earth, It Returns

Kert Viiart will open his solo exhibition As It Came Out of The Earth, It Returns in Hobusepea gallery at 17:00 on Friday, September 23rd, 2022. The exhibition will be open until October 17th, 2022.

According to the artist, one can presume that the future in plastic ruins will arrive unexpectedly; however, the dystopian narrative has become almost an inevitable part of the future of our planet; creating unimaginable landscapes. Nondegradable plastic waste will be unavoidable part of the history of humankind. Perhaps instead of the achievements of certain civilizations, the future archaeology will tell about the dystopian results of civilization and humankind.
Through daily consumption and comfort habits, humankind creates new geological strata and future artifacts. Every year, almost 300 million tons of plastic waste is produced all around the world – but in order to handle all this, there is a lack of the necessary infrastructure as well as the economical and political will. The fact that plastic won’t degrade but “travels” through hundreds of years is intriguing me to treat the material from the archaeological perspective, as a part of the practice of future archaeology. At the current moment, plastic already has a huge role in the field of archaeology. In museums, plastic is used for presenting and preserving archaeological objects. A visit to the museum of archaeology may have the effect of a foretelling from the future. Plastic as a material is used in several different forms in order to narrate and present the history of ancient civilizations. We can only speculate what kind of afterlife the remains will have in case something drastic happened with the collections. One of the appalling examples is the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro. On September 2nd, 2018 the oldest and most important museum of archaeology and science in Brazil was ruined in fire. It is estimated that 92,5% of the 20 million objects in the museum collection were destroyed. Numerous forest and landscape fires that took place in 2019 and that have increased during the past years, make me think about the dystopian future scenarios. What kind of landscape is being created by these fires when the plastic things and construction materials will melt into one with the ground while forming new landscapes and leaving the surface made of plastiglomerate rocks for the future generations?

While studying and speculating around these themes, Kert Viiart has created the installation As It Came Out of The Earth, It Returns (2019–2022) that includes sculptural forms and video work with sound (5’46’’). Through the installation, the artist observes contemporary archaeological expositions, plastic-based support structures, and construction materials while doubting the choices made when selecting the materials. These hybrid objects are joint images including both imagination as well as the material reality that create a speculative view to the future archaeology. The objects have “traveled” through time and deformed, while becoming a part of the ground and acquiring value and archaeological meaning.
The installation combines various materials, including glay, epoxy resin, found plastic construction materials, leftover plexiglass, found plastic waste and soil.

Dialoguepartner and technical help: Kristina Õllek
Thanks: Hanna Laura Kaljo, Mijke van der Drift, Ruben Pater, Linda van Deursen, Federico Campagna, Niels Schrader, Roosje Klap, Tiiu Saadoja, Art Museum of Estonia and KABK master’s program Non Linear Narratives.

Photos: Kristina Õllek

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Kert Viiart (1989) is an artist and graphic designer who lives and works in Tallinn. He has obtained MA degree in the department of Non Linear Narratives at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. In his creative practice, Viiart examines how the development of technology influences visual language while focusing on the associations between virtual presentations and everyday objects/environments. In his last projects, the artist has viewed plastic as a material and technological means as well as analyzed its influence to archaeology and the ways how artefacts are presented. The newest artwork As it Came Out of the Earth, It Returns (2019–2022) presents plastic as a part of future archaeology whereas the artist displays it through fictive and dystopian narratives. Additional information: www.kertviiart.com

19.10.- 14.11.

KAROLIN POSKA - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2021

Pressure of the Gaze

19.10.- 14.11.

KAROLIN POSKA - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2021

Pressure of the Gaze

TASE’21 and EAA (Estonian Academy of Arts) Young Artist’s Award winner Karolin Poska will open her solo exhibition Pressure of the Gaze in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, October 19th, 2022. Exhibition will be open until November 14, 2022.

Karolin Poska: “Do you know the feeling when someone else has fixed their gaze on you? You can simply tell that someone is controlling you, stalking you with the gaze, measuring you or trying to create a visual contact. You feel it even if it is outside the field of vision, or you may realize this from the corner of your eye.

People assure that they literally feel how the eyes of “Mona Lisa” painted by Leonardo da Vinci are following them, irrespective of the physical location of the spectator. This phenomenon – when the eyes of an artwork observe the spectator in the room – is called the Mona Lisa effect. However, researchers have found that this phenonenon won’t apply to Mona Lisa since the gaze of the painted figure has been directed too much to the right.

Creating a direct eye contact is perhaps the most frequent and powerful non-verbal signal exchanged between human beings; it is also a means of intimacy, frightening and social influence. Eye contact is such a primeval way of communication common to all animal species: predators intensely keep their eye on their prey before the moment of dashing towards it; babies become intimate with their parent through visual contact; fish turn their eyes black during an aggressive act.

The oldest found fossil’s eyes are 540 million years old, the first Homo habilis or the achaic human dates back to approximately 2 million years ago. Now I feel different when looking out of the window, knowing that I am using eyes of the precedecessors being 538 million years older than a human being.

It is easier to catch human gazes than those of other species since human eyeball has a special construction – we have more sclera (the white layer of an eye). That, in turn, makes it much easier to identify the movement of the iris of an eye that has darker colour as well as determining the direction of the gaze due to constrasty colours. Surprisingly, human eyes have the closest similarity with the ones of an octopus and a squid who both have big eyes consisting of the lens, the iris and one big vitreous body.

According to my calculations, the old town of Tallinn has 77 street cameras, so you were probably looked at already when you were on your way to the gallery. You probably did not perceive this because the surveillance cameras have less constrasty eyes and different construction. Also, the sculpture in the old town that you probably passed did not follow you with its eyes since it wears glasses and unfortunately has no sclerae. And yet, lots of people say that it is namely the eyes of an artwork that make you feel something.

While preparing for the current exhibition, I went to galleries and streets and looked at art; and also looked at others looking at art and let the artworks look at me and my act of looking. I really hope that you will find something worth looking at!”

Thank you for the dialogue and technical assistance: Theodore Parker and Maret Tamme.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Karolin Poska - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2021 (1991) is a performance artist, choreographer and dancer who lives and works in Tallinn. She has graduated from the department of dance art at the Viljandi Culture Academy of the University of Tartu. In her artistic practice, Poska tries to understand what it feels to live in the world at the given moment – she enjoys transforming reality, playing with objects and the audience's expectations. Poska recently obtained MA degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts and she was given the Young Artist Award. Poska's two recent works "For Your Nirvana" (2020) and "Untititled" (2021) were nominated to the Estonian Theatre Awards in the category of dance and performance art.

16.11.- 12.12.

KAISA EICHE & KADI ESTLAND

Village Without Women

16.11.- 12.12.

KAISA EICHE & KADI ESTLAND

Village Without Women

Kaisa Eiche and Kadi Estland will open their exhibition Village Without Women in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, November 16, 2022. Exhibition will be open until December 12, 2022.

“Dear mother, what will happen when we gone. will the world be an uglier, nicer place, a wet patch, the website of used cars that one cannot escape. a burnt ground where there is no stream, asks my little son. there is always a stream, there is always Light, there is always the beginning of a new world. remember this, then you know. but now sleep, my dead son, I read you a bed-time story how all this happened, how important racial hygiene became
someone blew the car horn for the first time, someone painted, no one got out any more. all of them starved. slaves who won’t pick berries, won’t get used to it, everyone is picking berries. bean pods are growing in sauna. men confronted each other, did legitimately evil things, killed children, rape. jesus did not have children, how many were killed in his name. incapable in a history book, well, aren’t these books. you must read, you must know
it is morning, one can hear the news, running water, abdominal rumbling. we will win this war then then the stream will come
you sleep, you rest, we spread the ash”

Kadi Estland

Village Without Women is the first collaborational project in a gallery for Kaisa Eiche and Kadi Estland. Concept and photo installation have been created by Kaisa Eiche. Kadi Estland’s poetry “Birthmarks” have been written especially for the present exhibition. Whereas the ideas for the exhibition started to grow out from the military invasion of the Russian Federation to Ukraine in February 2022, the artists have mainly focused on the perceptible aspects in women’s roles, influenced by the (fear of) war. Today’s fears and reactions of the residents of Estonia as a border country are directly connected to the past – only 30 years ago, Estonia was an occupied territory by the Soviet authorities for more than half a century. On the other hand, there are doubts and turning one’s back to culture that is covertly contributing to the increasing social stratification though militarising and conservative national politics.

The artists express their gratitude to: Aet Kuusik, Brit Pavelson, Evi Eiche, Gabriela Urm, Hanna Näkk, Helmi and Inge, Kaisa Maasik, Kristina, Kunileid, Lauri Trolla, Marje Eelma, Nele Tammeaid, Triinu Pungits, Rainer Kattel, Kanuti Guild Hall and PallasFoto.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Kaisa Eiche (1982) is an artist, art organizer and critic. She has studied photography at Tartu Art College and has participated in exhibitions since 2003. Eiche is currently obtaining an MA degree in the faculty of economics and business administration in Tartu University as well as working as an assistant head of the department of photography at Pallas University of Applied Sciences. She is a member of the Estonian Union of Photography Artists, Tartu Artists' Union and Estonian Artists' Association. Recently she took part in the group exhibition "Art in the Comfort Zone? The 2000s in Estonian Art" held in KUMU Art Museum and curated by Eha Komissarov and Triin Tulgiste. In 2021, she received the Art Critic Scholarship from the Center for Contemporary Art and Estonian Society of Art Historians and Curators. In 2022, she was given the Tartu culture award The Cultural Critic of the Year. Contact: kaisa.eiche@gmail.com

Kadi Estland (1973) is an artist, poet, embroiderer, collaborator of feminist magazine Feministeerium with her comics and memes. Since 2022, Estland is the columnist of web-based magazine Kolkaplika.ee. She lives and works in London and Pärnu. Estland has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1997, she has participated in various exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kadiestland_poetryembroidery/ https://www.instagram.com/maolenteielemmicfeminist/ https://www.instagram.com/hats_for_peace_/ Poetry: https://www.curriculumvitt.ee Contact: kadiestland@gmail.com

2021

16.12.- 02.02.

MALL PARIS

Infinity

16.12.- 02.02.

MALL PARIS

Infinity

Mall Paris‘s personal exhibition Infinity will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Wednesday, December 16, 2020. Exhibition will stay open until January 11, 2021.

Word —- image —- imagination. Either every word separately or together as a line. The space fades into a complete idea or single images …

Words compose an image or an attempt appearing in time.
Infinity is far
or close
Infinity is close
or
far …

Sympathy for certain arrangement yet infinity that is letting go, drifting away …

Infinity is far
or close
Infinity is close
or
far …

following as a shadow …

Mall Paris

According to the artist, her current exhibition is a conceptual continuation to her previous exhibition Word held in Vabaduse gallery in 2019. Art historian Juta Kivimäe has stated that Mall Paris is one of the purest practitioners of abstract and minimalist painting in Estonian art. Paris’s painted imagery is close to a geometric approach but also including almost always something else, something undefinable. Her artwork has traces of minimalism and poetical arte povera. In her emphatic way, Paris poeticizes way of living and art that has grown out of the most scarce means; and yet, her paintings express the most exquisite features of the art of painting. Tamara Luuk, curator of the Tallinn Art Hall, has characterized Mall Paris as a silent and consistent artist who is always present; and who in her creative practice is steadfast and uniquely elegant. Paris’s work has been led by the seriality of minimalist paintings where the recurrence of an image has simultaneously a maddening effect as well as caressing the viewer’s eye with its pulsating multitude of nuances.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Mall Paris (1954) is born in Tallinn. She has graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian State Art Institute in 1984. The artist has participated in exhibitions since 1981. Mall Paris is a member of the Estonian Artists' Association, Estonian Painters' Association and Estonian Watercolorists' Union. She has taken part in numerous group exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad as well as held several personal exhibitions. In 2018, Mall Paris was awarded Kristjan Raud Prize and in 2020 she received Konrad Mägi Art Award.

04.02.- 22.02.

PILLE-RIIN JAIK & MIRIAM ESTHER MEYER

Parasitic Symbiosis

04.02.- 22.02.

PILLE-RIIN JAIK & MIRIAM ESTHER MEYER

Parasitic Symbiosis

Joint exhibition Parasitic Symbiosis by Pille-Riin Jaik and Miriam Esther Meyer will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Thursday, February 4, 2021. Exhibition will stay open until February 22, 2021.

With Parasitic Symbiosis Pille-Riin Jaik (EE) and Miriam Esther Meyer (DK/MX) try to investigate expected collaborative behavioral patterns, rivalry, modernistic thought models as well as frames and materials, while considering both what would benefit themselves and the exhibition as a whole. The terms parasitic and symbiosis may appear paradoxical, but were chosen consciously to include both the give and take of the overall process and outcome. Did they successfully create a balance between seeking harmony and maintaining two autonomous viewpoints? That remains an open-ended question.

For Meyer Parasitic Symbiosis presented an opportunity to free herself from restrictive working conditions and develop an awareness of what she can compromise on before the result becomes stifling. “For me, this journey has not been a straight-forward trajectory. The plan was to challenge the conditions of my performative drawing concept Dependency Action Documentation – a concept that I realized was less of a co-dependency and more a self-destructive reliance on my part as well as one with limited creative possibilities – in the hope of developing a healthier process and outcome. That happened in phases – five to be exact – each of them involving having to overcome new obstacles that presented themselves along the way. Some of those obstacles were specifically related to the collaborative nature of this exhibition and some would have arisen, regardless of context. The result is Dependency Action Liberation, which includes the presentation of my original hypothesis and premise, a description of the different development stages and a conclusion, reflecting the overall take-away, as well as three paintings, sealed in latex. I think the works can be approached in different ways, but for me, the personal impact has been greater than expected. Somehow the conscious choices I had to make have made me more aware, and I hope that that is somehow conveyed in the works – if nothing else, in an abstract way,” she says.

For Jaik it means questioning how radical transparency would look like in the artworld: “We all have stolen something from someone, even if it’s from history. There can be such a thing as ethical stealing though, in my opinion. A kind of stealing that can make things grow. Subconscious stealing, for example, when you admire someone’s work or are exposed to it frequently. It could also be ideas that are close to your heart that you feel need to be elaborated on. Parasitical Symbiosis is made from such thoughts and attempts; questioning the myth of single-minded genius and its habitat, the White Cube. In my installations I try to show how I am never able to fully work alone. Each of my artworks depend on someone else’s talent and in some cases, someone else’s work may be the reason for their formation in the first place. For example, in the double installation “So, I weed” and “So, I weed & I weed” I dug into an archive at the art academy of Vienna and translated the findings into vegetation – oppressive weeds, boring bureaucratic grass and a hidden, nonexistent rose (women’s letters to demand right for education that were excluded from the archive). I try to question the ground I stand on, my own soil and with what limitations and preset patterns one is allowed to grow.”

In 2018, she and Pille-Riin Jaik collaborated on the work Moving Body in Aggressive Motion, which was shortlisted for the Jury Award and streamed at Frauen Filmfestival 2018 in Vienna, Austria. Parasitic Symbiosis will be the second collaborative effort between Jaik and Meyer.

The artist’s gratitude goes to: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Austrian Embassy in Tallinn, Gerda Nurk, Irmeli Terras, Martti Toivar, Mari-Liis Jaik.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Pille-Riin Jaik (born 1991 in Tallinn, Estonia) is a Vienna based interdisciplinary artist mostly working with video/performance as well as with sculpture and installation. She has a Bachelor of Photography from the Estonian Academy of Fine Arts and MA from Art and Digital Media (professor Constanze Ruhm) at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She works a lot with text, plants, textile, surplus and unused materials/thoughts in feministic and class aware discourse.

Miriam Esther Meyer (Denmark/Mexico, born in 1988) has since 2015 been studying under Carola Dertnig at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria. In her work, Meyer is interested in investigating what impacts our behaviour and shapes our patterns of thinking, using painting, sculptural objects, video and performance. She uses research from primarily psychology and biology, sometimes employing or creating experiments and exercises that engage selected participants, resulting in data fragments that are turned into intricate paintings or drawings, other times by conducting an experiment herself or by investigating a subject by using narrative.

25.02.- 17.05.

ANN PAJUVäLI & MISA ASANUMA

Spring Express

25.02.- 17.05.

ANN PAJUVäLI & MISA ASANUMA

Spring Express

19.05.- 07.06.

URMAS LüüS

Yet Another Example of the Porousness of Certain Borders

19.05.- 07.06.

URMAS LüüS

Yet Another Example of the Porousness of Certain Borders

Urmas Lüüs‘s personal exhibition Yet Another Example of the Porousness of Certain Borders will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Thursday, May 20th, 2021. Exhibition will be open until June 7th, 2021.

Urmas Lüüs: „After my grandmother’s death I started to empty her apartment before the renovation works – 83 years of life piled up in front of me. In three summer months, I was able to dig through hardly half of the layers imbued by a human spirit. The pile included a coat hanger secured by a wooden stick and a band aid; a dress made of a curtain; mended socks; a patched oilcloth. There were some kind of knowledge and presence in all of these things. I gathered that I was able to read this knowledge more and more every day. When I discovered a shelf full of crocheted and embroidered doilies, I got the feeling that I was the one who had to continue with the tools I also found there. So I learned from what was there in front of me and gradually my skills improved. Soon I was able to read the stitches and tracing patterns just like a musician reading sheet music. It seems that the gap between two worlds was not an obstacle for communication.

A few words about myself – my name is Urmas Lüüs (b. 1987) and I have obtained BA and MA degrees in blacksmithing at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In my artistic practice I combine various media such as video, performance, conceptually charged everyday objects, photography, sculpture and sound. I work in my studio at 2 Hobusepea Str, Tallinn; supervise students at the Estonian Academy of Arts and in Gothenburg University; write about culture for different publications; and participate in a sound art group Postinstrumentum.“

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Academy of Arts.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

09.06.- 05.07.

MARGIT SäDE

Zone d’attente

09.06.- 05.07.

MARGIT SäDE

Zone d’attente

Margit Säde will open her personal exhibition Zone d’attente in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, June 9th, 2021. Exhibition will be open until July 5th, 2021.

Margit Säde: “Due to my work, I have commuted between Tallinn and Zürich for the last ten years. During the past three years, I have been flying on 65 days, taken off and landed 138 times in total. My flights have been delayed, cancelled, changed, overbooked. I have been flying in an almost empty airplane, with bad weather, with good weather, during the pandemic.

Flying is more sterile and more effective than daily life – and all services are within a short walk or a touch away. And yet, flying is always accompanied by a controversial feeling – there is a desire to both ignore and celebrate the control. I am flying into the sky while being safely chained to my seat. Where some people see an open sky, others witness a framed view of sea with the dimensions of a standard airplane window. While pushing my nose to the tightly closed, cold window I activate the airplane mode on my smartphone and enter the time-free zone of flying. The zone of anticipation is just like a closed circle where there is no past and the future has not started yet – there is only a present in a vacuum. It is similar to the phase in depression when the worst is over but the person has not recovered yet. This is a vague indication about the state where you happen to be at the moment and where you are going to be soon – the moment when your life and everything you desire to do is put on hold. Just like the airplanes circling above the airport, waiting for the moment to land.”

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The artist’s gratitude to: Urs and August Säde Lehni, Anna Škodenko, Eleonore de Montesquiou, Lightmaker, Tuul and Tallinn Secondary School of Science.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Margit Säde is an independent curator and art worker based in Tallinn and Zurich. Switching between the roles of curator, educator, producer and artist, her main topics of interest are subjectivity, precarity and collectivity as well as language, human psyche and voice. Margit Säde studied art history at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2007, BA) and fine arts at the Zurich University of the Arts (2017, MFA). From 2017 to 2020 she worked at the Estonian Academy of Arts as the head of the contemporary art Master’s curriculum and visiting associate professor. Säde has received the Annual Award of the visual and applied arts endowment of the Estonian Cultural Endowment (2019).

07.07.- 02.08.

HEDI JAANSOO

Sweet Peas, Snapdragons and Forget Me Not

07.07.- 02.08.

HEDI JAANSOO

Sweet Peas, Snapdragons and Forget Me Not

Hedi Jaansoo will open her personal exhibition Sweet Peas, Snapdragons and Forget Me Not in Hobusepea gallery at 5pm on Thursday, July 8th, 2021. Exhibition will be open until August 2nd, 2021.

Hedi Jaansoo: “I have photographed half-dried cut flowers. I have depicted these with myself, with the wall, with my granny. I have glued the pieces of pictures together and photographed these with more or less fresh flowers, notes, walls and vases. I have pressed wrinkles into the clay. I have braided scarves. I’d like to be like a snapdragon, symbolizing the strength of women. I’d like to polish my nails again, but afterwards I have to take it off, and I have no time, and then these remain longer in a half-polished state. Like flowers in a vase, lasting much longer when half-dried than fresh. I’d like to say there’s no need to press yourself together, because it won’t help.

The beautiful nymph Paeonia once caught the eye of Apollo. However, Paeonia turned self-conscious and blushed as she noticed that Aphrodite had observed their flirtation. Aphrodite got angry and turned Paeonia into a red peony.

During the Victorian era, people sent each other little flower arrangements to express feelings that was considered a social taboo. Flower dictionaries were used in order to decode the talking bouquets. One of the most popular dictionaries of this kind is “Language of Flowers” (Routledge, 1884, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, a book with numerous reprints). So, during the Victorian era, one had to speak literally through flowers about things that were prohibited.

And they say you should not let peonies wither, because it will bring bad luck.

I’d like to be like a snapdragon.”

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
The exhibitions in Hobusepea Gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Hedi Jaansoo

+372 5594 4447
hedijaansoo@gmail.com
www.hedijaansoo.com

Hedi Jaansoo (1989) is an artist and photographer living and working in Tallinn. She has graduated from the department of contemporary art at the Estonian Art Academy (MA, 2018), department of photography at the same academy (BA, 2014) and studied in Norway, Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2021/13). She mostly works with tiny and fragile objects, flowers, uncertainties, intuitions and sensibilities. In her latest artistic practice she combines photography, textile and clay, nonfunctional accessories, unfinished thoughts and shifting decisions, yearnings and conflicting desires.

04.08.- 30.08.

DARJA POPOLITOVA

Tactilite: Stone that Tickles the Gaze

04.08.- 30.08.

DARJA POPOLITOVA

Tactilite: Stone that Tickles the Gaze

The exhibition Tactilite: Stone that Tickles the Gaze by jewellery artist Darja Popolitova will open in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on August 5th Hobusepea gallery. The solo show incorporates five video works, jewellery and installations that will create a fictional world where witch Seraphita helps to cope with the frustrations of everyday life.

“Seraphita is a fictional character who helps me to expand the usual functions of jewellery. For example, to shoot jewellery so that the viewer would be much more interested in watching a video clip rather than a stand-alone artifact attached to the stand,” says the author.

The video tutorials and jewellery tools in the exhibition are tailored to the specific needs of people – either for becoming more self-confident for some, bringing lost intimacy into life or coping with aggression for others.

The artist considers materiality not only as a physical component but also as a digital one. The action performed by witch Seraphita on the screen becomes a “ritual” involving corporeality. Without such powerful wearable symbols as jewellery, human life would not have sentimental values — gift-giving rituals, tactile moments, personal memories.

Darja’s works have been published in local and international media. Kelly Riggs, a contemporary critic and curator, writes about Darja’s work in the Dutch art magazine Current Obsession:
“Though the physical jewellery objects are the crux of what Popolitova creates, they are also just a part of the total picture, or the collective persona she presents when she shares that jewellery online.”

The exhibition can be visited from 4th to 30th of August 2021, every day (except Tuesday) 11:00-18:00.
Gallery address: Hobusepea 2, Tallinn.

The exhibition has been completed in collaboration with Jakob Tulve (VFX) and Andres Nõlvak (sound).

Artists’s gratude goes to: Aleksandr Popolitov ja Nadežda Popolitova, Ando Naulainen, Anastasia Dratšova, Eesti Kunstiakadeemia doktorikool, Eesti Kunstiakadeemia ehte- ja sepakunstiosakond, Eesti Kunstnikeliit, Elnara Taidre, Karl Kivinurm, Norman Orro, Kadi Veesaar, Kadri Mälk, Karmo Järv, Keiu Krikmann, Kristo Pachel, Miikael Danieljants, Pire Sova, Raivo Kelomees.

Sponsors: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Moe OÜ, Õllenaut OÜ, Hobusepea gallery, Orbital Vox Studios.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Darja Popolitova (1980) was born in Sillamäe and lives and works in Tallinn. She is currently studying in the Doctoral School at Estonian Academy of Arts. Darja’s practice includes contemporary jewellery, digital craft and video art. Recently, Darja Popolitova has participated in exhibitions at the Museum Arnhem in Holland (2020), Art and Design Museum in New York (2019), the Kunstnerforbundet gallery in Oslo (2018). Darja Popolitova is represented by the following galleries: Marzee in Nijmegen, Beyond in Antwerp, and Door in Mariaheide. Her work is included in the collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Museum Arnhem, and private collections. The work of Darja Popolitova was awarded the Annual Awards of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in 2020, scholarships of the Ministry of Culture and Adamson-Eric in 2018. She also received the scholarship of Young Jewellery in 2015.

01.09.- 20.09.

LAIVI

Collecting and Preserving

01.09.- 20.09.

LAIVI

Collecting and Preserving

Laivi‘s personal exhibition Collecting and Preserving will be opened in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday, September 2nd, 2021. Exhibition will be open until September 20th, 2021.

Collecting and Preserving is a fashion exhibition about business and art, posing the question whether the only solution for helping the society suffering from crises would be a political one?

The basis for the coping mechanism in our society is petroleum that has emerged from the organic substance deposited either in the seabed or underground 300 million years ago. What kind of material for the future we are creating with today’s sediments?

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Laivi

https://cca.ee/kunstnike-andmebaas/laivi
www.laivi.ee
www.instagram.com/laivi_official

Laivi (Laivi Suurväli, 1988) is a freelance artist who in her creative practice searches alternatives in order to analyse fashion as a phenomenon. Laivi works with the major components of fashion design: materials, apparel, body (and the lack of it) and space. The recurring keywords of Laivi's artwork are: identity design, yearning and addiction, production and consumption, preservation and destruction, assessment of value. Demystifying the desirous essence of fashion as well as entering the dialogue with the consumer would be one possibility to discuss the subject of zeitgeist in today's society absorbed in contemporary crises. Laivi's creative practice is characterized by material-based and experimental approach towards textile; while the approach is extending from apparel and accessories to sculptural installations and large-scale artwork on canvas. She analyzes clothing and methods of body covering in visual-aesthetic, functional and expressive ways. Laivi has obtained BA degree in fashion design at the Estonian Academy of Arts and MA degree in Aalto University, Helsinki. She has studied and worked in London, Copenhagen and Barcelona. Since 2014, Laivi has participated in several group exhibitions of contemporary art and held personal exhibitions.

24.09.- 11.10.

KATRIN KOSKARU

Engine Noise from the Sun

24.09.- 11.10.

KATRIN KOSKARU

Engine Noise from the Sun

Katrin Koskaru‘s personal exhibition Engine Noise from the Sun will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Friday, September 24th, 2021. Exhibition will be open until October 11, 2021.

„The sky above Annelinn district was thick with noise. Especially at night. The daytime sky was cheerful, full of colourful parachutes. Sports in the sky involves military objectives, and that is a well-known fact. Tu-16K, followed by Tu-22M3, Tu-4D and the colourful, bright Il-76MD. Some of the Il-76MD models were in Aeroflot’s colours and armed with automatic guns, and in Aeroflot’s colours, but armed with automatic guns and equipped against the ground-to-air and ground-to-air rockets. Helena? An arm’s length to the right from the gray cloud! Diligent exercises for observing airplanes, considerations, considerations, diligent exercises may vastly decrease the time spent on searching for an airplane. An airplane can appear in upper layers. A thumb’s length to the right from the church tower. Only silence can be heard. To understand, to understand that you have to run. Riddle me, riddle me! It is neither fast nor slow, it is loud but one can hear it only in silence, in one’s body, inside one’s head. First in one ear – a phantom; then in the other ear – deception, a whistle, battle scenes. From somewhere inside, from the head. Sound waves that keep gathering and gathering, until the body escapes the sound waves, the body starts to move faster, the speed should be at least 343 metres per second, 343 seconds through sound waves, diligent exercises take the body quickly through with a blast. There won’t be a blast without the movement of the body of one’s individual type. The body escapes the sound waves and the spiders started to weave a huge fabric for the body, a robe stronger than steel, but too slowly, so that goats were taken to help out, but even they turned out to be too slow and did not achieve the desired results. Helena was found in her room at home, weaving a purple carpet, enormously big, consisting two wide parts where battles have been beautifully knitted inside.“

Katrin Koskaru

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Katrin Koskaru

koskaru@gmail.com

Katrin Koskaru (1977) was born in Tartu. Currently living and working in Estonia. In 2013, Koskaru obtained MA degree in the art of painting in London Royal College of Art. Before that she acquired BA degree in the faculty of fine arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Among her recent personal exhibitions are „The Line of Little Figures“ in L'ahah #Moret gallery in Paris and „Go Hide! Go Hide!“ in the Monumental Gallery, Tartu. She has taken part in group exhibitions in KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn Art Hall, London and Paris. Katrin Koskaru has been inspired by the phenomena of war and the traces of war. The artist seeks for allusions and signs left by power and violence to human thinking and activities throughout history. She is interested in the ways and places these signs appear both in landscape and architecture.

14.10.- 01.11.

KRISTEN RäSTAS

The Caretaker

14.10.- 01.11.

KRISTEN RäSTAS

The Caretaker

Kristen Rästas‘s personal exhibition The Caretaker will be opened in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday, October 14, 2021. Exhibition will be open until November 1^st, 2021.

At his present exhibition, Kristen Rästas presents a VR artwork The Caretaker and sculptural landscapes which have been inspired by the visual forms of the main artwork. The fictional character, the Caretaker, has been named after its figurative position as the creator of the environment. The virtual, eternal landscape is something that the Caretaker tries to design according to the memories of the real world. The empirical journey tells about the desire to preserve and improve the surrounding, increasingly fragile and perceptible environments, while creating artificial visual out of the same environments. And sometimes, these may seem much more ideal and inviting than the real environment. The monologue that is made of the Caretaker’s memories, is slightly nostalgic and related to the surrounding landscape. The repetitiousness of audio clips, motionlessness of the environment and the interactive flying ability of the artwork viewer create an uncanny medium as a primary emotion through recognition of natural environment. One cannot be quite sure whether the viewer has been put in the Caretaker’s role or has the viewer been taken to a virtual-archeological exposition in the memories of someone unknown that at the same time have the effect of a collective memory while depicting universal natural forms and textures. Through his artwork, Kristen Rästas presents his vision about creating completely new artificial environments and contemporary landscape image as well as the various ways to experience and interpret these environments.

In order to achieve the maximum experience, the interactive virtual artwork needs to be viewed with VR headset and the viewer has to use the remote control. There is a 3D-world that the viewer can discover while hauntingly flying around on his or her own. It is a free platform without a linear beginning and an end. Every viewer continues where the last viewer has left his or her experience.

Artist’s gratitude to: Kelli Gedvil, Kennet Lekko, Simon Dalzell, Ian-Simon Märjama.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Kristen Rästas (1992) is an Estonian artist. He has graduated from the faculty of fine art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2019 (MA degree in contemporary art). Rästas has taken additional courses in the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and in Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK), School of Arts in Gent, Belgium. The artist has been participating in exhibitions since 2021 and he has held exhibitions in Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Iceland and Belgium. Rästas works as an interdisciplinary artist who involves painting, conceptualist art and various multimedia projects in his artwork. His recent artwork has studied virtual and artificial landscapes, digital errors and the general obscurity of being an artist. Kristen Rästas is one of the artists working under the pseudonym Robin Ellis Meta and co-founder of post-gallery.online online gallery. The artist lives and work in Berlin and Tallinn.

03.11.- 22.11.

UNO ROOSVALT

My Studio

03.11.- 22.11.

UNO ROOSVALT

My Studio

Uno Roosvalt‘s anniversary exhibition My Studio will be opened in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, November 3^rd, 2021. Exhibition will be open until November 22, 2021.

Uno Roosvalt turned 80 in August this year. Current exhibition comprising Roosvalt’s drawings is one way to celebrate this important landmark in the artist’s life. Uno tends to lead his life with a modest flow – and his loving gaze accompanies the various subjects of his artwork, whether it be Nordic nature, coastal landscapes, evergreen bushes or cats and dogs. And there have always been cats and dogs in the Roosvalt family’s home.

Artist’s studio is an artist’s home. It is the birthplace of the artist’s artwork. Even when the works leave the studio, there will be a memory of the space in the artworks as the space in the artist’s head where the creative ideas were born. Yearning for one’s studio is a part of every artwork’s charm. An artist needs a studio – it is a place where artists keep their tools, a place they can leave and return. Uno Roosvalt’s studio is located in Maarjamäe district, Tallinn. It is on the first floor of his home. A narrow staircase leads upstairs, and there are many artworks hanging on the walls (including those by Estonian art classics Eerik Haamer, Johannes Võerahansu, Evald Okas; and Uno Roosvalt’s contemporaries Marju Mutsu and Naima Neidre), including the artist’s own works from the earlier years of his artist’s practice.

The studio is old, Uno Roosvalt has worked here for many years. Despite its small size, the studio has no suffocating effect. All the paintings and drawings surrounding you in the studio seem to be like openings to the worlds that offer more space and expanse for being: coastal landscapes, views to the cliffs and from the cliffs in Iceland, Gotland, Åland; Estonian coasts with junipers, megaliths, boat wrecks, heaps of fishing nets, glass buoys. Even if the artist depicts people or an animal, there is always some open view in the background, whether some kind of landscape or a window overlooking the garden. Uno Roosvalt’s studio is like a space with numerous windows.

His newest series of drawings „My Studio“ has been completed in 2021 and has inspired the artist to give the exhibition the same title. The series depicts views of Roosvalt’s studio, including the things surrounding him every day, drawings and paintings. With his new series, the artist takes a retrospective approach while referring and quoting his own earlier artwork. Roosvalt has used similar quoting method before – for instance, in his drawing series exhibited in Draakon gallery in 2018 where the artist entertained himself with the familiar images known from Eduard Wiiralt’s graphic prints.

The warm humour on these drawings has been replaced by silent contemplation. One can see much more depicted than the artworks in Roosvalt’s studio. The studio is an artist’s real home and therefore Roosvalt has been also attracted by the themes of Jesus Christ, stories of his sufferings and the messages of joy. Uno Roosvalt’s father, church minister Albert Roosvalt, served in St. Lawrence Church in Kuusalu; and Uno Roosvalt’s mother (maiden name Liidia Volmer) graduated from the Tallinn Industrial Art School. The intellectual environment in his home has influenced Uno Roosvalt when growing up and becoming an artist, on a somewhat very elementary, essential level.

Uno Roosvalt’s studio is located on the upper floor of his home; the series „My Studio“ is exhibited on the main floor of Hobusepea gallery. When going downstairs to the lower ground of the gallery – a space that could refer to subconsciousness and the hidden – one can see heaps of nails. The series of drawings „Coast of Nails“ has been completed in 2012–2013. Nails follow the shapes appearing in nature – views to the sea horizon or meadows that have been always characteristic to Roosvalt’s work. Nails penetrate the entire earthly existence and our surroundings, whether from the crucifix or the firewood burnt to ash in the oven. These are the parts of Uno Roosvalt’s artist’s world, designiting both the earthly and the mental plane.

Sirja-Liisa Eelma

Curator of the exhibition: Sirja-Liisa Eelma.

Design: Kaarel Eelma.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Uno Roosvalt (1941) graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian State Art Institute in 1969. He started to participate in exhibitions already in 1968. He has held a long career as a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts where he was the head of the painting department in 1985–1995. Since 1975, Uno Roosvalt is a member of the Estonian Artists' Association and an honorary member since 2010. His extensive participation in exhibitions has brought him several art awards, including the Estonian Painters' Association Award (2000), Konrad Mägi Award (2011), Erik Haamer Art Award (2018) and Kristjan Raud Art Award (2019. Uno Roosvalt's artwork belongs to the collections of Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, Estonian Artists' Association and numerous private collections. For many decades, the recurring leitmotif in Uno Roosvalt's work has been nature and coastal landscapes, Nordic cliffs and mountains, and the related diverse textures and fields of meanings. Uno Roosvalt is well-known for his craftmanship in uniting the mental world view and the Nordic approach to landscape, resulting in an existential whole.

24.11.- 13.12.

KAISA MAASIK

Blow Hot and Cold

24.11.- 13.12.

KAISA MAASIK

Blow Hot and Cold

Kaisa Maasik‘s personal exhibition Blow Hot and Cold will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Wednesday, November 24. Exhibition will be open until December 13, 2021.

The saying „blow hot and cold“ expresses ambivalence, alternating between two states. In her artwork presented at the current exhibition, Kaisa Maasik examines depicting of (alternation of) emotions.

When it comes to languages, expressions about moods tend to involve opposite colours: for instance the saying „see red“ means the same as „turn blue with anger“ in Estonian, and yet, in both languages, one becomes „green with envy“. Various studies have also proved that human face is changing undertones depending on a specific emotion (Benitez-Quiroz, F., Srinivasan, R., Martinez, A. M. (2018) Facial color is an efficient mechanism to visually transmit emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.) When the mood swins, the blood circulation in facial skin subconsciously helps to express how we feel, while receiving mutually gentle signals from our communication partners.

At the current exhibition, a scheduled spectacle opens up in the form of vessels changing colours. Also, the subject of emoticons with similar pattern is brought up – specific colours are attributed to certain facial expressions. The kinetic cycle starts with water heaters while inviting the viewer to slow down and observe alternating shades. These static beings, frequently changing moods, become hot and cool down just like hinting at something.

The artist expresses her gratitude to : Andra Jõgi, Anne Eelmere, Astra Aavik, Benedikte Bjerre, Chih Tung Lin, Estonian Artists’ Association, Eve Koha, Fabrikken for Kunst og Design, Indrek Köster, Karel Koplimets, Merike Estna, Otto Varjust, the Maasik family, proloogkool, Tiiu Saadoja, Tõnu Narro.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Kaisa Maasik

+372 5396 2524
kaisamaasik@gmail.com
www.kaisamaasik.com

Kaisa Maasik (1994) is an artist and curator based in Tallinn. She has obtained MA degree in contemporary art, faculty of fine art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2021 where she also previously obtained a BA degree in 2017. In 2019, she was an exchange student in the Praxis curatorial Master's Programme at the University of the Arts Helsinki. Maasik values shared practices and working with techniques which expand into space. She has been a member of the Umbrella Group (2016–2017), a team member of the Tallinn Photomonth biennial (2017 and 2019) and has taken part in running Vent Space project space (2018–2019). Maasik was awarded the Wiiralt stipend in 2020.

2020

18.12.- 13.01.

HELENA KESKKüLA

Blossoms and Boogeymen, Telenovelas are Stupid

18.12.- 13.01.

HELENA KESKKüLA

Blossoms and Boogeymen, Telenovelas are Stupid

Helena Keskküla will open her personal exhibition Blossoms and Boogeymen, Telenovelas are Stupid in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, December 18, 2019. Exhibition will be open until January 13, 2020.

In her earlier artist practice, Helena Keskküla has repeatedly played with sentimentality combined with text and music, therefore having reached the genre of musical as a logical result. The artist is continuously interested in what happens when using songs, humour and plain language in order to speak about one’s fears. A musical film Choral Reeds, also called as a horror-musical, is the centerpiece of the present exhibition. The piece is about a creative person who is diagnosed with an unusual yet harmless physiological anomaly. Facing the symptoms creates psychological stress manifesting both in personal and professional spheres.

The artist expresses her gratitude to the filming team and actors: Judith Boeschoten, Lidewei Egbers, Clara Langlois, Renée van Zadelhoff, Kaspar Sellin, Pascalle Olthof, Juri de Wolf, Jan Koks, Chris Houle, Lin Hou Oei, Jaap Mar Diemel, Merlijn Willemsen, Camiel Povel, Jurriaan Kruithof, Freija Hogenboom, Willem Sluyterman van Loo, Clemens Stumpf, Mayra Soares, Jesse van den Broek, Jelle Haen, Jessica Matheson, Seoyoung Lee, Henrik Rakitin, Bo Kamphues, Franka Wisselink, Kate-Lyn Kendell Meistré, Villem Rootalu, Mirthe Bron, Joost Koster, Tatyana Shpadi, Asia Skupinska, Paul Schauenburg, Beatriz Lerer Ferreira, Lucien Easton, Juni Mun, Liis Rannamäe, Ketlin Virumäe, Helle Rimm, Liis Lulla, Anne Karu, Priit Veia, David Gibbs, Johanna Földesi.

Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Tungsten Studio, Oud Katholieke Kerk Haarlem, Car Casting Holland, friends and family.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Helena Keskküla is an Estonian artist who lives and works in Amsterdam. Her previous work centres around video, performance and installation. Humor, insecurities and failures play an important role in Keskküla's work, which she uses to speak about universal issues. She has graduated from the sculpture and installation department of the Estonian Academy of Arts, Gerrit Rietveld's VAV - moving image department, and Sandberg Institute's master's programme in fine arts. During the last three years, Kesküla has focused her practice on mythology and stone carving, while forging connections with performance and modern materials.

15.01.- 03.02.

LIINA SIIB

Huldufólk / Hidden People

15.01.- 03.02.

LIINA SIIB

Huldufólk / Hidden People

Liina Siib will open her personal exhibition Huldufólk / Hidden People in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, January 15th, 2019. Exhibition will be open until February 3rd, 2020.

The highlight of Liina Siib’s installation „Huldufólk“, located on both floors of the gallery, lies in the silent tragicomical piece composed by photographs, a tragicomedy with derived words, a silent film and a comic strip.

The tragicomic strip is set in winter, in the surroundings of the back door of a 24-hour food store in Reykjavik. The geographical location does not really matter here much more than perhaps recognizing larger fish crates, longer lasting nights, rapid change of weather and temperatures; depicted activities and related attributes can be found anywhere in the world. One can see single or several store workers smoking in front of the open back door either during the day or in the evenings while now and then re-organizing the towering heaps of crates in their limited territory.

At the end of the month, the scene will be changed by the crowd consisting people from Eastern European countries and other non-local individuals entering the “stage”, performing various cleaning work. Just like the store is open 24 hours a day, so the backyard of the store is never empty while those interested in the contents of the garbage bins keep coming and going. Everyone in this crowd seems to have his or her own role in the exchange and movement of the goods.

„Huldufolk“ means “hidden people” in Icelandic – these are supernatural beings who look and behave like normal people but have their own activities in their own parallel world. They can make themselves visible for humans who can see them through a colourful glass.

The photographic and film material has been collected in 2018 when the artist worked in the residency at The Steina and Woody Vasulka Archive at the National Gallery of Iceland.

The artist’s gratitude goes to: Vasulka Chamber at the National Gallery of Iceland, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Kristin Schewing, Ragnheidur Vignisdottir, Sandra Fritz, Terry Gunnell, Mark Fisher, Mánudjass, 10-11 food store in Reykjavik, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Corina Apostol, Rait Miltorp, Fred Reeds, Kaire Rannik, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar and Liis-Marleen Verilaskja.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Liina Siib has studied printmaking and photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Since 2015, she works as the head and professor in the department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In her artistic practice, Liina Siib uses the means of installation, photography and film. She is intrigued by various practices in people's everyday life and social space. Siib has held personal exhibitions in Estonia, Germany, Belgium, France, Sweden, Finland and Latvia. In 2011 her art project „Woman Takes Little Space“ represented Estonia at the 54th International Art Exhibition in Venice. Recently she has participated in the First Riga Biennial and held personal exhibition „Urban Symphony in E Minor I-II“ in Võru and Helsinki as well as „Politics of Paradise“ in Tallinn Art Hall (February-April, 2019).

06.02.- 23.02.

KIRKE KANGRO & SHERI WILLS

The Solemn Admonition of Your Breathing

06.02.- 23.02.

KIRKE KANGRO & SHERI WILLS

The Solemn Admonition of Your Breathing

Kirke Kangro and Sheri Wills will open their exhibition The Solemn Admonition of Your Breathing in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday, February 6th, 2020. Exhibition will be open until February 23rd, 2020.

Today as then I turn to stone
in your presence, sea,
but no longer feel worthy
of the solemn admonition of your breathing

Eugenio Montale

You look at the sea, and your substance begins to change. You look at it to look at something that’s not you. To implode and collapse. To be boundless, diverse and present. This view you could mount on a wall. To go back, to return in microscopic particles. Accelerating gaze, looking at the evading view.

The exhibition is carried by human imagination of an ancient, lasting, uninterrupted existence. Force of nature that is captivating in its wild independence. The title is a line from Eugenio Montale’s poem that presents a nostalgic view of an uncontrolled and curing nature. It’s an idea of a powerful agency that surrounds us, yet stays untouched by us, being able to cleanse itself. In the poem, the sea casts out all the “useless rubble”, inutili macerie. But our traces are everywhere. You need to measure the heartbeats of a mussel to recognize the unexpected impact of your rubble.

The installations deal with the pleasures of looking and the way they may evolve.
The gallery environment presents a view that the artists are trying to control.
Or are they trying to show something uncontrollable?

The artist’s gratitude goes to: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, TalTech Department of Marine Systems Basseinikatted Ltd, Riisipere Puit, Estonian Environment Agency, Rhode Island School of Design, Estonian Academy of Arts, Kai Künnis-Beres, Ivan Kuprijanov, Toivo Lehtmets, Ain Kilk, Tatiana Kuznetsova, Anastasiia Kovtun-Kante, Tanel Tätte, Hans Otto Ojaste, Maarja Kangro, Anna Magdaleena Kangro, Neeme Külm, Andrus Lauringson, Margit Säde, Madis Luik, Tarvo Varres

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Kirke Kangro works with installation, sculpture, video and performance, the results of which are clearly characterized by purified metaphors. In her installative artwork, Kangro uses minimalist and somewhat lyrical means to analyze the spatial situations and to make paradoxical outings. Her practice focuses on the language of conceptual materials and the construction of meaning – looking for the boundaries of human imagination and expanding on the universal ideas of the environment and existence. She has curated several international exhibitions and works as a professor and a dean of the faculty of fine arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Sheri Wills is an artist whose work is based in film, video performance, and installation. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including one-person shows at the Director’s Lounge in Berlin, the Robert Beck Memorial Cinema in NYC, and The International Experimental Cinema Exposition. Her films have been screened at venues including the London Film Festival, the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Estonian audience had the opportunity to see Sheri Wills' artwork at her personal exhibition What Does Light Remember? held in the basement gallery of Draakon gallery in 2018.

26.02.- 16.03.

CLOE JANCIS & MARIS KARJATSE

Meanwhile

26.02.- 16.03.

CLOE JANCIS & MARIS KARJATSE

Meanwhile

Cloe Jancis and Maris Karjatse will open their first co-exhibition Meanwhile at 6pm on Wednesday, February 26th, 2020. Exhibition will be open until March 16.

With their first collaboration project, artists Maris Karjatse and Cloe Jancis focus on objects related to human body as well as on the dynamics and tension developing between public and intimate space.
Through activating objects and materials as well as interpreting the communication of their inner and outer characteristics, the artists create artifacts with new meanings. The working process of Cloe Jancis and Maris Karjatse includes constant, if not continuous becoming something; endless transformation of form and representation; delay of the result; or even return to the beginning in order to proceed.

Maris Karjatse has been inspired by the principle of singularity and multiplicity while completing artworks for the current exposition. The artist’s theoretical source is Gilles Deleuze’s idea about losing the limitations between objects and thoughts as both are inseparable and without each other both would lose their transformative identity. The series of photographic objects “Sub Rosa” refers to process, unfinishedness, deterritorialization of an object, resistance of material and working with form. Her textual piece “Tekkst” compares text to a blanket and vice versa ‒ everything that a text / a blanket covers is most exposed and vulnerable. Both a text and a blanket are made of vibrant matter, including both suffocating danger and softening solace.

Cloe Jancis with her two-part work “Befitting Flesh” focuses on nude objects widely used in today’s make-up and fashion industry; objects that aim at matching one’s skin tone, at emphasizing the selected body parts as well as hiding the unwanted. The artist is intrigued by the phenomenon where the objects, that should blend in with the body and remain invisible, will boost as an artificial shell while conquering the body as an object. The piece “Befitting Flesh I” highlights items of clothing as a material in anticipation of filling and fulfilling ‒ a body and desiring gaze ‒ in order to realize. Video installation “Befitting Flesh II” rehearses fitting process through repetition while nullifying achieving the desired form.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

The artists give their gratitude to: Tõnu and Marie Karjatse, Kiki, Aksel Haagensen, Liina Siib, Marco Laimre, Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo and the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Madis Kaasik (Prototyping Lab at the Estonian Academy of Arts), Tarmo Rämmi (Digifoto), Pille Kraas (UBS Repro), Veiko Illiste (Deviis), Carl-Robert Kagge, Martin Buschmann, Aadu and Maara Lambot, Laura Cemin, Marge Monko, Kulla Laas, Kaupo Reisenbuk (Datel), Järsi LLC, Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Cloe Jancis (1992) lives and works in Tallinn. She has obtained BA degree in the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2018). Currently studying in the MA programme of contemporary art in the faculty of fine arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Cloe Jancis held personal exhibitions in 2019 - “Waiting For Eternity” in Draakon gallery and “Between You and This” in Haapsalu City Gallery. In 2019, her artwork “Waiting for Eternity” exhibited in Foto Tallinn art fair was selected to an international museum collection by Outset Eesti. Since 2020, Jancis is the member of Estonian Union of Photography Artists

Maris Karjatse (1976) lives and works in Tallinn. She has obtained BA degree in the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2017) and MA degree in English philology at Tallinn University (2002). Currently studying in the MA programme of contemporary art in the faculty of fine arts at Estonian Academy of Arts. Her personal exhibition “Mother's not Home” was held in Draakon gallery in 2018. The artist has participated in several group exhibitions (“Not Really” with Umbrella Group, ARS Project Space, 2017; “Confusion” with Umbrella Group, Contemporary Art Museum Estonia, 2016 and others).

20.05.- 29.06.

MANFRED DUBOV

Revellers in the Dark

20.05.- 29.06.

MANFRED DUBOV

Revellers in the Dark

Manfred Dubov‘s personal exhibition Revellers in the Dark will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Wednesday, May 20th, 2020 and will stay open until June 29th. With his current exhibition, the artist asks whether it is possible to be happy during the difficult times, in the middle of a catastrophe?

Catastrophes and happiness may happen both on a personal and global level. One way of being joyful is not having to worry about the essentials. A catastrophe can be defined as a larger amount of problems and lack of resources for coping with the situation. Self-realization is possible only when basic needs are guaranteed. Thus, we can call ourselves happy when we don’t have to be concerned about the essentials. Even during the pandemic-free period our basic needs can be perceived – what is vital and what’s not. At first glance, the theme of the exhibition may seem dead serious, but the paintings on display are rather humorous and introspective in nature.

Revellers in the Dark places the characters in a darkened space where they seem to be glowing. The character of The Arriver seems to be burnt – the surrounding blotches of paint or flashes of light as well as the distorted space refer to flames. The Descender/Ascender is smiling despite the hellish surroundings and the physical deterioration of the character’s body, while being able to exit the space. The sky above the character is bright and full of sunshine, and there is a future perspective even in death. I Come from Several Places at Once refers to a group of exhausted characters who have gathered in difficult conditions and who will move on together. The Traveller is a vague character, searching for an anchor in a wasteland while probably being also the one providing support.

Manfred Dubov

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Manfred Dubov (1986) is an artist and medical worker who works mainly in oil paint mediums. In his artist's practice, he studies interconnections between's one's inner world, the body and one's living environment. Throughout the years, Dubov has held numerous personal and group exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. One of his most extensive art projects was I Come from Several Places at Once in the form of personal exhibitions held in 2008–2018. In 2016, Dubov's book Today Everything Will Be Found was published that was nominated to Betti Alver Literary Award and the annual award for poetry by Värske Rõhk. Dubov is currently working on his next series of paintings, Revelleres in the drak, which focuses on the connections between suffering and happiness. Besides his artist's practice, Manfred Dubov also works as a nurse of intensive. www.manfreddubov.com

01.07.- 03.08.

ESTONIAN FASHION DESIGNERS' UNION

From the Roots

01.07.- 03.08.

ESTONIAN FASHION DESIGNERS' UNION

From the Roots

The annual exhibition From the Roots of the Estonian Fashion Designers’ Union will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Wednesday, July 1st 2020. Exhibition will be open until August 3rd.

At the present exhibition former clothing culture meets contemporary fashion design. Through innovative working methods and modern solutions, fashion designers express respect towards their origin, beauty ideals of various generations as well as the phenomenon of continuity.

In their creative process, the participating artists have been most inspired by a clothing item or an everyday object that has belonged to the artist’s close family member. The artists have been influenced by the activities, rituals and clothing of their relatives dating back to the artists’ childhood – while now analyzing the aspects connecting or disconnecting them to the individuals related to their memories. Participating artists have chosen the old photographs, letters and everyday items that have deeply influenced them and these are now on display for the exhibition viewers who can thus test the strength of their so-called genetic code and contemplate on the inevitability of one’s roots. Every exhibited piece is equipped with an explanatory text and the portraits of both the artists and the close relatives who have inspired them.

Participating artists: Ainikki Eiskop, Anu Hint, Anu Ling, Anne Metsis, Astri Müül, Diana Denissova, Eve Tiidolepp, Ilona Tamm, Joan Hint, Kai Saar, Katre Arula, Kärt Karjatse, Küllike Tuvikene, Külli Kerttu Siplane, Liivika Põvat-Straus, Merle Lõhmus, Piret Kuresaar, Thea Pilvet Martinson, Tiia Orgna.

Organizer of the exhibition: Estonian Fashion Designers’ Union
Exhibition design: Anu Hint
Supporters: Estonian Artists’ Association
Publications: MinuPrint

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

05.08.- 31.08.

LYLIAN MEISTER

Treasure Island

05.08.- 31.08.

LYLIAN MEISTER

Treasure Island

Lylian Meister‘s personal exhibition Treasure Island will be opened in Hobusepea gallery at 5pm on Wednesday, August 5, 2020. Exhibition will be open until August 31st, 2020.

Lylian Meister comments on her present exhibition as follows:
Treasure Island is an exhibition about restlessness, yearning, searching, journeys and in a way meaningless desires. Eclectic and colourful, composed with lightness.
I was working on the exhibition as an amateur anthropologist, researching myself. I simply took paintings off the walls of my bedroom and brought these together with my other domestic things to my gallery for one month. I contemplated on my personal Odyssey and Penelopeia. I stitched and glued roses in order to share my secrets below these. I drew a new continent on the globe with borrowed pencils. I did what I wanted.

I went to the sea in the island of Muhu,
The blacksmith of Sõrve peninsula offered me sauna,
And I wove fabric in Kerala.

I floated as a Great Mother on water. The salty sea was around me and instead of blood there was sugar floating in my veins. I wept and sugar crystals sank to the ground as pearls. Life like a shipwreck! The pirates of Suuremõisa Castle threw me a lifebuoy, gave me the keys to the treasury and caused me nightmares at night. Their castle has double ceiling and the whole island is not real. Hiiumaa is a continent that rises from water on a full-moon night once a century. On my birthday. I receive as many presents as I can carry, yet nothing belongs to me … not even my lover … . I am living a double life with double standards.

Medusa’s snakes are reborn while guarding my great treasure on the continent. When is the moment when another person’s artwork is reborn and becomes mine? Is it enought when I have added a third eye to a cross-stitched cat and decorated every spot with my initials? I am a sugar-blooded thief. I want to obtain and win! Every evening I gamble myself away in order to win. When does one become a property of another? My lover says: „You cannot appreciate your game partners.“ He has not decided yet for what he wants to trade me.

Residents of Hiiumaa island buy me off. They know all the winds and they have a boat in every harbour. The wind turns, I’ve got navigational charts, my father’s compass and my grandpa’s pocket watch. Treasure hunt is but a pretext; what I want is a journey that would hit and amaze me. I will get myself back in a hundred years if I can carry the present ashore. In Hiiu Shoal, human years start to go backwards.

According to poet Ilmar Laaban, „the end of an anchor chain is a beginning of a song …“.

Present exhibition involves collaborators: Katarina Meister – paintings, Father Imanta (Imanta Lember from Sõru parish, Hiiumaa island) – ironworks; Kristel Kaerma – details, crocheted snake; Aet Randorg – patchwork quilt; and many unknown authors.

I wish to express my gratitude to: Tarmo Rajangu, resident of Hiiumaa island, who allowed me to explore his shed full of treasures; Kaido Lember, resident of Sõru parish, Hiiumaa island, and his wife Velda Lainoja who borrowed me Father Imanta’s creative heritage; Mall Tamberg who completed most of the needleworks; Vasudevan and Tasara Art Centre in India where threads were dyed and cotton textiles were woven according to my designs; Marko Nautras who helped to complete the photographs; Mika Orav who allowed me to use his personal estate; Hiiumaa Vocational School and Suuremõisa Castle non-profit association for their extensive support; Kristel Kaerma, Einar Keskpaik and Volli Lainoja for their assistance and inspiration.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Lylian Meister (1966) has graduated from the department of textile art at Estonian Academy of Arts in 1989. After that she shortly studied cultural history in the Estonian Institute of Humanities. Meister has graduated from Räpina Gardening School as a landscape gardener in 2009 and obtained MA degree in agricultural sciences as a gardener at the Estonian University of Life Sciences in 2020. Lylian Meister has worked as a designer in ARS art products' cooperative; as a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts; as a dean and Vice Rector in the faculty of design at the Estonian Academy of Arts; as an editor in design magazines „Deko“, „Kodukolle“ and „101 Ideed“; and as a freelance artist. She is currently working as a head lecturer of gardening in Hiiumaa Vocational School and member of the board of Tori Jaam non-profit organization. Her artwork has been exhibited in Estonia, Baltic States, Nordic countries, Russia, Hungary, Iceland and London. Meister has designed several projects of gardening, landscape and interior design. In addition she has worked in Tasara weaving centre in India; in the collective studio of Stockholm artists and in the guest studio in Loviisa, Finland. Meister is a member of the Estonian Artists' Association and Estonian Textile Artists' Association.

02.09.- 21.09.

ULVI HAAGENSEN

Thea Koristaja Museum

02.09.- 21.09.

ULVI HAAGENSEN

Thea Koristaja Museum

Ulvi Haagensen’s solo exhibition Thea Koristaja Museum at Hobusepea Gallery opens on Wednesday, 2 September 2020 at 6pm. The exhibition is open until 21 September, 2020.

“Welcome to our place”, says Thea Koristaja, as she opens the door and indicates for us to enter an exhibition that explores the connections between art and everyday life. Thea Koristaja is an imaginary person, an artist, and a cleaner and this is her museum. Together with two other imaginary artists, known as Olive Puuvill and Loome Uurija, she works with Ulvi Haagensen, who is quite real, to explore how art and life can meet, converge, overlap and sometimes clash.

The exhibition uses the upstairs and downstairs of the gallery to present two different contexts – the exhibition space and the studio. Upstairs is clean and tidy, not dissimilar to a living room or hallway in a home – after all, we want to make a good impression, don’t we? But the real action of everyday life may in fact take place somewhere else, in the kitchen, the laundry, in front of the telly, in the everyday, when the visitors aren’t visiting. Downstairs is the cluttered, untidy workspace. This is where Haagensen and her imaginary team discover the unexpected as they push the familiar into new territory. A discarded greeny-blue Värska mineral water bottle, new and recycled timber, a length of rusted steel, wool and cotton yarns in a myriad of colours – all start to find a persona or a potential they never knew they had. Is it possible, here in the studio, to see the most exciting part, the magic of making, the moment when the thing emerges as a thing? Or is that something that takes place in the artist’s mind and can’t be shared?

Exhibitions at Hobusepea Gallery are supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Ulvi Haagensen was born in Sydney, Australia, but has been living, working and teaching in Tallinn for many years. She studied at City Art Institute in Sydney (BA) and College of Fine Art, University of New South Wales (MFA) and is currently doing her PhD at the Estonian Academy of Arts researching the connections and overlap between art and everyday life, as seen through the eyes of an artist, for whom art, work and everyday life are closely interwoven. 2018–2019 she spent a year as Artist-in-Residence and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Sydney. She has had solo exhibitions in Estonia, Australia, Sweden and Lithuania.

24.09.- 12.10.

ANGELA SOOP

War and Peace I

24.09.- 12.10.

ANGELA SOOP

War and Peace I

Angela Soop‘s personal exhibition War and Peace I will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Thursday, September 24th, 2020. Exhibition will be open until October 12, 2020.

There is no war, yet someone hurts my heart every day.
Madis Kõiv

Angela Soop: “Current exhibition serves as the first one from the cycle consisting of four parts. The cycle arises and changes according to the surrounding and inner state. The meanings of the words “war” and “peace” depend on the ways of interpretation and the context. While preparing for this exhibition I was unable to foresee the situation today. Concepts have become more reverse, yet the lights seem to have turned down a bit. Borders become vague, volumes coincide and transform. The exhibition is based on perceiving the states and observing various influencing factors. In one case the focus lies on status and the other case concentrates on activity.
Strong contrasts and soft lights, sharp corners and round reflections, great words or silence – the connection will be made in any case. While navigating inside oneself and solving the areas of conflict, it is possible to win time and space in order to survive. The exhibition is not a statement but an opportunity for being.”

The artist expresses her gratitude to: Hans-Otto Ojaste, Maiu Mooses, ARS Art Factory, Vaba Lava, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Siim Soop, Lea Tammik, Ra Sun.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Angela Soop (Kaili-Angela Konno) has graduated from the department of painting at Estonian Academy of Arts in 1999 and obtained MA degree in art education at Estonian Academy of Arts in 2018. She has been participating in exhibitions since 1997. Angela Soop teaches painting, drawing and composition in Kose Art School and is an art teacher in Kohila Manor School. Besides teaching Angela Soop is a practising artist in several fields, including drawing, painting, photography, site-specific installation and designing exhibitions and TV studios. In Estonian Public Broadcasting, Angela Soop has created designs for several TV programmes such as „Aktuaalne Kaamera“, „Välisilm“, „Terevisioon“, „Plekktrumm“ etc. She has been twice awarded with the Best Artist Prize by the Estonian Public Broadcasting. In 2015, the artist's piece was selected among the outstanding works at the 5th Tallinn International Drawing Triennial „Black and White“. As an artist, Angela Soop has mainly used the means of painting and drawing. For years, she has recycled and interpreted various materials such as corroded metal plates, brushed wood and plywood plates, fabric and home textiles.

14.10.- 02.11.

AUGUST SAI

Paint Story

14.10.- 02.11.

AUGUST SAI

Paint Story

August Sai‘s personal exhibition Paint Story will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Wednesday, October 14, 2020. Exhibition will stay open until November 2nd, 2020.

Once upon a time, chunks of ice lived on a faraway planet. On a hot and sunny day, they started to crack and melt. Five chunks of ice saw the opportunity for an adventure during the changes. They drifted apart from others in the sea of ice and headed for the seven seas to search for happiness.

However, halfway during their trip the chunks of ice started to crack. One of the chunks got frightened and turned around. Four chunks fearlessly continued their journey and melted. But it turned out that nothing terrible happened. The chunks became a part of the sea and this gave them new powers. They started to discover the expanse of the sea while diving deep to the sea floor and rising as foamy waves on the shore. All this was exhausting for them so they took a peaceful nap under the sun.

When waking up, they realized with terror that they were floating in the air and rising in the form of vapour above the sea. One of the chunks did not dare to take off and remained in the sea. Three chunks went up to the sky and became a cloud. After all, it was quite fine to be a cloud and to be flown around by the wind. They flew above mountains, deserts and forests. But before they grew tired of being a cloud, a sudden rumble could be heard. The cloud started to shake and grew thicker and thicker. A lightning struck. The chunks hidden in the cloud were startled and began shivering even more. One chunk of ice did not dare to let go of the cloud and squeezed it so that two chunks became rain and poured down from the sky at an enormous speed, followed by the orchestra of an echoing rumble and the bright lightnings. They dashed down until they crashed something immense and unknown. Everything all around was filled with silence and darkness.

At the same time, the situation at the sea of ice was heated up since the chunks of ice that had remained were quarreling with each other. Some of them were looking for the reasons behind their trouble in the seagulls flying by and in the waves arriving from the faraway countries. The chunks evil-mindedly terrorized other chunks with the flocks of seagulls and tsunamis. Despite the fact that seagulls prefer to gather on dumping grounds. And tsunamis normally won’t arise without a reason but due to the earthquakes taking place in the deep sea. It is so deep down that no chunk of ice wouldn’t bother taking a look at it, since the chunks are already filled with water because of staying put and hiding their cracks.

When the chunks of ice that rained down from the cloud finally recovered, they found themselves floating above the ground between trees. They had turned into fog. One of the chunks didn’t want to be fog and vaporized back to a cloud. The last existing chunk of ice was floating as fog in a shady forest. It hugged the tree trunks and moistened the moss until it arrived at a sunny clearing and fell down as drops to the ground. The earth swallowed the chunk that had turned into water. There was silence and peace in the deep inside of its dark bosom. Suddenly everything the ground started to shake around the chunk. A rapid stream grabbed hold of the chunk and dragged it along. The chunk was surrounded by the babbling and deafening sound. The stream twirled and squeezed the chunk while pushing it up and down, to the right and left and throwing it out to bright light from total darkness. Now the chunk had become a fierce river on the ground. Having flown with foam for quite some time, the river’s flow grew slower – it had reached the sea.

It noticed the chunk of ice in the sea that had left behind from others, but the chunk didn’t recognize the river. Then the chunk in the river saw the chunk of ice floating in the sky as a cloud and the fog that thought it was a cloud – and together they held tight to each other while squeezing tears out of the cloud. But they didn’t recognize the river as well. The chunk in the river realized that even those chunks who had left behind in the sea of ice remained strangers. They won’t know that all of them are everything at the same time – the sea, the clouds, the rain and the fog, the rivers and the lakes, and also the characters of a fairy tale. That’s the end of the story. If you wish to continue the adventure then choose to GO TO THE EXHIBITION!

Paint Story is an exhibition about paint that cannot stand still. While searching for the new ways of self-expression for the painting, paint is changing its form and testing the limits of its abilities. The fairy tale ends and the adventure continues.

August Sai

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

04.11.- 23.11.

ART ALLMÄGI & KEIU VIRRO

His Dreams were Nothing Remarkable

04.11.- 23.11.

ART ALLMÄGI & KEIU VIRRO

His Dreams were Nothing Remarkable

Exhibition His Dreams were Nothing Remarkable by Art Allmägi and Keiu Virro will be open in Hobusepea gallery since Wednesday, November 4th, 2020. Exhibition will be open until November 23rd, 2020.

Early this year, Art Allmägi made an inventory of his artwork. Different exhibitions have included numerous sculptures and installations which have no extra function, unlike the artwork produced for public space. Among them are the sculptures exhibited in his personal exhibition “I Had a Dream Last Night” in Hobusepea gallery in 2012. Actually, these sculptures should have been stayed in a storage. Not because of damage by mice nor the battered beds but because of the controversial content of the dreams that Art has described beside the sculptures.

Hence, if there is something under question that perhaps it should not exist, Art’s artistic vision is mainly as follows: it should! If someone says that men with guns in art should be already left behind as history, Art makes six of them (“Paint it Black”) and shows the pieces several times.

The exhibition “I Had a Dream Last Night” included insane descriptions about dreams where several men approach Art with indecent proposals. Alas, these texts have started to remind of the fear of homosexuality, the topic that our government members seriously tend to discuss these days. Now it felt necessary to overview these texts. However, how to stay away from the situation that these won’t become a part of bulk of texts recreating negative approach? What if Art would sincerely rewrite these dreams, would these have the same impact on the spectator? It is not only the question of being, but also of seeming. Classics.

So it happened that Art Allmägi called someone who seemed trustworthy enough and seems to be the opposite of the meaning of his original texts. Journalists (as “social influencers”, thought Art by himself) think and write on these subjects. Art called Keiu Virro asking her to rewrite his texts. While being skeptical about influence, optimistic about Art’s ideas and having not seen the devastation by mice yet, Keiu said “yes”.

Thanks to: Anette Parksepp, Mari-Liis Vind, Alo Allmägi, Taivo Timmusk, Kristi Kongi, Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The exhibitions in Hobusepea Gallery are supported by Estonian Clutural Endowment, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

ART ALLMÄGI is an installation artist with the degree in sculpture art. In his works he likes to flirt with the elements of pop, kitsch and architecture, using the classical approach towards sculpture in a contemporary way. His narrative method of telling the stories often touches socially and politically delicate subjects.

Keiu Virro is cultural journalist, she has worked in several publications including Müürileht, in Estonian Public Broadcasting, Eesti Päevaleht and contributed to cultural publications Sirp, Vikerkaar, Teater.Muusika.Kino and Looming. She often studies the topics of equality, sexuality and minorities.

25.11.- 14.12.

BRITTA BENNO

Ruinenlust in Lasnamäe

25.11.- 14.12.

BRITTA BENNO

Ruinenlust in Lasnamäe

Britta Benno‘s personal exhibition Ruinenlust in Lasnamäe will be open in Hobusepea gallery since Wednesday, November 25th, 2020. Exhibition will be open until December 14, 2020.

When waking up from a lunch-time nap, it had transformed to a gigantic future dinosaur that no one had ever seen before. One can imagine the soaked bulks of houses thrown on a hillocky landscape behind the fog. These are the ruins of concrete panel houses that have luckily survived in a spot that once was called Lasnamäe.

The cuboids had no windows nor doors, darkness smirked its toothless grin behind the cavities. And yet, there was no emptiness there – new life had moved in Lasnamäe. Creatures like the dinosaur were living there – huge, miraculous animals whose ancestors originated from the Anthropocene.

Ruinenlust in Lasnamäe is a science fictional prospective to post-human urban landscape where jungle and mountaneous terrain with the future creatures have taken over the ruins of a former bedroom community. Pleasure of looking at the ruins, Ruinenlust, is projected to the district of Lasnamäe that has lost the heavy burden of meanings. The message has been expressed through the models of houses characteristic to Lasnamäe have been used in puppet animation as well as the etching drawings that look like findings from an ancient civilisation.

Marginal and old-time arts, printmaking and stereoscopic puppet animation accompanied by harpsichord music form a staged installation. Concern about the dystopian state of our environment motivates to imagine the post-human future. Hybrid art and layered combination becomes the tool of such imagination and depiction.

Current exhibition also serves as Britta Benno’s second peer-reviewed creative output of her studies in the Doctoral School at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In her artistic research, Benno concentrates on depicting science fictional landscape in the extended field of drawing and printmaking.

Benno’s last pop-up exhibition Of Becoming a Shape of a Land(Scape) was completed during a residency in Iceland and was opened for a few days in Outver gallery, Iceland. In Tallinn the same exhibition project, titled as Once I Had, was held together with Heather Beardsley in Kraam Project Room in the autumn of 2019. The most prominent personal exhibition Dystopic Tallinn was open in Tallinn Art Hall gallery in the summer of 2019.

The artist expresses her gratitude to: Ragnar Neljandi (cameraman, animator, post-production), Heigo Eeriksoo (puppet master), Mait Eerik (prop master), Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Nukufilm LLC.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Britta Benno (1984) is an artist mainly working with drawing and printmaking, she lives and works in Tallinn. She is intrigued by various hybrid techniques and materials as well as the new perspectives that start to emerge when juxtapose and combine the abovementioned techniques and materials. Benno's exhibitions of the past few years function as a series while depicting post-human urban landscapes. Conceptual keywords are: memory, power, fugacity of meanings (ruins), visualisation (worlding), mental tools of a graphic artist (layered thinking) and posthumanist philosophy. Benno's last pop-up exhibition Of Becoming a Shape of a Land(Scape) was completed during a residency in Iceland and was opened for a few days in Outver gallery, Iceland. In Tallinn the same exhibition project, titled as Once I Had, was held together with Heather Beardsley in Kraam Project Room in the autumn of 2019. The most prominent personal exhibition Dystopic Tallinn was open in Tallinn Art Hall gallery in the summer of 2019.

2019

20.12.- 14.01.

MADIS KURSS

Chassis

20.12.- 14.01.

MADIS KURSS

Chassis

Madis Kurss (1985) will open his personal exhibition Chassis in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday, December 20th, 2018. Exhibition will be open until January 14th, 2019.

„The high wore away, the chromed skeleton corroding hourly, flesh growing solid, the drug-flesh replaced with the meat of his life. He couldn’t think. He liked that very much, to be conscious and unable to think. He seemed to become each thing he saw: a park bench, a cloud of white moths around an antique streetlight, a robot gardener striped diagonally with black and yellow. ”

William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

Roomba was one of the first mass-produced autonomous robots that was initially designed for cleaning floors but that soon connected itself to the Web, mapped living spaces and recorded habits while becoming more and more effective. The data had no restrictions; yet, it had to be processed. Consciousness extending within digital space enabled this, in the beginning. For a few days. Then, everything biological got in the way. The body left the impression of serving as a seat heater for the next driver. Monuments cumulated under the sand for the recollections of form, evolution became introvert.

Through the works of his current exhibition, Madis Kurss contemplates the desires of perfect technology and the paradox accompanying it – technology’s ability to solve various problems equals to its ability to destroy everything that surrounds us.
Madis Kurss has studied information technology in Tallinn Polytechnic School, photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and currently obtains MA degree in contemporary arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
The artist uses his artwork as an opportunity to describe the undescribable while guiding the viewer closer to a solid experience through his work. According to the artist, the synthesized visual or sound facilitates to create better contact between the original idea and the completed artwork whereas the dimension of humanity decreases in the synthesis – which is why the importance lies in seemingly random details in Kurss’s work.

Thanks to: Keiu Maasik, Tõnis Kurss, Viktor Gurov, department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts, department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Eventech.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

16.01.- 04.02.

LIISA KRUUSMäGI

Soda Pop

16.01.- 04.02.

LIISA KRUUSMäGI

Soda Pop

Liisa Kruusmägi (1988) will open her personal exhibition Soda Pop on Asphalt in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, January 16th 2019.

As a part of the exhibition, the gallery hour will take place at 5pm on Friday on January 18th, held by Marjam Tamm and Laura Linna, MA students of art teacher programme at Tallinn University and Estonian Academy of Arts.

The bohemian aesthetics of disorder and the cozy irregularity are expressed in Kruusmägi’s work. Among the motifs the artist has used there are plants, books, musical instruments, mirrors, wine glasses, other miscellaneous objects, cats, dogs and snakes. Chaotic heaps of clothes in her homes where the the artist has been living during the different phases of her life. An observant viewer can also detect autobiographical references on the depicted walls in Kruusmägi’s work. On closer inspection it turns out that the artist has painted her earlier work in her paintings. The motif of constructing a home is important for Kruusmägi namely for the intimacy of atmosphere where the dense text of objects and people are formed.

Exhibited paintings can be divided into two categories of existence. First, there is the lazy girl syndrome expressed through the self-observation and contemplations of melancholy, dreaming young women. These characters are introvert model consumers and neoliberal paragon-hipsters of the „bloom boy and young girl“ era. Secondly, there are two-dimensional surfaces of details and miniature objects that lack spatiality. This raises the question whether the result reminds more of textile design or materialized elements of disordered thoughts. In other words, this looks like a blend of the popular theme of lifestyle bloggers „What’s in my bag?“ and the semiotic concept of umwelt by biologist Jakob von Uexküll.

Kruusmägi’s working method can be described by fast drawing, depiction of impulsive emotions and mood as well as painting large motifs while emphasizing the influence of colour in her work. Liisa Kruusmägi is definitely an artist with an established individual style, characterized by the rapidly propagating line that extends to various images: sneakers, wall and computer screens, thus referring to the various modalities of art consumption. The cognitive naivety of the artist is expressed rather in the emotional act of participation than conceptually.

Liisa Kruusmägi’s work comprises thematic contradictions – her visual language is cartoon-like and two-dimensional, yet idealistic and enchanting. On one hand we can see something idyllic and cozy, on the other hand her work conveys escapism and melancholy. Such chaotic inner landscapes characterize not only Kruusmägi but the whole generation where she belongs.

Madli Ehasalu

Thank you: Eva-Erle Lillead.

Exhibition will be open until February 4th, 2019.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and fritz-cola.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Liisa Kruusmägi was born in Tallinn in 1988. She has obtained BA degree in the department of painting and MA degree in drawing at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2013. Kruusmägi has taken additional courses in Rhode Island School of Design and participated in residence programmes in James Black Gallery (Vancouver), AIRY and Yosuga (Japan) and Kitokia Grafika risograph studio (Lithuania). She has held personal exhibitions in Portugal, Sweden, Canada, Japan, USA, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany and Estonia. She has participated in group exhibitions in London, Berlin, Slovakia, Italy, Finland and Russia. Liisa Kruusmägi is a freelance artist who mostly uses painting and drawing and works as an illustrator. She is a member of the Estonian Artists' Association since 2013.

07.02.- 25.02.

URMAS LüüS

Mortal Kombat 2: afterglow

07.02.- 25.02.

URMAS LüüS

Mortal Kombat 2: afterglow

From February 7th the exhibition Mortal Kombat 2: afterglow by Urmas Lüüs will be open at the Hobusepea gallery and will remain until 25 February.
You are invited to the opening of the exhibition on February 14 from 5pm to 7pm in Hobusepea gallery and from 5pm to 6pm in the Cellar Hall of Kanuti Gildi SAAL. Performative installation in Kanuti Gildi SAAL (entrance from Pühavaimu Str. 5) is open just for one night.

Urmas Lüüs: “When my exhibition Mortal Kombat: LOVE (2016, HOP gallery) dealt with the more tempestuous parts of the emotional experience of ending a relationship, then Mortal Kombat 2: afterglow is a reflection on those ripples that still occasionally disturb the calmed surface after years gone by. Arguably, the sound wave from the Big Bang is still reverberating somewhere in the universe.

Through my creative practice I seek answers to various questions. Does an object have an inherent ability to be performative? How do people experience the same artwork in different and oppositional settings (the white cube and the black box) and how do these contrasting settings affect the reception of the piece with similar logic? How to design an exhibition space that focuses on the sole thing that is not exhibited? What are the possibilities and potentials of the traditional material-oriented skills in the field of conceptual art? Why has love, faith and the common ground that we share with 7.7 billion people become a greater taboo than sexuality, religion and politics? How to forget common knowledge to rethink the quotidian? How to convey the human condition by rendering everyday objects celibate and placing them in a poetic frame of reference? How can a physical object speak to us about the nonmaterial more effectively than words?”

Homepage: urmasluus.com
Instagram: byurmaslyys

Exhibition is supported by: Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Eesti KultuurkapitalTechnical solutions: Taavi Suisalu, Sigrid Kuusk, Valdek Laur, Hans-Otto Ojaste

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Urmas Lüüs is an Estonian artist who combines installation, performance, craft, sound art, video, tools of visual theatre, text, photography and sculpture. His main topics of interest include object-space relations and the performative quality of an object. He likes to explore the grey areas between the black box and the white cube. Urmas Lüüs has acquired BA and MA degrees at the Estonian Academy of Arts in the field of blacksmithing and complemented that with the course Iron and Steel: Design in Public Space at the University of Gothenburg HDK Steneby College. He has worked in the studio of Ruudt Peters and currently works in his studio in the Hobusepea Street in Tallinn. Since 2015 he is a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts in the field of jewellery and blacksmithing. He has been a guest lecturer in the Chinese Academy of Arts, Hiko Mizuno College of Jewellery in Japan and University of Silpakorn in Thailand. His works have been exhibited in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, China, Italy, Israel, Ireland and Australia. He has published theoretical articles in Sirp, KUNST.EE, Müürileht, ERR Kultuuriportaal and Art Jewelry Forum (USA).

27.02.- 18.03.

LILLI-KRõõT REPNAU & HELEN TAGO

Dark Matter

27.02.- 18.03.

LILLI-KRõõT REPNAU & HELEN TAGO

Dark Matter

Lilli-Krõõt Repnau and Helen Tago will open their co-exhibition Dark Matter in Hobusepea gallery at 6om on Wednesday, February 27th, 2019.

Current exhibition by Lilli-Krõõt Repnau and Helen Tago focuses on a specific space-time in a gallery environment. This is a three-dimensional site-specific graphic installation that through the concept of dark matter analyzes the constantly changing, irrational world. Present exposition serves as a dialogue between two artists, primarily made by fragile and ephemeral objects. In order to perceive an environment, one has to create a world of one’s own and to contemplate these initial elements through simplified schemes of perception in a specific gallery space.

Ernst Öpik has stated: „Material objects come into being, disappear and arise again. This is the rhythm of the physical world that controls everything that cannot be measured, weighed or timed. Yet, there is something inside of us that has no measure nor weight: our consciousness, that „self” that is similar to all other „selves” and yet different in each individual. Isn’t this the drop of the Consciousness of the Big Space or an atom? The only existence of our knowledge, the primary reality that we never have doubts for; our only gate and window through which we perceive the world.”.

Exhibition will be open until March 18, 2019.

Thank you for your support: graafika.ee, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Zelluloos paper shop, Toomas Tago, Janno Mullaste, Ülle Repnau, Kaija Kesa, Marily Piirsalu.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Lilli-Krõõt Repnau & Helen Tago have both studied printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Repnau and Tago together with their kindred spirits have gathered under an umbrella platform called graafika.ee that aims at promoting and defining contemporary printmaking through making exhibitions, holding workshops and talk nights as well as writing articles.

20.03.- 08.04.

MARCO LAIMRE

A.S.T.A. blind playthrough

20.03.- 08.04.

MARCO LAIMRE

A.S.T.A. blind playthrough

10.04.- 29.04.

EVE KIILER

The Old and New Neighbours

10.04.- 29.04.

EVE KIILER

The Old and New Neighbours

Eve Kiiler will open her personal exhibition The Old and New Neighbours in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, April 10th, 2019.

As a photo artist, Kiiler studies the subject of public space while observing changes in an urban environment or visitors in museums and art institutions.
The photography series The Old and New Neighbours juxtaposes residential districts in Tallinn and Riga – districts that have symbolized new ideals when these were built. However, these are not commercial representative portraits of architectural photography. The artist has searched for characteristic details in everyday living environments that are away from the historical buildings; thus, these are usually left unnoticed and considered not enough attractive for recording. Objective imagery has met subjective selection of frames. Kiiler’s photography series guides the viewer through the details that reflect the changing of neighbourhoods during habitation, resulting in forming the appearance of public urban space. Next to the seemingly tranquil state we can notice layers of different eras, creating more or less intense surrealistic contrasts.

Exhibition will be open until April 29, 2019.

Thanks to: Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School of Tallinn University; Margot Kask.

Supported by: the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA).

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Eve Kiiler is a photo artist, curator, and lecturer. She has been one of the most influential developers and promoters of photography as an artistic medium in Estonia. Kiiler has graduated from the faculty of interior architecture at the Estonian State Art Institute (now Estonian Academy of Arts) in 1986 and obtained a MA degree in culture theory at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2003.

03.05.- 20.05.

MIHKEL MARIPUU

Ex Nihilo

03.05.- 20.05.

MIHKEL MARIPUU

Ex Nihilo

Mihkel MAripuu will open his personal exhibition Ex Nihilo in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Friday, May 3rd 2019.

With the current exhibition Ex Nihilo, the artist observes how technology adapts to everyday consciousness (or vice versa) while influencing the development of contemporary visual language. The exhibition challenges the principles that are expected and valid on today’s society and emphasizes important issues about the interrelations between technology and man, the developmental potentials, originality, anonymity and related existential essence. Maripuu brings attention to digitally generated images while decelerating their usual chaotic flow in the field of perception and analyzes their meaning and influence in the field of contemporary art. Present exhibition serves as a continuation to Maripuu’s earlier projects where the artist has studied the essence of post-internet in contemporary art, neo-materialism, various subcultural phenomena and manifestations of digital era that all have had impact on the development of visual language.

Ex nihilo (Latin phrase meaning „out of nothing”) manifests a creative act where „something” is born „out of nothing”. Frames have been caught from the chaotic, endless flood of information at high speed and chained into a static form. This presents a magic act about the abstract, unexpectedly glimmering information, about its registration, crystallization and materialization in a physical environment. The artist is hindering the modern way of processing information that is mediated to us at the speed of the fraction of a second – he is creating the buffer between the virtual and the material. The digitally generated virtual image meets the organic manual one, analyzing the forms and possibilities of manifestation of contemporary visual aesthetics.

Exhibition will be open until May 20, 2019.

Artist’s website: www.mihkelmaripuu.com

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Lipuvabrik LLC and Pühaste Brewery.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Mihkel Maripuu is an artist whose work can be described as a cross-media artist's practice. The artist manipulates sound and image, thought and material with the purpose of transfer nonmaterial values into a physical form. Maripuu has obtained BA degree in the chair of painting, faculty of arts and humanities at the University of Tartu and MA degree in the department of painting, faculty of fine arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

23.05.- 10.06.

ANNA KAARMA

On the Threshold

23.05.- 10.06.

ANNA KAARMA

On the Threshold

Anna Kaarma will open her personal exhibition On the Threshold in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday, May 23rd, 2019.

With the current exhibition, the artist is observing the borders of the personal and the public, dreams and waking, the permanent and the changing. Anna Kaarma focuses on the living environment of the district of Lasnamäe in Tallinn – the architectural and social superstructure is being unravelled to fragments charged with personal meanings and experiences.

Lasnamäe has the characteristic features of a metropolis. It is easy to remain anonymous for individuals between and inside the housing blocks that have been mathematically positioned – the intimate views into the neighbours’ lives that one gets through the windows and walls has rather the effect of a background noise than a human contact. The exhibition emphasizes the microcosm of an individual resident belonging to the so-called anonymous crowd. Everyday objects are interwoven with a personal perception of space, playful childhood memories, stories and a dreamlike logic of space.

Anna Kaarma: „In the mid-1990s, a bullet was shot into the kitchen window of my 8th floor apartment in the Lasnamäe district. The bullet probably bounced off of the wall in ricochet, only penetrating the outer glass of the window. The pane was therefore left as it was for several years. In the context of the criminal events of the last decade of 20th century, the bullet hole has no special value; it is more meaningful for me as a strange image from the past. It is intriguing how an element from the outer environment had intruded into the personal space, got stuck between the two spaces while creating a new field – a certain wormhole that makes it possible to go back to the space in the past. The window as the connecting link between the private and public sphere became an entry point to the third sphere, the one of memories.”

Exhibition will be open until June 10th, 2019.

The artist would like to thank: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Marge Monko, Jan Kaus, Sebastian Saaremäe, Anu Vahtra, Angela Ramires, Lee Kelomees, department of installation and sculpture of Estonian Academy of Arts, Jaana Jüris, Neeme Külm, Ingvar Heamägi, department of glass art of Estonian Academy of Arts and Eve Koha, Virko Kuusk, Kaisa Maasik, Kulla Laas, Gregor Taul, Saara Bergström.
Installation of the panel block: Valge Kuup LLC.
Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Department of Photography of the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Current exhibition belongs to the programme of TASE – the annual spring graduation show of Estonian Academy of Arts. The main TASE exhibition includes all MA graduation projects and selected BA projects in the new academy building on Põhja pst. 7 from May 31st to June 16th, 2019. The Young Artist Award and the Young Applied Artist Award will be announced at the opening of TASE’19 in collaboration with the Estonian Artists’ Association. The extensive satellite programme of the festival presents students films in TASE FILM, offers presentations of selected graduation works in TASE Elevator Talks, provides feedback to your artwork from international experts in Portfolio Cafe and opens several diverse personal and group exhibitions by students. Additional info: artun.ee/tase

Anna Kaarma will defend an MA degree in Ccontemporary Arts in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts this spring. She has obtained a BA degree in Graphic Design at the same academy. She has also studied at Hochschule Düsseldorf and in Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School. Anna Kaarma is the laureate of Adamson-Eric Scholarship in 2017. Kaarma's diverse artist's practice involves publication design, artists' books, video works as well as expansive installations. In her work, Kaarma skilfully combines the elements of graphic design, this often resulting from a 2D image to a monumental spatial installation. Anna Kaarma's first personal exhibition „Type 121” was held in EKA Gallery in 2017 that can be considered as an ideological predecessor to her current exposition.

11.06.- 08.07.

JAAN ELKEN

Heaven and Earth

11.06.- 08.07.

JAAN ELKEN

Heaven and Earth

Jaan Elken‘s personal exhibition Heaven and Earth will be opened in Hobusepea gallery at 5pm on Tuesday, June 11, 2019. Current exposition is exhibited in Hobusepea gallery in June 11-July 8, 2019 and in Draakon gallery in June 10-July 6, 2019.
During the exhibition, both galleries will be open Mon-Fri 11am-6pm, Sat 11am-5pm, Sun closed.

According to the artist, current exhibition forms a vigorous sketch about the entire universe while shifting the viewpoint back in time, to the beginning of times.

Jaan Elken: „Using such meaningful, Biblical words in a title is risky yet safe – I believe in the advantages of meditative solutions instead of aggressive activism.
As for painting, I have divided the artwork into three conceptual themes. In the light of our prior knowledge, water is the most important element – it reaches both the sky and the earth, not to mention that it also gives the fluidity to acryclic paint. The artwork exhibited in Draakon gallery expresses atmospherical qualities; and yet, I try to avoid photorealism characteristic to new age phenomena and monotonous minimalism. It is rather about searching for visual equivalents to the inner states of mind – the search being based on the knowledge about consciousness as the so-called inner space acquired throughout the years. During the trips to Iceland and Norway I have experienced the feeling of déjà vu, found similarities with melting glaciers or steep cliffs that have been represented as archetypes in my subconsciousness since the beginning of the times. Some artworks might be as well as inspired by the yellowish-gray heaps of dirty, polluted snow and ice piled up by roads in winter. I see values and meanings in everything that is surrounding us.
The series exhibited in Hobusepea gallery, reminding of sediments of water and mud, could tune the viewer to the wavelength of finiteness and infinity. At the current exhibition, I have tried to avoid the signs of urbanism and have rather seeked for answers that are often kept from people. The keywords to characterize my work would be: forces of nature, peace of the kingdom of heaven, eternal silence, existence / non-existence, beginning and end.“

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Jaan Elken (1954) is an artist, art critic, curator and art professor. He has published several hundred articles with art critique and art politics. In 1997-2018 he was a professor and chair of painting at the Institute of Cultural Research and Art at Tartu University, until its closing. Since 2018 he is a professor emeritus at Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Tartu University. He has been a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association since 1981. In 1995-1999 he was chairman of the Estonian Painters’ Association. 1999-2013 he was the president of Estonian Artists’ Association. He started his work in 1970s as a hyperrealist painter, but has over time become one of the more prominent figures of abstract art in Estonia. Personal exhibitions (selection) 2019 Sites and Places – Evald Okas Museum, Haapsalu 2019 Memory of the place – Gallery Kajaste Uusikatu, Oulu; Q-gallery, Tampere 2018 Hluluwe – Haus Gallery, Tallinn 2018 Flying over II – Kastellaanimaja Gallery, Tallinn 2018 Poem for a Matress 2 – ERM (Estonian National Museum), Tartu 2017 Flying over – Vabaduse Gallery, Tallinn 2016 Relpy all – Draakoni Gallery, Tallinn 2014 Image and word - The Museum of New Art in Pärnu 2014 Back to hyper-reality 2 – Tallinn Art Hall Gallery 2014 Back to hyper-reality 2. Initium novum – Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn 2013 Havana, revisited – Architecture and Design Gallery, Tallinn 2013 Malecón – Draakon Gallery, Tallinn 2013 Strawberry fields forever – Vabaduse Gallery, Tallinn 2012 It has been written – Tallinn City Gallery 2012 Messages from reality – Werkstattgalerie, Berlin 2011 A Day After – Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn 2010 Water – ArtDepoo Contemporary Art Gallery, Tallinn 2009 Painted Poems – The Museum of New Art in Pärnu 2009 Back to reality – Draakon Gallery, Tallinn 2009 Collected Works – Tartu Art House 2008 Poem for a Mattress – ArtDepoo Gallery, Tallinn 2007 Hot – Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn 2005 October Demonstration – Tartu Art Museum 2005 Jaan Elken – Paintings 1978–2005 – Tallinn Art Hall 2004 Sagrada familia – Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn 2003 Mind games – Gallery of Estonian Embassy, Berlin 2001 The quiz – Vaal Gallery, Tallinn 2000 Back to Hyper-reality – Adamson-Eric Museum, branch of the Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including: 2018 The X-Files [Registry of the Nineties] introduces the public to overshadowed and lost art works from the 1990s – Kumu Art Museum; 2016 Cold Look. Variation of Hyperrealism in Estonian Art – Kumu Art Museum; 2015 Nord Art 2015. Kunstwerk Carlshütte, Rendsburg/Büdelsdorf; 2014 Tallinn S`Invite À Carcassonne – Chapelle des Jesuites, Carcassonne; 2013 In between zwischen Energie und Materie – Alte Oberpostdirektion, Hamburg; 2012 In Between New Abstraction & New Concretion – Klaipeda Culture Communication Center; 2012 Art Vilnius’12 International contemporary art fair – Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre (Litexpo); 2011 Mystics and Moderns: Painting in Estonia before Glasnost. Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum. Rutgers The State University of New Jersey etc. His works belong to the art collections of the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum (Rutgers, New Jersey; The Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union), CAM_Casoria Contemporary Art Museum (Naples), Tretyakov Gallery, Ivanovsky Art Museum, Matthew Bown Gallery, European Parliament, Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, The Museum of New Art in Pärnu and many other collections around the world. Artist’s website: www.jaanelken.com

10.07.- 05.08.

KRISTINA PAABUS

Meanwhile

10.07.- 05.08.

KRISTINA PAABUS

Meanwhile

Kristina Paabus will open her personal exhibition Meanwhile in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, July 10th, 2019.

In her solo exhibition Kristina Paabus uses drawing, printmaking, and installation to create speculative and spatial renderings that explore personal and cultural narratives. As a first-generation Estonian-American, Paabus has been influenced by growing up in between these two cultures, histories, and locations. Her artwork examines the systems that we use to control our surroundings – or in turn the strategies and structures that try to control us. She observes, interprets, and responds to experiences of attempted containment such as architecture, religion, language, and government. Meanwhile translates visual remnants that describe the lasting impact of occupation on both tangible and invisible spaces. Through abstraction and metaphor, Paabus investigates the operations, failures, fractures, superstitions, and perceptions of these systems to uncover underlying common codes within our shared experiences.

Artist’s website: http://kristinapaabus.com/

Exhibition will be open until August 5th, 2019.

Supported by: Oberlin College and Ohio Arts Council.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Kristina Paabus earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Paabus has exhibited her work throughout the US, Europe, and China, with recent exhibitions including NEO Geo at the Akron Art Museum (OH), Belt and Road at The National Gallery (Bulgaria), and the Novosibirsk Graphics Triennial (Russia). She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship for Installation Art in Estonia, the Grant Wood Fellowship in Printmaking at The University of Iowa, an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and the SGCI Guanlan Residency Award. Kristina has attended numerous artist residences such as ACRE (WI), Ox-Bow (MI), Women’s Studio Workshop (NY), Emmanuel College (MA), SÍM (Iceland), MUHU A.I. (Estonia), Guanlan Original Printmaking Base (China), NCCA Kronstadt (Russia), and Anderson Ranch Art Center (CO). Paabus lives and works in Ohio where she is Associate Professor of Studio Art in Reproducible Media at Oberlin College.

07.08.- 02.09.

MADLEN HIRTENTREU & JENNY GRöNHOLM & EVA MUSTONEN

Idiots

07.08.- 02.09.

MADLEN HIRTENTREU & JENNY GRöNHOLM & EVA MUSTONEN

Idiots

Co-exhibition Idiots by Madlen Hirtentreu, Jenny Grönholm and Eva Mustonen will be opened in Hobusepea gallery on Wednesday at 6pm on August 7, 2019. Exhibition opening will be accompanied by performance The Joys of Fermentation: Guests from South-Korea.

I understood completely what these women were talking about around the table. They didn´t have to complete each other´s sentences to reach an agreement. They were fucked up, a lifelong achievement, as somehow they had become artists and now, it seemed, there was no relief to their situation. By themselves, with their own hands, they had separated the world from their creations, and without noticing what such a theoretical turn might bring, they found themselves, quite suddenly, in a bitter-tasting and a very personal hell.

The exhibits on the show pose creativity as learned helplessness. Attempts to combine personal life with creative process take tragicomical turns. All three artists seem to lack common sense to tackle normal situations. Job hunting becomes a detailed roleplay, fermenting cabbages – an oral history, and an everyday attempt of being productive ends up, more often than not, scrolling through adverts about chihuahua puppies. Something is always amiss, either the numbers on the bank account or the worldview. The prestigious, but underwhelming position of an artist in nowadays society makes one feel useless. How to tell nothingness to fuck off? How to put apple back into one´s eye?

Three friends and colleagues, Jenny, Madlen and Eva, have thrown themselves into Don Quixotesque fight against invisible enemies, and though idiots can get their ass kicked even in church, it might just be that the next day their pounding heads are woken by the bright sun. Let’s dream together.

Exhibition will be open until September 2, 2019.

Artists would like to thank the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Alissa Šnaider, the team of Hobusepea gallery and Jenny’s brother, „tosi kiva” Emili.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Madlen Hirtentreu (1993) works mainly with sculpture, installations and performances. Primal horizon, brutality, repetition and clinical conditions intrigue her, a tiny dose of each might be the recipe. The eeriness of the unknown which in close up reveals signs of fragility by opening up new readings and meanings in untied time. Her technique can be described as a Frankenstein-like combination of technology and body horror, where the abject and the mechanical system function as a unified tandem. The absurd, seemingly messy and eclectic choice of material serves as a document and carrier of emotions.

Jenny Grönholm (1988) mainly focuses on painting in her artist's practice and depicts daily motifs of animals and people in her life. These otherwise bright details of her everyday have been enshrouded by steadfast melancholy colours, thus turning the artwork seemingly inaccessible and unreliable for the viewers. Scenes in her paintings rather tend to have the effect of emerging memories than real situations. Her work is often formed into series representing one and the same repetitive motif, thus emphasizing even more the chronological indetermination and impossibility to escape the dreamlike situation. Despite the uncannily monotonous daily life depicted in Grönholm's work, the effect is not oppressive but rather soothingly peaceful if one accepts the repetitive pattern. Jenny Grönholm has obtained BA degree in the department of printmaking and MA degree in the department of installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has taken part in personal and group exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. Currently living and working in Virtsu and Tallinn, combining her artist's practice with observing the roe deer.

Eva Mustonen (1986) combines time-consuming textile techniques, solid woodwork, diary-like excerpts of text, products of daily life and second-hand found objects for depicting her personal stories. Mustonen's humorous installations are based on DIY aesthetics. Her artwork can be viewed through the perspective of feminist art where the private is often accompanied by the political voice. Eva Mustonen has studied textile art and semiotics in Tartu and Gothenburg, also taken additional courses in the department of installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Currently lives and works in Tallinn.

05.09.- 22.09.

LAURA PõLD & KATRIN VäLI

Burrows. Flights

05.09.- 22.09.

LAURA PõLD & KATRIN VäLI

Burrows. Flights

Co-exhibition Burrows. Flights by Laura Põld and Katrin Väli in Hobusepea gallery will be open from September 5, 2019. Exhibition will be open until September 22nd. Finissage of the exhibition will take place at 3pm on September 22nd.

Laura Põld and Katrin Väli’s artworks – sculptures, objects and texts – express the attitude that the world full of diverse life is valuable and important; and it is not us, the people, who provide value to life but the value lies already within itself. Having been involved in birdwatching for many years, Katrin Väli and Laura Põld were observing the nest making craft of the local swallows in Kunda last summer while learning the various techniques of plastering with the clay originating from the clay pit of Kunda cement factory and using similar blends of clay as the birds.

According to the cognitive assumption of an artist, the forms considered to be natural for human hand have been widely spread among other species long before any human being or hand. This very pragmatical recognition introduced the authors to a new field. Being known for her sensitivity towards materials and her work being influenced by the history and techniques of applied art, then this time Laura Põld has shifted her focus on even more timeless formal orientations – the construction acitivities in the living nature, including birds, animals and plants. Both authors consider the topics of preserving biodiversity in today’s Estonia extremely important since the natural habitats are being destroyed under the so-called production of biological or alternative fuel.

Within this project, Katrin Väli has written poetry, characterized by the restless style typical of the author, that expresses the intriguing and mystical essence of living organisms. Väli’s effort lies in an emphatic approach towards the living (birds, trees, animals). Not that much to look for the moments when the living acquire a human face, but instead to try to look like them in order to understand something that would be difficult to understand in some other way; yet, such understanding is necessary.

The first part of Laura Põld’s and Katrin Väli’s collaboration was completed for the exhibition „Beings With“ at the Fiskars Art & Design Biennale (curated by Jenni Nurmenniemi). Whereas in Fiskars their installation was located in two dimly lit grain bins of a historical granary and the artwork took advantage of the mysterious atmosphere of the space, then current exposition is made of completely new pieces and abundant choice of texts by Väli – all of these exhibited accordingly to the characteristics of Hobusepea gallery.

whichever path I choose
as a way to get in this burrow
it’s always empty
I have chosen the wrong path

for I always carry a mirror with me

to choose a path to the burrow
I begin to move from afar
begin to get ready
begin to deny all the things that the mirror doesn’t show
I start to pick words and sacrify

the hungry mirror bites my finger

on the way to the burrow I take a detour to my childhood

I put the pencil next to the bed

I crawl through the stone through the blood vessels
but as I get to the burrow
the burrow is empty every time
there is no one left there

Exhibition production: Tehniline Direktor
Graphic design: Aadam Kaarma and Sandra Kosorotova
Photos: Sten Saarits

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the department of sculptural conceptions and ceramics at the University of Art and Design Linz.

We would like to thank: Jaakko-Priidik Hallas, Lukas Eggerth, April Fowlow, Kelli-Carolin Parkja, Kaisa Sööt.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Laura Põld (1984) was born in Tallinn. She has studied ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA, 2003-2007), painting at the University of Tartu (MA, 2007-2010) and sculptural conceptions and ceramics at the University of Art and Design Linz (MA, 2018 - ...). Since 2010, Laura Põld has been working as a freelance artist and participated in solo, duo and group exhibitions and residencies in Estonia, Austria, Germany, Japan, Finland, Iran, France and elsewhere. Laura Põld has been acknowledged with several awards and grants, including Eduard Wiiralt Grant (2008), the annual award in the field of visual and applied arts by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2014), grand prix of Köler Prize (2016) and the main award in the field of visual and applied arts by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2018).

Katrin Väli (1956) (real name Katrin Hallas) is a poetess and translator and was born in Tallinn . She has graduated the Maxim Gorki Literature Institute in Moscow in 1984 and published 12 poetry collections and poems in periodicals on a regular basis under her poetess name. Her works have been translated into Russian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, English and Finnish. She has translated fiction, mainly poetry. Under her real name she has edited and translated various texts as well as worked as a language editor and corrector in Eesti Ekspress (weekly newspaper) since 1994.

25.09.- 14.10.

MAARJA NURK

Death by Structure

25.09.- 14.10.

MAARJA NURK

Death by Structure

17.10.- 04.11.

SILVIA SOSAAR & HANNO SOANS

Academy Sport Club

17.10.- 04.11.

SILVIA SOSAAR & HANNO SOANS

Academy Sport Club

Whether, how and why to do things with our bodies? As the philosopher Pierre Bourdieu has said, there are many things that we understand only through our bodies without fully acknowledging them and unable to put their experience into words. More often than not, we can only say: Look, do as I do!

From October 17 the gallery environment will offer workouts inspired by gym circuit training (Silvia) and kick-boxing (Hanno) every evening (except Tuesdays) at 5.30pm–6.30pm. A games hour with elastics and a climbing frame (Silvia) on Sundays 12.30–1.30pm. Let’s overcome our embarrassment together! See you at the Academy Sport Club, where everyone will become a living sculpture! The workouts are free! Bring a change of suitable shoes.

Pre-conditioning: The disciplined body plays the game, the mechanical body in rhythmic movement plays the game. Stretch-strain, push-pull. And the circle is complete. Again. And repeat. We are moving, but only on the spot. Quickened breathing seeks its rhythm. When that’s set, the contractions have no end. Training music? Yes! But internally, the only soundtrack is the rush of blood in the head and the sound of breathing, which marks the reality, which is experienced as unique in the moment. The sound which is neither a sign, which leans towards the signifier, nor a mask, which obscures it. Breathing is not a question of decision – it is an obligatory level of one’s earthly self. One must keep an eye on exhaling, we breath in ourselves. When our lungs speak, it is pure presence! The repetitions that free us of meanings dictate the serotonin levels in the brain and the lactic acid levels in the muscles, cognition tends to slide on the plane of reality and searches for a substitute for the pain and monotony. This is a way to be here, to exist, to be included. It is a way to lose one’s self: into the aerobic process of the running machine, the cycles of intensity in the circuit training, the body discipline that mimics kick-boxing.

Consulting trainer Kadi Hunt, musical designer Kiwa, graphic designer Martin Rästa.
In collaboration with G-floors, Omatsirkus, Valge Kuup, KRK Jõusaalid.
Thanks to Andre Joosep Arming, Pierre Bourdieu, Dmitri Gerasimov, Aksel Haagensen, Tõnu Narro, Kati Ots, Olesja Semenkova, Mauno Saari, Jaak Soans, Silva and Aare Sosaar, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo.

Academy Sport Club will be open until November 4, 2019. During the exhibition gallery will be open Wed-Mon 12pm–7pm.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Silvia Sosaar (1979) is an artist living and working in Tallinn as well as a master’s student in the contemporary art programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Sosaar graduated from the photography department at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2017. At her first solo exhibition, “Shiny Shoes Salon” (2018) at EKA Gallery, Sosaar transformed the art gallery into a shoe-shine salon. Sosaar has exhibited her work at exhibitions in Estonia, Latvia, the UK, France and Pakistan.

Hanno Soans (1974) is a freelance art critic and artist as well as a long-time lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has been a doctoral student at the Estonian Academy of Arts since 2017. Soans has worked as a curator of contemporary art at the Art Museum of Estonia (1997-2008) and curated the Estonian pavilion at the Venice Biennale (Mark Raidpere, “Isolator”, 2005). He has curated international exhibitions abroad in Russia, Finland and Germany. As an artist, Soans has participated in exhibitions in Estonia, the UK, Serbia, the USA, Portugal, Hungary, Latvia, Finland and elsewhere. Works in collections: Museo Caldas de Rainha, Portugal; Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia.

06.11.- 25.11.

ANGEL MAASALU

Cave for Forgotten Dreams

06.11.- 25.11.

ANGEL MAASALU

Cave for Forgotten Dreams

Angela Maasalu will open her personal exhibition Cave for Forgotten Dreams in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesay, November 6, 2019. Exhibition will be open until November 25, 2019.

Things are
changing; things are starting to
spin, snap, fly off into
the blue sleeve of the long
afternoon. Oh and ooh
come whistling out of the perished mouth
of the grass, as things
turns soft, boil back
into substance and hue. As everything,
forgetting its own enchantment, whispers:
I too love oblivion why not it is full
of second chances. Now,
hiss the bright curls of the leaves. Now!
booms the muscle of the wind.

Mary Oliver „Twelve Monos”, 1979

The exhibition lends its title from Werner Herzog’s film Cave of forgotten dreams (2010). While the film tells a story about the Chauvet Cave in southern France, which contains the oldest human-painted images yet discovered, this show aims to form a narrative around something like a personal cave – somewhere deep down where we leave our memories and dreams – both filled and unfulfilled, true and also vain and unworthy, bitter, beautiful – from adulthood back to childhood. Angela Maasalu’s artwork can be characterized by rich narratives, elaborate metaphors and fabulousness. The artist’s bold imagination enables the simultaneous use of horror and beauty in her work. Titles of her paintings such as Memory palace, You must want to live! and I am sorry we never made it fishing express Maasalu’s interest and ability to use both visual and textual language.

She grew up in a very small town. All she ever wanted was to be loved by everyone. Later she just wanted to be famous and have a lot of money and a very nice big house she could fit a swing in, and have a dog of course. Money is more certain and concrete than people and love she forgot all in all.
Her house where she used to live was surrounded by so many trees, that once her classmate said “ I thought no one has lived in this house for a long time – or if they have, it must be a witch.’’ But for her the garden was a secret – a magical and dark kingdom – as well as a prison – she wanted no one else to see.
All throughout her life she has felt she can remember absolutely everything that has ever happened to her. Every memory – sweet or sad. The burden of memories – unbearable nostalgia. She inherited such a wistful state of mind from her father perhaps. He was thinking about the past a lot and was so scared of death he never really dared to live.

Angela Maasalu

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Angel Maasalu is an artist born and raised in Estonia, currently living and working in London. She obtained BA degree in the department of painting at the University of Tartu (2012) and MA degree in the department of painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2015). During her studies, Maasalu took additional courses in Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London (2013–2014). Her previous exhibition Throbwerk (with Kate Lyddon) was held in Tallinn Art Hall gallery in 2019. Angela Maasalu has been nominated twice to Sadolin Art Prize.

27.11.- 16.12.

JOHANNES LUIK AND LAURI

Twilight Zone

27.11.- 16.12.

JOHANNES LUIK AND LAURI

Twilight Zone

Johannes Luik and LAURi will open their co-exhibition Twilight Zone in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, November 27th, 2019.

The title of the exhibition refers to a state existing between two values, without being neither of these. The way the status physically manifests itself in space is something that is being endlessly created and re-created through daily activities that relate to the space. Both artists are exhibiting one artwork through which they study the story of a personal space and related associations.

The Fly by LAURi:
/—/ Anyway, it was terribly cold in there that morning. When I had climbed up the stairs the floor boards were blackened. My half-ready room had become a graveyard of flies. Drowsy buzz could be still heard on the windows; the floor was filled with black, shitty, dead flies. I was surprised since I had never seen so many flies before. It was actually quite nasty. Think of it, I have to start living in that room while these annoying things will shit into my mouth. After some time, the sun began to shine in and the room temperature rose considerably. I had an idea that if I cleaned the mess then the temperature should be just right for working. I started to vacuum the dead motherfuckers when suddenly discovering that these were moving. When raising my head I realized that also the buzz had become louder in the room. A race against time began. I desperately sucked the flies into the vacuum cleaner since it was quite complicated to catch those flying around in the room /—/

The House by Johannes Luik:
1926 Johannes Luik was born
1988 grandson named Johannes Luik was born
In 1988–1993 Johannes Luik built a playhouse for his grandchildren
1993 Johannes Luik senior died
2019 Johannes Luik built the copy of his childhood playhouse

Thanks to: Liina Siib, Jaan Luik, Jaan-Joosep Luik, Enno-Mihkel Jürima, Cloe Jancis, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Kristi Kongi, Riin Maide, Nele-Marie Tiidelepp, Taavi Piibemann, Taavi Talve.

Exhibition will be open until December 16, 2019.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Johannes Luik and LAURi obtained BA degree from the department of sculpture and installation at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2019. Both artists have already participated in several exhibitions, including the Jubilee Spring, the annual exhibition of Estonian Artists' Association held in Tallinn Art Hall in 2018. In 2018, Johannes Luik was awarded the Grand Prix of the Young Sculptor Award and LAURi got the third prize of the Young Sculptor Award.

2018

20.12.- 20.01.

KADRI TOOM

screen dream

20.12.- 20.01.

KADRI TOOM

screen dream

Kadri Toom (1984) will open her personal exhibition screen dream in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, December 20, 2017.

Kadri Toom: „Presence in screen reality is becoming more important and believable compared to the presence in a physically existing space. Ostensibility surrounds reality in the form of various fragments of ever-changing and abundant information. Transmissiveness, filtratedness and fragmentedness of images allow the rhizomic divergence of the stories. The dimension of presence flashes past with the high speed of pixels. Surface structures have been suspended; what will be left is fascination and absence. Floating along such asymmetric pattern reminds of a dream where images randomly alternate and where everything is possible.
The works at the current exhibition have been inspired by the intense colours, high-resolution images resembling landscapes, reflections, undulating lights, structures underneath and above the surfaces appearing on the screens.“

Exhibition will be open until January 20, 2018.

Thanks to: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Artists’ Association, Altia Eesti Ltd., Taavi Suisalu, Anne Toom, Lilli-Krõõt Repnau, Silver Soorsk.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Kadri Toom graduated from the department of painting in Tartu Higher Art School in 2006 and obtained MA degree in the department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2009. During her studies, Toom also studied as an Erasmus exchange programme student in Saimaa University of Applied Sciences. Kadri Toom has participated in exhibitions since 2005. Previously, she has held personal exhibitions in Amandus Adamson Studio Museum and in Draakon gallery in 2015 where the artist focused on the subjects of invisible space, empty territories and the hidden sides of a human being. The works exhibited at the current exposition refer to the surface, the deceptive and ever-changing space.

24.01.- 05.02.

EDE RAADIK

Ede-dear don’t you know we don’t talk about these thing

24.01.- 05.02.

EDE RAADIK

Ede-dear don’t you know we don’t talk about these thing

Ede Raadik‘s (1989) personal exhibition Ede-dear don’t you know we don’t talk about these things will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Wednesday, January 24th, 2018.

In her previous exhibition Raadik focused on her working experience as a merchandiser as she analyzed the principles and ethics of a work space with the help of her dry humour and scarce visual language. This time, Raadik has concentrated on the relations in a working environment; either a fictional event or a real situation that has occurred between an employer and an employee. Johannes Saar writes in his article „The rise of slavery in Estonia. The case of Ede Raadik“ (published in magazine „Vikerkaar“, December 2017) as follows: „One of the protagonists of Ede’s work is the employee No. RP3458 who is hopelessly in love with his boss and she has made up her mind to work herself to death in order to catch his attention. She is extraordinarily inventive and creative while doing it – she will even reach the board of the Employee of the Month, she is ready to struggle to the bitter end, even thinking of quitting the job. That, of course, is a total suicide. Because the unlimited utopia of exploitation where Ede Raadik has been born into equalises unemployment with the status of total deprivation, missing out on something. Walking away from paid employment in this utopia won’t leave one bright-eyed. Leaving the stage is the same than failure in love, the end of affect, emptiness, destruction.“

Ede Raadik’s work can be characterized by intellectual, emphatically dry yet poetic approach to the selected subjects. The artist works with series and her work often depicts schemes and charts presenting statistics about various systems. These, in turn, always include the unknown, referring both to absurdity and the possibility to distrust the presented material. Ede Raadik is able to embody either a calculating statistician or a subjective beholder.

Exhibition will be open until February 5th, 2018.

The artist’s gratitude to: Johannes Saar, Karoliina Kagovere, department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and everyone who has been supporting the artist.

Exhibition supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Ede Raadik has obtained BA degree in the department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2013 and MA degree in the same department in 2015. The artist has participated in Tallinn 16th Print Triennial „Literacy-Illiteracy“, in Rundum artist-run space exhibitions, in Kumu Art Museum (2014), Estonian Photographic Art Fair (2015) and in group exhibition „Beyond Reality“ (curated by Lilli-Krõõt Repnau) in Tartu Art House (2017. Ede Raadik previous solo exhibition nobody should take work lightly, especially YOU ... was held also in Hobusepea gallery in 2016.

07.02.- 26.02.

JAN LüTJOHANN & UKU SEPSIVART

a little bit, every day

07.02.- 26.02.

JAN LüTJOHANN & UKU SEPSIVART

a little bit, every day

Jan Lütjohann (1987) and Uku Sepsivart (1988) will open their co-exhibition a little bit, every day in Hobusepea gallery at 5.30pm on Wednesday, February 7, 2018.

A shared element in the exhibition is our affection towards working by hand. Together they are thinking about making as a process somewhere between wearing out a benchtop and spontaneous accumulation of material.

I
How rare it is to wake up in the morning and not know what to do.
Working and working are not the same.

II
Every time a tool is used it becomes immeasurably smaller.
Every time it rains the cracks in a mountain become immeasurably larger.

III
Craving for carving.
Is it some force that is similar to the one that slowly makes the mountains rise or gently lets the continents drift?

IV
Who is allowed to make noise or a mess in their apartment?
Without a garden, backyard, shed, garage or basement, the fingers grow restless.

Exhibition will be opened until February 26, 2018.

Thank you: Tours n Cars OÜ, Paulon Säätio, Liina Siib, Evelyn Müürsepp-Grzinich, John Grzinich, Nils-Naatan Kaivo, Henna Jula, Marko Sepsivart, Hanna Piksarv.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Jan Lütjohann is a German sculptor and educator who lives and works in Finland. In the exhibition he is looking at the possibilities inherent in hand tools and limited means. The sculptures are an outcome of his interest in low, rural and pre-industrial workbenches that have been used both for working and social interaction. He is employing elements of this tradition in order to create a productive as well a social potential.

Uku Sepsivart compares the need to work by hand to a natural process. He is observing the seemingly simplistic activities of animals and is trying to integrate similar lightness to his own working process. While working with this mindset and trying to find both perfect pace and conditions, he is contemplating on what would happen if one would leave human civilization.

01.03.- 19.03.

ELLA BERTILSSON & ULLA JUSKE

11,9 km Northwest of the City Centre

01.03.- 19.03.

ELLA BERTILSSON & ULLA JUSKE

11,9 km Northwest of the City Centre

Ella Bertilsson (1982) and Ulla Juske (1986) will open their co-exhibition 11,9 km Northwest of the City Centre in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday, March 1, 2018. Exhibition will be open until March 19, 2018.

There are palm trees everywhere in this country.

Ella Bertilsson and Ulla Juske will present a glimpse into Rainy Days in Blanch, a family sitcom recorded in the iconic Blanchardstown Centre (Dublin) in the weeks before its official opening in 1996. Original video recordings and a replica studio set will be showcased in Hobusepea Galerii Tallinn in an exhibition titled ‘11.9km Northwest of the City Centre’.

Starring an all-female cast, Rainy Days in Blanch portrays a multigenerational family and their family friend. Each character shares directly with the audience an account of a memory, dream or nightmare. These previously unaired stories speak about house, home, family, and migration, as well as fear, paranoia, displacement and territory.

The exhibition is the product of research and practice undertaken by the artist-duo (SWE/IRE & EST/IE) during their recent residencies in Draíocht Arts Centre (Ireland) and Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale (Norway) and has been kindly funded by Culture Ireland and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The artist would like to thank: Draíocht Arts Centre, Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale (NKD), the Irish Embassy of Estonia, The Theatre Department of United World College Nordic Flekke, Hartstown Community School, Institution of Technology Blanchardstown, Draíocht Arts, Centre Youth Theatre Group, Corduff Community Centre, Phoenix FM’s podcast ‘Africans in Ireland’, Reet Varblane, Annelie Gardell, Sharon Murphy, Catherine O’Keeffe, George Brennan, Austin Hearne and Michelle Hall.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Ella Bertilsson & Ulla Juske started to collaborate during their postgraduate studies on the MFA; Art in the Digital World Programme at NCAD, Dublin (2015). Together they construct non-linear narratives that drift between fact and fiction, past, present and future. These narratives become the catalyst for developing installations that are exploring the relationship between time and memory, place and identity.

21.03.- 09.04.

KAI KALJO 1

Flowers

21.03.- 09.04.

KAI KALJO 1

Flowers

Kai Kaljo (1959) will open her personal exhibition Flowers in Hobusepea gallery at 5pm on Wednesday, March 21st, 2018.

Kai Kaljo is an internationally acknowledged artist whose video „Loser“ (1997) is one of the most distinguished artworks in 1990s Estonian art. Kai Kaljo is an artist with a sharp approach, her work has been considered emotional and poetical. Art critic Mari Laaniste has stated that Kai Kaljo has been nontraditionally social and socializing in art. Kaljo’s video works can be characterized by an expansive and human dimension that has been more recognized in the international art scene than in Kaljo’s homeland.

Kai Kaljo has graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts; at her recent exhibitions the artist has shown paintings again, including her personal exhibitions „old age&freedom“ in Vabaduse gallery where a painting installation consisting of 56 clouds was exhibited. At her present exhibition the viewer can see Kaljo’s newest paintings and video work. The artist comments on her exposition as follows:

„I got a new studio a year ago. It felt so good to be there. It was as if the energy of all these talented artists who had worked there years before me was still there and I could take it in. Even the view from the window seemed somehow familiar. I let the studio influence me in order to remind myself why I ever wanted to become an artist.
I remembered when I was young and discussing with my mother in which department at the Estonian State Art Institute I should study. I was wondering whether I could also become as talented artist as Adamson-Eric. Back then, this was obviously an outrageous statement and my mother told me that I definitely was not Adamson-Eric.
To be completely honest here, I wanted to become an artist because I liked to draw. And for some reason I preferred drawing flowers, withered flowers. At first, the idea made me laugh, but nevertheless it never left me. This reminded me of what my father had told me about his mother, my grandmother whom I had never met – that she had also liked flowers and she also became an artist who worked as a wreath decorator in a wreath factory. When growing older I have began to understand the importance of growing older.“

Kai Kaljo

Exhibition will be open until April 9, 2018.

Supported by Priit Press & Lilled and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

11.04.- 30.04.

IVAR VEERMÄE & XIAOPENG ZHOU

The Heat

11.04.- 30.04.

IVAR VEERMÄE & XIAOPENG ZHOU

The Heat

Ivar Veermäe and Xiaopeng Zhou will open their exhibition The Heat in Hobusepea gallery on Wednesday at 6pm on April 11, 2018. Exhibition will be open until April 30, 2018.

About 450 million years ago blue-green algae was massively growing in low waters. About 10 years ago Satochi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper. For the moment, part of the algae has turned into oil shale consisting lots of carbon, locally found in Ida-Virumaa county, Estonia. The value of Bitcoin has increased 150 000 times and a bit later decreased again 2,5 times. Furthermore, it has laid the foundation for a great amount of other cryptocurrencies and the whole system is connected with an immense system of machinery called „mines“.

Present exhibition concentrates on oil shale – using this mineral resource enables both mining the cryptocurrency as well as producing this exhibition. The fragmentary collection originates from the territories of mining industry in Ida-Virumaa, the archives of the Museum of Oil Shale, Instagram posts, various cryptomines, internet forums, Jordan and numerous people related to the industry. The exhibition sums up an unique dead end – on the top of energy that is the basis for all systems all the following interdependent layers have been built. Processing oil shale is harmful for both the local and global environment, however the industry provides employment for numerous people in Ida-Virumaa county as well as enables Estonia to retain independence from energy production by other countries. At the same time, producing renewable energy is not only depending on the sun or the wind but also requires massive mining of rare earth metals.
One should not forget about the attempts to withdraw from earlier systems; for instance the Bitcoin’s idea about money as an agreement and the objective to release its production from the central bank’s control. Every attractive idea is inevitably accompanied by the risk that new centers or „bubbles“ will arise. Small mines are replaced by increasingly bigger ones. Some options of cost-effectiveness are still open and even in Estonia there are several different types of mines, some of which are located in the territories of power stations. There is also a vast demand of energy by the cryptocurrency mines, for instance the annual energy consumption can be compared with the one consumed by Ireland. And yet, the „right“ financial system is probably consuming even more resources.

The artists express their gratitude to: Laura Jamsa; Jelena Derbneva; Andre Lüüde; Viktor Mikhaylov; Sergei Jegorov; Vladimir Sergejenkov from Eesti Energia; Viru Chemistry Group; Kalle Pirk and Annely Oone from Oil Shale Competence Center; Tarmo Kiipli, Ursula Toom and Erik Väli from the Division of Mining at Tallinn University of Technology; Ainar Varinurm from the Museum of Oil Shale; Marko Kohv; Maido Mõttus; Keir Raag; Igor Podoljan from Dreamline; Kristjan Kalm; Priit Padar; Otto de Voogt; Nordcoin Mining; Äripäev; Kiviõli Chemistry Industry LLC; Peter Saraskin; Maris Toomel with Kiviõli folk dance group; Andry Sill; Anna-Liisa Šavrak; Eleri Murru; Evelyn Jäer; Geili Tulits; Kaie Koit; Kaili Djomina; Maryliis Moorbach; Mikk Paju; Nastja Fomina; Oksana Teider; Rauno Kangur; Sirle Seisonen; Susanna Linginen; Tauri Laur; Ville Martinson; Maria Uuetoa; Kalev-Kristjan Tamm; Toomas Täht, Anja Dreissig; Han Tang; Elle, Kadri and Tiit Veermäe.

Poster design: TIAN-DESIGN LAB (Tian Bo, Wang Man)

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

30.04.- 19.05.

URMAS PEDANIK

Simulated Worlds

30.04.- 19.05.

URMAS PEDANIK

Simulated Worlds

Urmas Pedanik (1949) will open his personal exhibition Simulated Worlds in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, April 30th, 2018. Exhibition will be open until May 19th, 2018.

Urmas Pedanik first emerged to the local art world during the second half of 1970s with his innovative hyperrealistic approach to painting. His electronics-related oil paintings, for instance „Printed Scheme I“ (1977) and „Light on a Electrical Cabinet“ (1978), belong to the hyperrealistic top of Estonian art history, today being a part of the permanent collections of Tallinn Art Hall and Tartu Art Museum.

Pedanik studied in the department of design in the former Estonian State Art Institute (currently the Estonian Academy of Arts) in 1974-1980. Similarly to other innovative painters of that era, Pedanik never graduated from the department of painting but emerged to the local painting scene from another field of art. His work experience in the department of exhibitions in the Art Fund of the Artists’ Association of Estonian SSR in early 1970s equipped him with valuable knowledge and skills.

The artist held his first personal exhibition in Tallinn Art Hall gallery in 1981. In 1984 Pedanik became a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association. Paradoxically there was almost a 25-year-long break in his artistic career, from 1986 to 2010. So the present exhibition in Draakon gallery is Pedanik’s fifth personal exhibition.

The phenomenon of the artist’s electronics-related paintings can be shortly explained by the paradox that Pedanik’s hyperrealistic way of depiction, his so-called aesthetic source code has basically not changed. What has significantly changed is the world itself. When his series „Printed Scheme I-II“ was completed in 1977, the artist focused on the segment of reality about the era of analogue electronics – i.e. the golden age of radio and television. However, the „Printed Scheme III“ that Pedanik completed in 2010 was dealing with today’s digital electronics era: analogue signals have been replaced by the digital ones, the sequences of discrete values.
In 2017-2018 Urmas Pedanik with his hyperrealistic still lifes has delved into the development of technology on a much broader historical scale. The artist has basically reduced the history of communication technology into three paradigmatic stages or visual metaphors: a vacuum tube, a transistor and a digital printing plate. In the beginning there was a vacuum tube radio. Then transistor radios and cathode ray tube television sets were invented. Now we have entered the digital era when programmes are being broadcasted yet they can be watched or listened later online. The development of information technology and telecommunication has been significantly rapid during the last century; it is even difficult to foresee where the current media industry will reach, where the conglomerates will intersect and how the signal networks will spread out in the future.
Exhibition will be accompanied by the artist’s catalogue.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Artists’ Association.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

04.05.- 21.05.

MARI-LIIS REBANE

Earwitness

04.05.- 21.05.

MARI-LIIS REBANE

Earwitness

Mari-Liis Rebane (1988) will open her personal exhibition Earwitness in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Friday, May 4th, 2018.

Earwitness is a project collecting and observing sound recordings while regarding environmental sound as a research material. Besides audio material the artist presents everyday objects and visual material as artefacts supporting her sound-based study. The word „earwitness“ refers to an event and its witness. Mari-Liis Rebane focuses on sound-related material as a possible source of narrative building where the sound itself becomes a subject of study and a piece of evidence.

The central work of the exhibition is the sound piece „Earstream“ that the gallery viewers can experience while identifying themselves with the artist or following her activities. The artist’s movements in a changing sound environment are live broadcasted to the gallery space. This piece is simulaneously documentary and accidental yet staged as the directions, places and spaces where to move around the outer environment are controlled by the artist herself. „Earstream“ that is using data transmission and field recording provides an opportunity to relate oneself to various sound environments, situations and timings while using the potential hidden in continuous transmission and movement. Thus, Mari-Liis rebane refers to the ephemeral and occurrent qualities of sound that is ever changing in space and time. She examines the ways how various evidence, hints and indexes influence formation of a narrative and how one can use these while manipulating our auditory attention.

Current exhibition as a whole won’t create a separate narrative – the artist is contemplating and studying the ways the construction of a narrative is being created with the help of information that is auditorily perceptable yet visually associative. The audience can episodically partake in the exhibition’s sound events, depending on the moment of their stepping into the gallery. The exhibition also includes textual and visual references.

Thanks to: Silver Liiberg, Raul Keller, Marek Jarkovoi, Aimi Etverk, Robin Pilk, Krõõt Mõttus, Maret Mara Aranovich, Märt-Matis Lill, Eerika Mark, Kärt Hammer, Henry Kasch, Rain Lõhmus the artist’s family.

Photos: Karel Koplimets

Exhibition will be open until May 21st, 2018.

Supported by the Estonian National Culture Foundation and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Mari-Liis Rebane has been an active co-thinker, conceptualist, curator and critic in the field of audiovisual culture. In 2013-2015 Rebane was the head of the biggest international festival of animation film in the Baltic States. She considered her main objective to extend and redefine the concept of animation while interconnecting animation with other fields of art. Mari-Liis Rebane has reinforced her skills in several countries of Europe and taken part in audiovisual festivals as an outside expert (member of jury at Ars Electronica 2016; moderator of the panel discussion at The Prix Forums of Radical Atoms Festival). In 2015 she started her studies in the department of new media at the Estonian Academy of Arts while focusing on sound art (supervised by Raul Keller). „Earwitness“ is the artist's first public project as an independent gallery artist. In her artist practice, Mari-Liis Rebane examines sound as a diverse material while interweaving interaction, documentation and fiction. As an artist she is intrigued by sound as a tool initiating narratives, by the onthological qualities of sound and by manipulating with auditory attention

23.05.- 11.06.

MATTHIAS SILDNIK

Midplane

23.05.- 11.06.

MATTHIAS SILDNIK

Midplane

Matthias Sildnik (1987) will open his personal exhibition Midplane in Hobusepea gallery at 6.30pm on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018.

At the current exhibition the artist continues working on the concept of Robert Oppenheimer Non-Profit Idea Bank that was also the basis for his personal exhibition Happy Space held in Draakon gallery in 2016.

Matthias Sildnik: „In 2015-2016, Robert Oppenheimer Non-Profit Idea Bank held a collective spatial design project with the aim of describing people’s idea of an ideal working environment in conditions of neoliberal economical system. Present exhibition Midplane is based on the results of the idea bank and studies the unforeseeable movement occuring in people’s choices.
Communities change during time and are always accompanied by their history. Past choices demand requirements for the situations to come. Decision-making takes place in a midplane where all experiences make a whole. In the collection of important and unimportant choices future is gradually developing. Is this the control society based on private equity of cryptoanarchism founded on human rights? In the near future our subjectivity may acquire the form of a discursive drone consciousness that adjusts itself to the citizen index; however, it may also be an unforeseeable consciousness that cannot be controlled by any discursive formation. Society is a product of collective creation and Robert Oppenheimer Non-Profit Idea Bank keeps finding new opportunities in order to enrich the process with new influences.“

Exhibition will be open until June 11, 2018.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Matthias Sildnik has obtained BA degree (2010) and MA degree (2014) in the department of sculpture and installation at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Currently he is continuing his studies in the Doctoral School at the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has also studied in the Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics in the faculty of philosophy in 2011-2012 and in the Institute of Cultural Research and Arts at the University of Tartu. Matthias Sildnik has participated in exhibitions since 2008.

13.06.- 09.07.

LIISI EELMAA

Gently in the Air

13.06.- 09.07.

LIISI EELMAA

Gently in the Air

Liisi Eelma (1982) will open her personal exhibition Gently in the Air in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, June 13th, 2018.

Gently in the Air continues the series Photo + Painting = Copy + Original that was exhibited at TASE’17, the graduation show of the Estonian Academy of Arts in Noblessner Shipyard. With both series the artists contemplates three phenomena through the abstract image: matter, form and imagination.

Liisi Eelmaa: “The paint on the desk is still a vague mass of colourant, pigment, binder and filler soon to be transformed into an image. I am intrigued by the moment the transformation is happening. Paint may still seem arbitrary without having the status of an image; however, what already exists is the decision and attempt to do something with it. The beginning of any painting is abstract if looking at the first patch of colour. My purpose is emphasizing the endeavour to make something out of a paint blotch that in itself is abstract – it can be viewed as abstract art. This, in turn, provides a chance to enter a free figural space where the viewer as an active receiver equalizes the artist as an image-maker – both of them thus contributing while using their imagination.

Since the times of cave paintings people have depicted better life – better than the one at hand. Creating an image was supposed to fulfill a wish. While observing the timeline between the cave era and today’s world, we can see imagination coming to life to the fullest. Everything that we have now has been gained thanks to the imagination of our ancestors. What will come in the future is created right now.”

Exhibition will be open until July 9, 2018.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Liisi Eelmaa has obtained BA degree in the department of scenography (2004) and MA degree in the faculty of fine arts (2017) at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Eelmaa has participated in exhibitions since 2003, since 2005 she has been collaborated as a freelance artist with various theatres. While her previous exhibitions have involved mainly video works then during the recent years the artist has been focusing on creating the pieces that study the specifics of the art of painting.

11.07.- 06.08.

GUDRUN KOPPEL

Even though the stars’ motion is an illusion caused by our own motion, it looks perfectly real – Kummastused

11.07.- 06.08.

GUDRUN KOPPEL

Even though the stars’ motion is an illusion caused by our own motion, it looks perfectly real – Kummastused

Gudrun Koppel (1989) will open her personal exhibition Even though the stars’ motion is an illusion caused by our own motion, it looks perfectly real – Kummastused (Kummastus is a manner used in art through which the object is taken out of the perception routine. Things are disconnected from the habitual connections, resulting in a special perception of the object, not recognition) in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, July 11, 2018.

This series consist of lithographs from the compositions of objects that reflect the destruction of modern times. Time changes, displacements occur, arbitrary manipulations. My interpretations of time play archeology and geology. This exhibition continues on the previous theme “All that is now land was once the sky”. The old Soviet-era 3D postcards which I scanned in and did the color subtraction, did not work for from the outset–on every postcard the colors green and red are shifted at the wrong angle. These photographs have preserved only cognition of beautiful fountains. They live together with sculptures in the park. Some of the statues provide shelter for birds that dash into greenery. We can see that obscure abandoned Monolith in the park behind the bushes.

The compositions depict the arbitrary provision of some aspects that, when abandoning time, carry the atmosphere to which the content can be added. And everything can be given a meaning, because the background is meaningless and everything is arbitrary. The eternal subconscious narrative of something, has caused a strange obscure narrative. An approach that is ephemeral and fading, which is counterbalanced by rocks originating from the earth’s crust, because it seems that, if anything is real, it is the surface on which we walk. Everything else is invisible to the eye, but stored.

Exhibition will be open until August 6, 2018.

Artist thanks: Gennadi Baranov and Lauri Koppel.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Gudrun Koppel is a visual artist who mostly uses printmaking and photography in her work. She has obtained MA degree in the department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2013. In 2010, Koppel took additional courses in Aalto University, Finland. The artist is a member of Ubu Noir lithography workshop since 2011.

08.08.- 02.09.

KRISTEL SAAN & STEN SAARITS

Zero G Tonic

08.08.- 02.09.

KRISTEL SAAN & STEN SAARITS

Zero G Tonic

Kristel Saan and Sten Saarits will open their co-exhibition Zero G Tonic in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, August 8th, 2018.

Present exhibition with a cryptic title began during the artists’ joint residence in Endla marsh. With the help of the video and sound materials that the artists filmed and recorded there, Saan and Saarits have created a spatial installation in the gallery – namely, an environment where the focus lies on the lack of gravitation. Current exhibition recreates and offers landscape experience through various senses. The artists are both inspired by their interest towards the interrelations between body and environment as well as the various possibilities related to material perception.

Kristel Saan and Sten Saarits: „Absorption of a cognitive environment is limited by information processing – the context exists, but the details are still rendering their fully-fledged three-dimensional presence. The intertwining of parallel environments and narratives is in process. In the background there are intersecting timelines that are still being analyzed.. The perceptible is the depletion and regeneration of details and the implications behind signifiers in a new language, where the experienced landscape and it’s semiotic interpretation have fused into one. Contrasts are emphasized and as a result the whole will eventually thin out itself to a shift in the previously known reality. The Internet has zero gravity.. Communication language consists of shapes and figurative models that are feasible to experience when dispersed successfully. Situational error analysis is an ongoing process. The more realistic the landscape around us will become the more successful becomes the depiction of it. We are almost there..”.

Exhibition in Hobusepea gallery will be open until September 2nd, 2018.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Espak Ltd.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Kristel Saan (1985) has obtained BA and MA degree in the department of ceramics in the faculty of design at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has additionally studied in the faculty of fine arts in Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London; took courses in the department of visual arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and Rhode Island School of Design (USA). Saan's work has been exhibited in various galleries and museums both in Estonia and abroad. Kristel Saan's mainly studies the relationship between the digital and the corporeality in her work. The array of her expressive means is extensive – including for instance ceramic handicraft and installation art. She is also working as an artist in Hollywood film industry.

Sten Saarits (1987) has obtained BA degree in the department of installation and MA degree in the department of new media at the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and taken part in several international workshops. Saarits has been twice awarded the Young Sculptor's Prize; he has also received Eduard Viiralt Grant and in 2018 he was awarded the Young Artist's Prize of the Estonian Academy of Arts. Saarits mainly expresses himself through sound and installation art. He is mainly intrigued by the following subjects: individual's relationship with materiality, positioning oneself in space and in the chain of events.

05.09.- 24.09.

ROBIN ELLIS META

U+1F6AE

05.09.- 24.09.

ROBIN ELLIS META

U+1F6AE

26.09.- 15.10.

ANDRES TALI

DELTITNu / uNTITLED

26.09.- 15.10.

ANDRES TALI

DELTITNu / uNTITLED

17.10.- 05.11.

EIKE EPLIK

Natural

17.10.- 05.11.

EIKE EPLIK

Natural

Eike Eplik‘s (1982) personal exhibition Natural will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Wednesday, October 17th, 2018. Exhibition will be open until November 5th, 2018.

The artist presents installative sculptures that follow organic and natural forms at different levels of abstraction.

Eike Eplik: „One day, I took a piece of clay and without knowing what to do I started to play with it. I pressed, squeezed, flattened it, formed random lumps out of the clay, then made a few more, and then even some more – somehow, this activity seemed so natural. I put the clay away and went home. The next day I felt the same way about the material – that I could go on making the lumps, just keep making them without thinking and perceive the material. So I made up my mind to continue doing it. For weeks I spent my time with making forms, natural and originating perhaps from my inner self, out of the round chunks of clay, just like some strange termite-eremite. I built my towers higher and higher. Soon I realized that if I kept on making the towers, it would lead me to want a change at one point and the forms would also transform. This is the way it happened. The brain took increasingly over and started to create variations. The towers became intact forms that related to other objects and forms.“

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Eike Eplik has obtained MA degree in the department of sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2010. Before that she has studied in Tartu Art College and taken additional courses in Turku University of Applied Sciences (Finland), she has also worked as an assistant for artists in Sweden, Finland and Germany. In 2006 Eplik was given the Eduard Wiiralt Art Award; in 2012 she received the Young Artist's Prize at the contemporary art festival „ART IST KUKU NU UT“; and in 2015 she was one of the nominees for Sadolin Art Prize. Eike Eplik participated in Artishok Biennale 2016 with her installation „Staging“. Her previous personal exhibition „Beauty Salon“ was held in the Monumental Gallery of Tartu Art House in 2017. The artist's work belongs to the collection of Tartu Art Museum.

07.11.- 24.11.

MART VAINRE

Self-Contained Pictures

07.11.- 24.11.

MART VAINRE

Self-Contained Pictures

Mart Vainre (1988) will open his personal exhibition Self-Contained Pictures in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, November 7th, 2018. Exhibition will be open until November 26th, 2018.

Mart Vainre’s work is mostly mediated by camera or image processing, even if the artist has almost always used painting techniques in order to materialize his pieces. While including other methods of picture making in his working process, Vainre aims at creating multilayered viewing experience where the picture would simultaneously have a subjective as well as objective effect. His works can be viewed as time-consuming rituals that illustrate the intersections between the personal and the universal.

According to the artist, the pieces completed for the present exhibition serve as „echo chambers“ that are quoting the primary sources hidden in themselves. Vainre reuses and magnifies arbitrary blotches of paint, primitive self-portrait and abundant brushstroke in order to study the contents and construction. It seems more important for him to ask „how?“ than „what?“.

Mart Vainre: „My working method is based on the wish to fire myself up with as little means as possible. Without relying upon the infinite external possibilities I aim at focusing on my personal weak and incomprehensible impulses that I keep intensifying through my painting method, recreating and repeating various motifs. Expressing myself through colour and afterwards contemplating the result has led me to the realization how the opposites may be closely intertwined: the individual and the public; the moment, the past and the future; disarrangement and order; anxiety and peace.“

The artist’s gratitude to: Carl-Robert Kagge, Holger Loodus, Martin Melioranski, Elis and Taaniel Mägi, Helena Rummo, Piret Tamm.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Mart Vainre has obtained BA degree in the department of painting and MA degree in the department of new media at the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has participated in exhibitions since 2009; this is his 6th personal exhibition. Mart Vainre has also taken part in several group exhibitions, including Painting in Process, an extensive exposition studying contemporary Estonian painting (curated by Eha Komissarov) in Kumu Art Museum in 2010, and Can't Go On, Must Go On (curated by Elin Kard and Mihkel Ilus) in Tallinn Art Hall in 2014.

28.11.- 17.12.

TõNIS SAADOJA

Arrival in a Paper Town

28.11.- 17.12.

TõNIS SAADOJA

Arrival in a Paper Town

Tõnis Saadoja (1980) will open his personal exhibition Arrival in a Paper Town in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, November 28th, 2018.

According to the artist, Arrival in a Paper Town marks a port of call on an improvised journey in the territories between painting and photography. The motif based on a photographic image leads to painted fragments where space can be described as conditional rather than concrete. Paper town is a reserve for harmonies that are bound with recollections, architectural themes and pictorial attractions.

At the present exhibition Tõnis Saadoja proceeds studying the illusory pictorial space while moving between the painting and the photographic image. Current exposition can be viewed as a continuation to his previous personal exhibition Studio held in Tallinn Art Hall gallery in early 2018.

Exhibition will be open until December 17, 2018.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Tõnis Saadoja powerfully entered the local painting scene in early 2000s and since then he has held around twenty personal exhibitions that have influenced Estonian art of painting as well as intervened the art scene also in a broader way. His first significant personal exhibition Mainstream was held in Hobusepea gallery in 2006. His ceiling painting completed for Theatre NO99 in 2012 is considered to be of crucial importance; followed by expansive personal exhibitions Architectural Photography with a Little Boy in Kreenholm villa, Narva (2014), Etudes for Piano and Canvas in Tartu Art Museum (2015) and in Hobusepea gallery (2016). Tõnis Saadoja's artwork has been recognized with the Konrad Mägi Painting Award (2015), Kristjan Raud Art Award (2013) and three times with the annual award of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2012, 2008, 2006). In 2011, Saadoja was one of the artists nominated for Köler Prize. This year, the artist was selected to participate in the reputable Wiels Residency Programme in Brussels, Belgium.

2017

14.12.- 07.01.

KAREL KOPLIMETS

Case No. 12. Kalamaja

14.12.- 07.01.

KAREL KOPLIMETS

Case No. 12. Kalamaja

Karel Koplimets (1986) will open his personal exhibition Case No. 12. Kalamaja in Hobusepea and Draakon gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2016. Exhibition will be open until January 7, 2017.

„Thieves have appeared in the buses of Kalamaja. My friend had his expensive phone stolen from his pocket. The man who was sitting next to him stood up and got off the bus at the moment my friend felt that something was wrong. Stay alert, widespread appearance of aliens have occurred here.“

Posted in Facebook Kalamaja group

Karel Koplimets’s exhibition project Case No. 12. Kalamaja simultaneously held in Hobusepea and Draakon gallery studies the strange, in a way paranormal events and phenomena that have been taking place during the past few years in Kalamaja, the district in Tallinn where the artist lives. According to Kopliments, these events have a direct connection to the real estate bubble and gentrification occuring in the area.

Koplimets’s working method can be described as a sequence of case studies characterized by heightened attention towards a specific narrative situation where reality mingles with fiction. While reconstructing the cases with found objects, photographs, scale models, video and spatial installations, the artist works with such comprehensiveness that the viewer often finds it difficult to have doubts about the validness of presented information. Koplimets is intrigued by criminal statistics as well as biased relationship towards urban space. The artist magnifies the details of the surrounding urban environment, thus creating the sense of danger in viewers as well as bringing up the fears that we are first unable to define or give form to.
Case No. 12. Kalamaja is an integral spatial exhibition consisting elements of video, light and photography held in two galleries. Koplimets’s purpose is to make the viewer think about the developments in daily living environment while giving a documentary approach towards studying strange, implausible and paranormal situations and scenes taking place in Kalamaja district. In a way, the author continues to interpret the themes he has examined in his earlier work. Koplimets attempts to define the phenomenon of Kalamaja and the strange events taking place in the form of a narrative that fluctuates between documentary and fiction. It is an image about Kalamaja that has been totally turned upside down and where changes in urban space have been mingled with paranormal phenomena. Koplimets’s work is nonevaluative and noncritical, yet offering a fresh and playful approach to the depiction of daily life of a district in Tallinn.

Thanks to: Allfilm, Maido Juss, Kalle Karindi, the Koplimets family, Valge Kuup, Kaisa Maasik, Rundum, Siim Saadoja, Hanna Samoson, Johannes Säre, Mihkel Säre, Ott Tiigirand, Sigrid Viir, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Otto Varjust.

Supported by: Caparol, Cineunit, CNC Stuudio, Focuspoint, Estonian Union of Photography Artists, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts, High Voltage, Overall, Proplastik.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea and Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Karel Koplimets has graduated from the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Since 2007 he has mainly worked with photography, video and installation art. Koplimets is intrigued by complex psychological conditions based on fear, paranoia or sense of danger and their relation to urban space. In his work he has observed murder and criminal cases as well as emphasized their folkloric, mythological and conspiratorial aspects. Koplimets is a member of artist group Visible Solutions LLC (together with Taaniel Raudsep and Sigrid Viir) that studies the mechanisms of market economy and their relations with an individual as well as media. The artist has also completed several art projects with Ivar Veermäe. Besides several personal exhibitions Koplimets has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Estonia and elsewhere in Europe. www.karelkoplimets.com

11.01.- 30.01.

TAAVI SUISALU

Landscapes and portraits

11.01.- 30.01.

TAAVI SUISALU

Landscapes and portraits

TAAVI SUISALU‘s (1982) personal exhibition Landscapes and portraits will be opened in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, January 11, 2017.

Taavi Suisalu: „While preparing for the current exhibition, I have navigated on the surface of technological sphere and practised cosmic field-recording and distant photography – for that purpose, I have used the top achievements of the engineering science of the Cold War era, the orbiting satellites accessible from electromagnetic landscapes. Their ability to communicate information between very far distances changed the ways we move in space and time as well as perceive the personal and the general in it. The equipment originally designed for military purposes is now widely used in science, communication and has become part and parcel of the global culture. The first ones have transformed into inadequate technological waste. However, there are cases where, as a result of favourable system errors, satellites have reset their working regime after they have been switched off. This, in turn, results in transmission of dented, disrupted and noisy signals with the potential of an aesthetic error.
At the present exhibition, landscape and portraits have interwoven. Landscape is presented as a distant self-portrait – a somewhat cosmic reflection where the one taking his portrait and the one whose portrait is being taken have been recorded as a pixel, the smallest addressable element, in the middle of the picture. The exhibition tells about the unaddressed signals; suspense between the personal and the general; love towards antennas; technological metaphysics and technological utopia to defy gravitation while free-falling for several decades.“

Exhibition will be open until January 30, 2017.

Thanks to: Kaspars Lielgalvis, MoKS, Evelyn Raudsepp, Heiki Zvorovski, Ivar Suisalu, Kadri Toom.

Exhibition will be supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Taavi Suisalu works in the field of technological, performance and sound art. The artist is most intrigued by sociocultural phenomena and their influence to social beings's behaviour, perception and thinking. Suisalu has studied sociology and informatics at the University of Tartu, he has graduated from the department of media and advertisement design at Tartu Art College in 2010 as well as obtained MA degree in the deparment of new media at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2014. Suisalu has also taken additional courses in L’École de design Nantes Atlantique, France and in Geneva University of Art and Design, Switzerland. He has participated in several international art projects and workshops in Estonia, Iceland, Lithuania, Finland and Switzerland. In 2014, Taavi Suisalu was awarded the Young Artist Prize, granted by the Estonian Academy of Arts and private investors, that provided the artist also with the opportunity to hold a personal exhibition I am NOT sitting in a room in Draakon gallery. In 2016, Suisalu took part in the 5^th Artishok Biennale curated by Evelyn Raudsep in Theatre NO99.

02.02.- 20.02.

GIULIA LANDONIO & JOHANNA GRETA MöLDER & ANN PAJUVäLI & IRMA ISABELLA RAABE

A Space Above the Line

02.02.- 20.02.

GIULIA LANDONIO & JOHANNA GRETA MöLDER & ANN PAJUVäLI & IRMA ISABELLA RAABE

A Space Above the Line

Group exhibition A Space Above the Line will be open in Hobusepea gallery at 6 pm on February 2nd, 2017. The participating artists are Giulia Landonio, Johanna Greta Mölder, Ann Pajuväli and Irma Isabella Raabe tutored by Margit Säde and Liina Siib.

The group of MA students of the Estonian Academy of Arts has turned the gallery into a seemingly habitable apartment consisting of all the usual things that belong to a home. Yet, it is unclear whether it is an air.bnb.com apartment, a recently renovated office space, or a conceptual furniture shop. The artists have created a space that aims at being a space in progress, a space on tour while never really finally arriving any destination. Current exhibition simulates the dystopian post-truth space – a place that is simultaneously public and private, virtual and physical, where sounds and echoes can be heard but where the human being is absent.

What should one do with the things that don’t follow the line or cannot be placed on the indicated shelf? Where should one locate his or her human obsessions, fears, anxieties, wishes – the inner speech filling one’s senses? Occupying a space in such a way creates unpredictable shifts where things stop functioning the way one could assume – free associations become true, embarrassing confessions and deviations are allowed and irrationality becomes the only reality.

On every Sunday during the exhibition there will be a special programme – a counterbalance for the „post-truth“ situation – that offers a meeting place for various activities related to voice, word and listening.

Programme:
2 pm on February 5: authors of Värske Rõhk – Margit Lõhmus, Kristjan Haljak, Eileen Änilane, Anne Kaare and Kristel Birgit Potsepp – present their work.
2 pm on February 12: Riina Maidre voice workshop.
2 pm on February 19: Piret Karro reads her poetry, Kadi Estland talks about her web book Curriculum Vitt (www.curriculumvitt.ee), listening session by Margit de Säd.

Thanks to: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, department of graphic art at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Jan Lütjohann, Kirill Tulin, Heldur Lassi, Marko Nautras, authors of Värske Rõhk, Riina Maidre, Kadi Estland, Jaak Arula, Audioguide Ltd, Hans-Gunter Lock, Alar and Marju Raabe.

Exhibition will be open until February 20, 2017.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

22.02.- 13.03.

ALISSA NIRGI

Two by two

22.02.- 13.03.

ALISSA NIRGI

Two by two

ALISSA NIRGI (1993) will open her personal exhibition Two by two in Hobusepea gallery on Wednesday at 6pm on February 22nd, 2017.

Alissa Nirgi is a photography artist who lives and work in Tallinn. She has obtained BA degree from the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2016. Nirgi is currently studying at the refreshment training course on visual art therapy at Tallinn University. In 2015, Alissa Nirgi was awarded the Eduard Wiiralt Grant. Among her works of wider recognition there are photography project „A new land outside my window“ (exhibited in 2015-2016 in several exhibitions, including EKA Gallery during Tallinn Photo Month; Dymchuk gallery in Kiev, Ukraine; and Riga Photography Biennale) and public space photo installation „Kaspar is sitting“ (2015, exhibited in public space of Tallinn, Estonia).

In her work, Nirgi uses documentary approach and is mostly inspired by alienation from one’s environment, accommodation and the sense of belonging. While being intrigued by the subjects such as migration and language barrier, the artist focuses on human beings or human groups who are in a way between two environments – they have either been separated from or forced to leave their habitual enviroment and they are strangers in their new surroundings.

At her current exhibition in Hobusepea gallery, Alissa Nirgi presents a photo series that has been completed in collaboration with eight Mormon missionaries serving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tallinn, Pärnu and Tartu. Nirgi asked the missionaries to take photos with disposable cameras about their favourite places, people, objects and situations in order to find out about their personal preferences.

Exhibition will be open until March 13, 2017.

Thanks to: Terje Nirgi, Kaspar Kiinvald, Mari Armei

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

17.03.- 03.04.

VARVARA & MAR & OPN STUDIO & VICENTE VáZQUEZ / USUE ARRIETA & JAVIER ÁLVAREZ & JAIME DE LOS RíOS

Perro / Koer / Dog

17.03.- 03.04.

VARVARA & MAR & OPN STUDIO & VICENTE VáZQUEZ / USUE ARRIETA & JAVIER ÁLVAREZ & JAIME DE LOS RíOS

Perro / Koer / Dog

Group exhibition Perro / Koer / Dog will be opened in Hobusepea gallery on Friday at 6pm on March 17, 2017. Participating artists: Varvara & Mar, OPN Studio, Vicente Vázquez / Usue Arrieta, Javier Álvarez and Jaime de los Ríos. Curator Javier Galán.

The curator and the artists will give a guided tour of the exhibition on Sunday at 4pm on March 19, 2017. Current exhibition is organized by artists’ duo Varvara & Mar (Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet) who for the second time bring Spanish contemporary art to Tallinn under the aegis of Iberofest organized by the Spanish Embassy. As a tradition, Iberofest takes place in March with the aim to introduce Ibero-American culture to Estonian audience. Exhibition will be open until April 3, 2017.

On 5th July, 1993, the cartoonist Peter Steiner published a cartoon in the New York Times where two dogs appeared in front of a computer. One said to the other: “On the Internet, nobody knows you´re a dog”. That way he formally portrayed the internet identity, which is the projection of what I show so that others form the image I want of me. Myself in a third state, that is to say: Me, the first, what others see in me, the second, what I let them see in internet, the third. “Perro” the word in Spanish for “Dog”, is an exhibition of artists that qualify and reflect the identity in internet.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Spanish Embassy in Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Varvara & Mar is an artist duo formed by Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet in 2009. They have exhibited their art pieces in a number of international shows and festivals. In 2014 duo has been commission by Google and Barbican Centre for creating a new art piece for Digital Revolution exhibition. And last year their public art proposal for Green Square Library and Plaza in Sydney was nominated for the final stage. In addition to that, they have been on nonstop residency tour for three years. The artist duo locates itself in the field of art and technology and is concerned about the new forms of art, innovation, and also the application of knitting in the field of digital fabrication. They use and challenge technology in order to explore novel concepts in art and design. Hence, research is an integral part of their creative practice.

OPN Studio Duo formed by Susana Ballesteros and Jano Montañés (Zaragoza, Spain). Both combine complementary training based on, Art, Design, Programming, Mechanical, Electronics and Audiovisual that clearly mark all their line of work. Their investigation reflects on the individual as a social being in a broad context. Their work unifies several fields: Art, Science and Technology, deepens topics as present as individualism, isolation, narcissism and social behaviour among others, through new technologies, such as electronics, robotics, video and interactive installation as the primary means of expression and direct transmitter, thus facilitating reflection by creating a more direct dialogue. They have made both collective and individual exhibitions in America and Europe, in countries such as Spain, U.S.A, Finland, France, Dominican Republic, Chile, Honduras, El Salvador or Mexico.

Vicente Vázquez / Usue Arrieta Vicente Vázquez and Usue Arrieta met in 2001 in La Mancha plateau (Spain). Since then they do serve from the context and artistic films to launch its activity: Multidisciplinary based exercises redefining social spaces. “We try to establish approaches to the forms of the collective. For that we fix our attention on productive contexts where boundaries of modern work and leisure deployed during industrialization diluted, intertwining and feeding back. We use art and its tools to enable pathways ongoing relationship with the environment and build a way of life. Over the years the notion of closed roads projects gave way to more organic working, which extend and branch out in time forming a constellation of interests that act as a substrate of permanent activity that sometimes crystallizes into cultural objects”.

Javier Álvarez is born in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1979. Javier Álvarez is specialized in experimental sound, video & installation based on a large amount of techniques, from circuit bending to algorithmic and generative composition, going through worlds seemingly far apart as the chiptunes and the concrete music or the field recordings, for example. His live performances are a mixture of all kind of built instruments and obsolete or modified devices, all of them live played, which makes of each performance a site specific piece. He performed in three editions of the Sonar festival (2001 as Bravido, 2009 as Néboa, 2010 as Fluzo), Primavera Sound (2011, as Dúo Cobra), La2 (Spain’s state-owned television, 2012 as Dúo Cobra), and in lots of related events as Kosmópolis, LEM festival, CA2M, CCCB, MUSAC, Casa Encendida, Radio 3, CGAC, Zemos98, Technarte.

Jaime de los Ríos is born in San Sebastian (1982) and founder of the open laboratory of Art and Science ARTEK [Lab]; located in the center of Arteleku creation. His career focuses on the intersection of these disciplines and Systemics, in relation to the mechanisms, natural rhythms and patterns. Specialist Software and Hardware Free, we find in his work immersive environments as well as dynamic linking works natural behaviour with the computer. In 2010, he received the New Artists award and in 2012 the scholarship of the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council for its facilities developed with new technologies. In recent years, Jaime has also been director and technical coordinator of Art-Futura. His works can be found in Arteklab.org

06.04.- 24.04.

KEIU MAASIK

In Memory’s House of Cards

06.04.- 24.04.

KEIU MAASIK

In Memory’s House of Cards

27.04.- 15.05.

LAIVI & MIHKEL MARIPUU

Killer Image: Shifting Modes of Desire

27.04.- 15.05.

LAIVI & MIHKEL MARIPUU

Killer Image: Shifting Modes of Desire

LAIVI & MIHKEL MARIPUU will open their first co-exhibition Killer Image: Shifting Modes of Desire in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday on April 27, 2017.

The artists comment on their exhibition as follows: „There are two instruments for purposeful manipulating: material and idea. The sum of all possibilities is an imperceptible chaos where order should be created while ignoring disorder. We are interpreting mental ideas into physical matter while searching, defining and understanding for a moment. The essence of art is an assiduous act of an unattainable truth, realizing ideas in physical matter: creating identifiable associations between the perceived idea and the conquered matter. Qualitative analysis. Perfection is unattainable as it is inevitable that the result of a concept becoming matter will be equivocal, general or ambiguous. Visual outcome depends on the way abstraction works. Choices are stylistical. Connection between material and the created product is both psyhical and immaterial. While sensing the intrinsic characteristics, meanings and restrictions of chosen materials, we adjust and apply the concept accordingly.
Mundane realization tests the aptitude of a human-size object. What can we depict as an image and a word after all? To express the essence of existence? Is it only the aptitude of translating the complex idea that we really value? According to the first impression and appearance? Does an image talk? Is language, being more explicit, more efficient than matter? The same words won’t guarantee understanding, however, these help to express viewpoints, offer support and protection. Trying to understand is human; yet, every interpretation is definitely personal, with the mixed layers of consciousness and subconsciousness. An artwork is a border between the inner and outer world of an artist. The starting point and choices change together with one’s identity: personal convictions and social belonging. Present moment of time is connected to the choices of both the past and the future.“

Exhibition will be open until May 15, 2017.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Laivi (Laivi Suurväli) has studied advertising in Great Britain, fashion design in Denmark, Finland and Estonian Academy of Arts. Since 2014 she has participated in exhibitions („Separation of Space“ in ISFAG@EKKM, 2014; „On disappearing & for vanishing“ in Tartu Art Museum, 2016). Laivi has held personal exhibitions in EKA Gallery and Tartu Art Museum (both in 2016). Her personal exhibition TOO MUCH TOO LITTLE / fashion renewing the balance between hiding and showing is accessible in www.konstanet.com.

Mihkel Maripuu has obtained BA degree in the department of painting, faculty of philosophy, at the University of Tartu in 2010 and MA degree in the department of painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2014. He has also been an ERASMUS exchange student in Berlin. Maripuu has participated in exhibitions since 2008. Among other exhibitions, he took part in the painting exhibition Can't Go On, Must Go On and Compulsion, both held in Tallinn Art Hall in 2014. His previous personal exhibition in Hobusepea gallery took place in 2014.

17.05.- 05.06.

ANNA MARI LIIVRAND

Unshatterable

17.05.- 05.06.

ANNA MARI LIIVRAND

Unshatterable

07.06.- 03.07.

SööT/ZEYRINGER

On time

07.06.- 03.07.

SööT/ZEYRINGER

On time

Artist duo SÖÖT/ZEYRINGER will open their exhibition On time in Hobusepea gallery at 7pm on June 7th, 2017.

Sööt/Zeyringer’s live performances and video works are based on movement and text which are combined in rhythmical and poetic structures. In their work they try to find beauty, poetry, wit and absurdity in every-day acts, language and objects. Sööt/Zeyringer focuses on seemingly self-evident situations that are almost imperceptible, but most of us can identify with. In a poetic and humoristic way the works turn everyday procedures and acts upside down, revealing the performative potential of simple situations. By putting these insignificant moments into a new context, Sööt/Zeyringer‘s work speaks about larger matters.
The show On time combines 3 performative works by Sööt/Zeyringer. At the opening 2 of the pieces are shown as live performances.

sootzeyringer.wordpress.com

Exhibition will be open until July 3rd, 2017.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Sööt/Zeyringer (Tiina Sööt and Dorothea Zeyringer) is a Vienna based artist duo that col-laborates since 2012 and creates performative work situated at the intersection of visual arts, dance and theatre. Their works have been presented at brut Vienna, Tanzquartier Vienna, Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava Tallinn, Schauspiel Köln, Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna and National Dance Center Bucharest among others. They received the ImPulsTanz TURBO residency in 2013, the Tanz*Hotel residency in 2014, the transeuropa Work Residency in 2015 and an appreciation award by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2016. Their performance “lonely lonely” was awarded the Performing Arts Award by the Federal Chancellery of Austria, 2015 and the Young Stoff award by the Stockholm Fringe Festival, 2016.

05.07.- 31.07.

MIHKEL ILUS

Stick It On Your Wall

05.07.- 31.07.

MIHKEL ILUS

Stick It On Your Wall

The solo exhibition Stick It On Your Wall by Mihkel Ilus will open at Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, 5 July 2017.

At the hands of a new generation of painters, painting has found a new direction towards authenticity and the field of playfulness by breaking itself away from the canvas in spatial games, shamelessly asking questions about the existence of painting.
Undoubtedly, one of the most notable artists working with these ideas is Mihkel Ilus as has already been seen since his solo show Robusto four years ago. This exhibition forms both a conclusion to his experiments of the last four years and an interlude to a new chapter, painting that has almost completely liberated itself from the dictates of the brush, paint and canvas.
The exhibition is topographically divided between the conscious structural experiments on the ground floor and works that are still playing with the personal and intimate nature of easel painting, alluding to the subconscious, on the basement level. While the visible and meaningful part of traditional easel painting – the standard “oil on canvas” – has always been a flat, usually rectangular surface placed on the wall, and the invisible-meaningless structure that is mostly hidden is the stretcher frame, made not by painters but by woodwork technicians, in this exhibition the tradition has clearly been subverted, the wedge suddenly becomes more important than the canvas. As a commentary on all these liberal games, the artist plays in the exhibition by taking various derivatives of painting into the space – a text-based work in oils is stamped onto the wall ironically stating “Stick it onto your wall”. Nevertheless, it is not irony that dominates the show, but the drive for authenticity, resonating with the former ambition of abstract art, a playful attempt to prod the flesh and bones of painting. In any case, it is a way out of the zombie formalism haunting painting today.

Hanno Soans, art critic and curator

The exhibition is open until July 31, 2017.

Thanks: Estonian Artists’ Association, Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Meinar Mäesalu, Asso Riisalu, Sander Veermäe, Igor Hobotov, Allan Appelberg, Johannes Säre, Maija Rudovska, Hannes Aasamets, Hanno Soans, Henri Hütt, Karin Kahre, Elna Ilus, Maarja Tõnisson.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Mihkel Ilus (1987) is a visual artist working in the expanded field of painting. He often works with large scale installations with a focus on the painterly approach. A significant part of his practice involves blending contemporary exhibiting culture and the performing arts. Ilus studied painting at the University of Tartu and Estonian Academy of Arts. He has been part of numerous group shows and co-curated exhibitions of young artists at Tallinn Art Hall and elsewhere, as well as co-producing and taking part in many performing arts projects. So far Ilus has had two solo exhibitions. He has been awarded several prizes in Estonia. Mihkel Ilus is based in Tallinn.

02.08.- 28.08.

JENNY GöRNHOLM

Wreck

02.08.- 28.08.

JENNY GöRNHOLM

Wreck

30.08.- 18.09.

KRISTIN REIMAN

Wearing Out and Weathering

30.08.- 18.09.

KRISTIN REIMAN

Wearing Out and Weathering

20.09.- 10.10.

HENRI HüTT

Romantic Loneliness

20.09.- 10.10.

HENRI HüTT

Romantic Loneliness

12.10.- 30.10.

KRISTINA ÕLLEK & KERT VIIART

You Know You’ve Become Part of the View

12.10.- 30.10.

KRISTINA ÕLLEK & KERT VIIART

You Know You’ve Become Part of the View

Kristina Õllek and Kert Viiart will open their joint exhibition “You Know You’ve Become Part of the View” at Hobusepea gallery on Thursday, 12th of October at 6pm. The exhibition is part of the Young Artist Prize, which was awarded to Kristina Õllek in 2016 for her MA graduation work, and it belongs to the Tallinn Photomonth’17 contemporary art biennial gallery programm.

The exhibition “You Know You’ve Become Part of the View ” is a continuation to Õllek’s previous exhibition project “When You Have the Object Itself in Front of Your Eyes” and their collaborative project “Exhibit_onscroll” on Instagram, which both engaged with the questions of image representation and dematerialisation within observing the format of an exhibition, and its influence on the viewer and contemporary art position in the digital age. The new exhibition at Hobusepea gallery will carry on with previous subjects and complement these through the contemporary context of archeology and museology by researching the relationship between the exhibited objects and their display elements as well the representative 3D virtual reality.

The exhibition is open untill the 30th of October.

Photos: Kristina Õllek
Thanks to: Snehta residency, Aap Tepper, Rundum, Laura Toots, Kadri Laas, Tallinna Fotokuu’17, Liina Järvik, Laura Põld, Mathias Väärsi, Stacey Koosel.

The exhibition is supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tehnikarent, Digiprint OÜ, Laserstuudio OÜ, Õllenaut OÜ.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Kristina Õllek works in the field of photography, video and installation, and questions the relations between space, object and image, considering the context of the original and the copy. Her work examines contemporary visual culture, how representation can be mediated and how it influences our perception. She is particularly interested in the format of exhibition making and in the phenomenon of art docu-mentation, regarding how its position has changed in the digital age. Kristina Õllek received a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts (Fine Arts, Photography), as well as completed her studies at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam (2016) and Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee (2012). She has twice been awarded the Young Artist Prize by the Estonian Academy of Arts (in 2013 and 2016). Since 2013 she is the co-founder and member of the artist-run space Rundum. www.kristinaollek.com

Kert Viiart is a graphic designer and visual artist. In his practice he deals with the influence of technological development on visual language by researching the relations of virtual representations to everyday objects and environments. He also co-runs, with Carl-Robert Kagge, a graphic design studio Le60. He has worked in the Estonian Academy of Arts as the master of silk screen printing studio and as a guest lector at the Department of Graphic Design. www.kertviiart.com

03.11.- 20.11.

MARI-LEEN KIIPLI

Passiflora

03.11.- 20.11.

MARI-LEEN KIIPLI

Passiflora

24.11.- 18.12.

JOHANNES SäRE

24.11.- 18.12.

JOHANNES SäRE

Johannes Säre’s personal exhibition will be opened in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Friday, November 24, 2017. With the current exhibition the artist, who has also been called a trickster, wittily celebrates everyday moments that people have picked up but neglected right away.

The new video piece has been inspired by the famous “The Flight of the Valkyries” from the opera “Ring of the Nibelungs” by Richard Wagner. This musical piece has been used for dramatic illustration in hundreds of feature films and TV series. Säre’s video combines the recording of a performance of Wagner’s music by Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the recordings of small everyday moments that seem to be the real life analogues of his earlier aesthetic machines.

The artist comments on his theme and inspiration as follows: “If I had to define my research subject then I would say it is the everyday world. Most of the ideas have born from minor observations, for instance when I see an icy puddle with the shape of a shadow of a car on a cold morning. I take notes of the things that from the rational point of view are completely unnecessary and generally won’t be memorized. Sometimes these ideas become artworks of some kind.”

According to Siim Preiman, the curator of the exhibition, the focus of Säre’s work is on the viewer – on attracting the viewer’s attention and creating an indelible memory. Preiman states that Johannes Säre is a good-hearted agent whose work mocks the positions of both serious art and the serious art afficionado. However, this time he won’t entrap anyone nor play practical jokes – instead, the artist presents a few situations the way they may seem at a right moment, in a right light, in all their grandeur and beauty.

Present exhibition was created in collaboration with the video production company Propaganda Productions and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a specially published book (texts by Marika Agu, Janar Ala, Johannes Lõhmus and Siim Preiman; illustrations by Ann Paljuväli; design and layout by Studio Le60). The book presentation will take place at 6pm on Wednesday, December 13, 2017.

Johannes Säre (b. 1983) lives and works in Tallinn. He has graduated from the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Interactive installations affecting the viewer, word plays and literalness are the central keywords to describe his artwork. Säre’s last personal exhibition “Super-intelligent shadow of the colour blue” was held in Draakon gallery in 2014. In the same year he was also given Köler Prize audience award for his work “Ascent to the Abyss of Lost Ideas”.

Siim Preiman (b. 1992) is an art agent located in Tallinn. He works as a curator at Tallinn Art Hall and runs a travelling gallery galerii. The last exhibition he curated was Art Nõukas’s “Lost and Found” in galerii in July 2017.

Exhibition will be open until December 18, 2017.

Thanks to: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Estonian Artists’ Association, Vannistuudio LLC, Dreamland Home LLC, Heidi Alba, Mihkel Alba, Kristiina Hansen, Tamara Luuk, Ulla Säre, Mihkel Säre, Villem Säre.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

2016

13.01.- 01.02.

TõNIS SAADOJA

Etudes for Piano and Canvas

13.01.- 01.02.

TõNIS SAADOJA

Etudes for Piano and Canvas

Tõnis Saadoja (1980) will open his personal exhibition Etudes for Piano and Canvas in Hobusepea gallery on Wednesday at 6 pm on January 13, 2016.

„Etudes for Piano and Canvas is a monochrome series of still lifes seeking for balance between the figurative, literary and material essence of the art of painting. The series of paintings have been described as a contemplative, cryptic or elegic one. Despite the fact that as an artist I have a discernible duty to give specifying references in the field of interpretation, I have to say that the absence of accurate articulation followed the whole process of creating the current series of works.

Motifs – both those that have lingered for a long time and those improvised during the working process – meet in the still lifes related to the glossy surface of a piano. Instead of the unambiguous meaning of selected objects I prefer diverging associations and the relation of a single frame to a larger still life. Fields of paint applied to an uncoated canvas in impasto technique remind of pieces literally torn out from a larger picture. Within the range of virtual information the dark rectangle becomes the epitome of a screen; asymmetrical solidified mass of paint seems sporadically stepping out to meet the viewers and with the backdrop of chosen motifs represents the physical presence of a painting.

A piano is for playing, a canvas is for painting, artwork is for viewing, things are for using. As a result of mixing the depicted things, activities and related associations, I reached ideas and compositions that have not yet been toyed with.

When in the course of time an image will shrink to the degree that there won’t be left anything else than notes or simple comments then Etudes for Piano and Canvas summarizes formulated sensations and a wider emotional backdrop that accompanied the process of creating the current series during the first half of 2015.“

Tõnis Saadoja

Exhibition will be open until February 1st, 2016.

The artist thanks the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Rinaldo Production LLC.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Tõnis Saadoja (1980) studied painting at Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn (graduated in 2004) and has an MA in Fine Art from the University of East London. He has had eight solo exhibitions from 2001 and has participated in twenty group exhibitions in Estonia and internationally. Known primarily for his photorealist approach to painting, his work also includes photographic installations and a book on Estonian artist Urmas Ploomipuu (1942-1990), published together with an exhibition in Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn (2011). Saadoja’s works are characterized by a conceptual structure and a search for technically unusual form for everyday images. He works mainly in series, where the chosen theme varies through a multi-part row of images. An exception to this is the ceiling painting for the Theatre NO99 in Tallinn (2012). Saadoja has been awarded the Estonian Cultural Endowment annual award in 2006, 2008 and 2012 and has also won the Köler Prize audience award in 2011, the Kristjan Raud award in 2013 and the Konrad Mägi award in 2015. His works can be found in the collections of the Estonian Art Museum and in private collections.

03.02.- 22.02.

ROBIN NõGISTO

Pictures at an Exhibition

03.02.- 22.02.

ROBIN NõGISTO

Pictures at an Exhibition

25.02.- 14.03.

ANDRES LõO

Phantom Platform

25.02.- 14.03.

ANDRES LõO

Phantom Platform

Andres Lõo (1978) will open his personal exhibition Phantom Platform in Hobusepea gallery on Thursday at 6 pm on February 25, 2016.

Andres Lõo: “Some representatives of neuroscience claim that people have two bodies – physical and phantom ones. A phantom body is our perception of how our different body parts function as a whole. The phenomenon of a phantom limb is experienced by those whose arm or leg has been amputated but the person still “feels” the limb. The ghost of the limb is still “alive”.
In the context of contemporary art, the concept of phantom limb can be used as a metaphor for visionary thinking. There must be a way to imagine an appropriate, quotidian science-fictional future that will be today already tomorrow. When we are unaware of what we are looking for but aware of the qualities of the thing we are looking for then in order to reach the thing we will use our ability to imagine – the phantom platform. It is a secret agenda, an indeterminable yet instrumental idea that every artist is striving for. Phantom platform is a metaspace where we project our direct future to.”

Exhibition will be open until March 14, 2016.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Andres Lõo is an artist expressing himself through music, visual art and performative practices. Lõo has studied in Tartu Art College, Tallinn Polytechnic School and the department of leather art at the Estonian Academy of Arts; currently he is preparing for graduation from the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Since 1999, Lõo has participated in numerous curatorial exhibitions and various interdisciplinary art projects; curated exhibitions, festivals, compilations and projects; and acted in several feature films. Andres Lõo is also known as a composer and musician (performer in the music groups Luarvik Luarvik, Opium Flirt and Faun Racket); he has released several solo albums. Ten years have passed since the artist's last gallery-centered personal exhibition Mono held in Tallinn City Gallery. Present art project held in Hobusepea gallery is Lõo's fifth personal exhibition. He characterizes it as a gambit, an instrument and an idea expressed by photography, videos and installation.

16.03.- 04.04.

ART & HELENA

O’, why do we play this game?

16.03.- 04.04.

ART & HELENA

O’, why do we play this game?

05.04.- 23.04.

MATTHIAS SILDNIK

Happy Space

05.04.- 23.04.

MATTHIAS SILDNIK

Happy Space

Matthias Sildnik (1987) will open his personal exhibition Happy Space in Draakon gallery at 5 pm on April 5, 2016.

Present exhibition Happy Space is based on the concept of Robert Oppenheimer Non-Profit Ideas Bank (RONIB) that is focused on institutional brainstorming culture. RONIB aims to create a broad resource of ideas and projects. All statistics and analysis that is related to idea production is public and charity-based. The concentrated resource is not directed at certain age, job or other target group. Ideas bank is open for everyone, who is interested in using creative ideas for any purpose. The RONIB institution is not a profit-based enterprise – instead it develops its mission for the society. Robert Oppenheimer’s contribution to the development of the structure of institutional brainstorming is the legacy, where RONIB draws its basic values, that are articulated as follows:

1. To spread and develop brainstorming culture;
2. To increase the amount of incidentally spreading non-profit information – as positive chaos;
3. To ecourage individual ideas production under the conditions of acknowledged institutional surveillance;
4. To map the process of collective ideas production;
5. To reduce the need for privacy.

Robert Oppenheimer Non-Profit Ideas Bank presents: Happy Space.

One of the most important parts of brainstorming culture is common ground. The spatial structures, where subjects of idea production are included, determine the motivation and possible conditions of production units. What is an inspiring environment?
In order to find out, RONIB has formed a questionnaire with given questions and open idea sketches. The questionnaire will be sent to universities and selected companies. The analysis of results will be transformed into a graphic interpretation, which gives visual overview of a work environment, as diverse as possible, using the means of 3D visualization. The result displays a corporate space of future which structure will be determined by the program analyzing personal needs. The analysis is based on the idea of the privatization gradient of the subject expressing the services an individual considers necessary for living with the help of his/her private employer.
The questionnaire is a means of mapping the adaptive idea production in a community. The result will be treated as a collective will through which spatial environment is being reorganized. Is it possible to structure a space that is in harmony with every individual’s expectations of the principles of collective organization? Present project is based on the assumption that this is both possible and necessary.

Matthias Sildnik

Exhibition will be open until April 23, 2016.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Matthias Sildnik has obtained both BA (2010) and MA (2014) degrees in the department of installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has also studied in the Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics and Institute of Cultural Research and Fine Arts in the department of philosophy at the University of Tartu. Sildnik has participated in exhibitions since 2008.

07.04.- 25.04.

ANNA ŠKODENKO

[field] which is nearly pure

07.04.- 25.04.

ANNA ŠKODENKO

[field] which is nearly pure

Anna Škodenko‘s (1986) personal exhibition [field] which is nearly pure will be open from Thursday, April 7th, 2016.

Anna Škodenko: „Exhibition is approaching. The starting point of my work has passed long ago. Time is running out, artwork is ready. Decisions have to be made. The canvases are taken away from the studio. The intimacy between me and the canvases becomes a distance. My glance at my work will be replaced by other people’s glances.

Current exhibition serves as a continuation to the painting series Prisoner’s Cinema (that the artist exhibited at the group exhibition Can’t go on, must go on in Tallinn Art Hall in 2014) that studied the phenomenon of „prisoner’s cinema“ – the concept used for describing and studying visual experience of those who have spent longer time in conditions of restricted visibility / darkness. „Prisoner’s cinema“ proves human incapability to experience the lack of visual information. While doing research on this topic I used the negative images of snow that I considered to be in correlation and dialogue with the phenomenon. I am still intrigued by the subject and will continue working with it. This has resulted in a long-term wandering during which I started to feel myself as moving in the snow:

A bleak field, and completely pure. My eyes are looking for something.
My body remains moving towards, yet to a suspicious direction. My footprints are the only reference, the only „mistake“ within this pureness, always being left behind. This smooth movement continues until the snowy landscape ends. Snow will melt and vanish together with its traces, whether naturally or unnaturally, also taking away my footprints.

While thinking about all this, I got attracted by the aspects of vulnerability and getting lost. Human conditions, thoughts, choices, beliefs or preferences are not universally reasoned since these are volatile in nature – something will always change or end – sometimes it feels that everything. My purpose is to record, remember, locate, fix something. Taking pictures, drawing and writing would not work here, rather the opposite: this will help you to get rid of things, to forget them. The only effort of strength and will is the attention paid to things and phenomena: readiness and desire to notice, receive and probably to lose later on.

I drew (I’d rather say „painted“) with chalk on standard black chalkboards – I applied a layer of chalk, then dispersed, erased, looked at the picture and started again from the beginning – the disrupted layer of white dust. Is it possible after all that these pictures will be ever ready? Maybe not this time. Almost. Something remains disregarded. Between the possible end and the beginning, something touchy and vulnerable.“

Exhibition will be open until April 25, 2016.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Anna Škodenko has graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts; she has also studied in Chelsea College of Art and later in the Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow. She has participated in exhibitions since 2007; recently in the group exhibition „DOings & kNOTs“ curated by Margit Säde in Tallinn Art Hall at the end of 2015.

28.04.- 16.05.

MARGE MONKO

Hips Don’t Lie

28.04.- 16.05.

MARGE MONKO

Hips Don’t Lie

Marge Monko‘s solo show Hips Don’t Lie will be open in Hobusepea gallery from Thursday, April 28th, 2016.

At the current exhibition the artist presents her new work that studies choreography of desire and its representation through images.

The exposition is introduced by the installation where the main image is the screenshot of a workout video with Jane Fonda recorded in 1982. The title Jane Fonda’s Workout refers to an endlessly cyclical act similar to housework and housekeeping.
The gym with Palladian windows and Fonda’s colourful lycra training outfit are one of the most vivid elements symbolizing Western lifestyle that Monko remembers from her childhood.

The artist also presents her new photographic series Ten past ten where she has used the images of wrist watch advertisements; and video Dear D that focuses on the contemporary ways of declaring one’s love.

You are welcome to the opening of the exhibition at 6 pm on April 28, 2016.

Exhibition will be open until May 16, 2016.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and OUTSET Estonia.

Special thanks to: Dénes Farkas, Mikk Heinsoo, Laura Marmor, Johannes Säre, Toomas Täht, Benjamin Verhoeven, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Valge Kuup LLC.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Marge Monko (1976) has studied photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, and mainly works with photography, video and installation. Monko has been mainly inspired by historical images and influenced by the theories of psychoanalysis, feminism and visual culture. The artist has held personal exhibitions in Tallinn, Helsinki, Budapest and Mumok (Museum of Modern Art in Vienna); she has taken part in several reputable international exhibitions. Monko won the Henkel art.Award in 2012; in 2013-2015 she participated in studio program in HISK (Higher Institute for Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium); in 2015 she was in the artist residence in ISCP (International Studio & Curatorial Program) in New York. Marge Monko is represented by Ani Molnár gallery (Budapest). www.margemonko.com

18.05.- 06.06.

TAAVI PIIBEMANN & TOOMAS THETLOFF

The Annual Spring Exhibition of Taavi and Toomas

18.05.- 06.06.

TAAVI PIIBEMANN & TOOMAS THETLOFF

The Annual Spring Exhibition of Taavi and Toomas

09.06.- 25.06.

ANU VAHTRA

A Fact in Sapace. After Exhibitions

09.06.- 25.06.

ANU VAHTRA

A Fact in Sapace. After Exhibitions

29.06.- 18.07.

EDE RAADIK

Nobody should approach their work carelessly, especially YOU…

29.06.- 18.07.

EDE RAADIK

Nobody should approach their work carelessly, especially YOU…

Ede Raadik‘s (1989) personal exhibition Nobody should approach their work carelessly, especially YOU… will be open in Hobusepea gallery from June 29th, 2016.

Ede Raadik has graduated from the department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts where she obtained BA degree in 2013 and MA degree in 2015. She has participated in the exhibitions of 16th Tallinn Printing Triennial Literacy-Illiteracy in Rundum artist-run space and in Kumu Art Museum (2014), in Rundum Photographic Art Fair To show/To sell (2014) and in Estonian Photographic Art Fair (2015). Ede Raadik’s previous personal exhibition Me and my imaginary friends was held at the Monumental Gallery of Tartu Art House in the spring of 2016.

Ede Raadik’s artwork can be characterized by her intellectual, poetic yet emphatically dry approach. The artist works in series; her work often depicts schemes and charts where the artist presents statistics about systems that always include the unknown, thus referring to the absurdity and the possibility to distrust the presented subject. Raadik double embodies either a calculating statistician or a subjective experiencer in her work.

Raadik introduces her present exhibition with a colloquial quote followed by her personal laconic summary:
“There are always people who are socially better than others; no one shouldn’t align themselves with the worse ones, quite the opposite – I’d assume that YOU hold the flag high up and others strove for it, YOU are the best employee at the moment. Well done!“
Current exhibition includes excerpts from the two substantial series (are there ADVERTISEMENTS in CV portal after all?* and BOTTLES [CRATE EMPTY – BOX FULL / PALLET EMPTY – PALLET FULL] where the basic elements are numbers and letters. I rest on my personal working experience that I acquired when arranging goods on display in a store as well as on the principles and value systems organizing and applying to the working space.

* screamed a co-worker over the supermarket when learning that I have studied art; so I had to give a submissive answer: „No, no, I haven’t …“

– Ede Raadik

Exhibition will be open until July 18, 2016.

Thanks to: Marko Nautras, Mati Raadik, Allan Lainevool.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

20.07.- 08.04.

KAILI-ANGELA KONNO

Closed areas

20.07.- 08.04.

KAILI-ANGELA KONNO

Closed areas

10.08.- 29.08.

AKSEL HAAGENSEN

Out Of Shot

10.08.- 29.08.

AKSEL HAAGENSEN

Out Of Shot

Aksel Haagensen (1993) will open his personal exhibition Out Of Shot in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on August 10, 2016.

At his current exhibition in Hobusepea gallery Haagensen exposits his photography and video work and gives the following introduction: „Most of any image lies beyond the frame; just out of shot. Without context and prior knowledge the image is nothing. By reimagining and restaging the scene far from its original physical context, the image unravels slightly revealing how any image captured by the eye of the camera is staged. Even if the photographer has not acted as director, the mere process of converting the scene into a cropped 2D representation places it on a stage. It is torn from reality and becomes only a representation of reality. And yet, this “staged” representation or shadow of reality comes to represent the reality of a given situation and, in a way, is the subject, as far as the subject has never existed in the manner it is depicted. That person, that act, that event, that place and that era have never existed in the way we see them depicted via photographs and yet we believe they are unbiased, objective and utterly truthful.“

Exhibition will be open until August 29, 2016.

Thanks to: Hanno Padar, Liina Raat, Hans Johannes Preegel, Karl Eerik Luigend, Timo Einpaul, Agnese Pundiņa, Greg Marinovich, Contact Press Images (Jeffrey Smith), Scanpix Baltics, National Galleries of Scotland, J. Paul Getty Museum, Artistic LLC, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Liina Siib, Toomas Seppel, Keiu Krikmann, Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Aksel Haagensen was born in Sydney, Australia and currently studies in the department of installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts. This is his third personal exhibition. Haagensen's work has previously been exhibited in "Escape Landscape" in Tartu Art House (2013), curated by Kirke Kangro; in "Dimensions Variable", the exhibition of the Young Sculptor Award in Vaal gallery (2013); in "Portrait of Unseen" in ISFAG gallery (2014); and presently in "Terra Incognita: Familiar Infinity" in the inner yard of Kumu Art Museum.

31.08.- 19.09.

LAURI KOPPEL

Estonian State Design 1975-1986

31.08.- 19.09.

LAURI KOPPEL

Estonian State Design 1975-1986

21.09.- 10.10.

ERNO ENKENBERG & MATTI VAINIO & KARI VEHOSALO

Hypnosis

21.09.- 10.10.

ERNO ENKENBERG & MATTI VAINIO & KARI VEHOSALO

Hypnosis

Erno Enkenberg, Matti Vainio and Kari Vehosalo will open their exhibition Hypnosis in Hobusepea gallery at 6 pm on Wednesday, September 21, 2016.

The artists introduce their exhibition as follows: „Hypnosis is a state of human consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness and an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion.

Analogously, in social reality people are also confronted by different circumstances and prospects for information that ultimately end up guiding our private hopes and dreams. Our subconsciousness reacts to the products and belief systems that we are been offered in everyday life. Still more than often we find ourselves confused and unable to know what is best for one’s self, our friends and for the world.

People are confused because power finds it beneficial. Individuals in a society can find them selves acting in a auto pilot mode, from what is hard to switch of, but easy to be guided by the few. We are willing for suggestions. Thus power can be seen as a pathological gene that corrupts our hopes and dreams when the world does not meet up with our personal desires.

Theme for our exhibition rises from the shared interest for the human condition among the three different portrayer of humanity. As an artists we are brought together by the tradition of humanism; empathy and concern for the fellow man. Our artistic strategy is to study the commonly shared social reality and to translate it into emotionally rich artwork. Art understood in this manner isn’t just a mirror for aesthetic values, but rather an extended way of thinking, where the abstract social reality gets a form that can be shared and discussed. Thus enabling us to better understand the ever changing world.”

Exhibition will be open until October 10, 2016.

Exhibition is supported by FRAME – Contemporary Art Finland.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Erno Enkenberg (1975, Finland) lives and works in Helsinki. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Art, Helsinki. Enkenberg makes elaborate paintings out of detailed scale models. His artistic practise creates pictorial representation of the power structures of reality. Enkenberg is represented in several private and public collection, e.g. Helsinki City Art Museum, The State Art Collection of Finland, Sara Hilden Art Museum. www. enkenberg.fi

Matti Vainio (1978, Finland) graduated from the University of Arts and Design, Helsinki. Vainio resides in Tallinn, Estonia and Helsinki, Finland. Vainio’s work explores the human conditions by skilfully executed drawings. He is a member of art Gallery Toolbox collective in Berlin, Germany. mattivainio.wordpress.com

Kari Vehosalo (1982, Finland) lives and works in Helsinki and graduated from the University of Arts and Design, Helsinki. Vehosalo takes his paintings theme from the psychopathology of everyday life. Caring, death, pleasure, humiliation and pain are hidden in his work and become flesh in the viewer’s experience. Vehosalo is represented in several private and public collection, e.g. Helsinki City Art Museum, KIASMA - Museum of Contem-porary Art, Sara Hilden Art Museum. www.karivehosalo.com

12.10.- 31.10.

JASS KASELAAN

Still Life

12.10.- 31.10.

JASS KASELAAN

Still Life

Jass Kaselaan (1981) will open his personal exhibition Still Life in Hobusepea gallery on Wednesday at 6pm on October 12, 2016.

Without doubt, Jass Kaselaan can be considered as one of the most acknowledged young sculptors in Estonia. He has graduated from Tartu Art College; obtained MA degree in the department of sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts; studied in Imatra Higher Art School and in Emil Holmer’s and Veronica Brovall’s studio in Berlin. Kaselaan has been awarded Köler Prize (2014), Kristjan Raud Award (2014) and the annual Anton Starkopf Sculpture scholarship (2011). Among his recent exhibition projects the following must be emphasized: „Lighthouse“ held in Tallinn City Gallery and in the Monumental Gallery of Tartu Art House; and installation „The Square of Dolls“ completed for the nominent exhibition for Köler Prize in 2014, later exhibited in Arsenals, Fine Arts Museum in Riga and currently located in the inner yard of Kumu Art Museum. Jass Kaselaan’s artwork can be characterized by totality whereas the artist has carefully planned the most meticulous details considering the chosen topic and exhibition space.

Jass Kaselaan comments on his current exhibition: „The material that inspired me while making Still Life was soil. Soil forms at the surface of land consisting of minerals, organic matter, water, air and living organisms. It is a complex and highly diverse living environment. Soil that is considered to be a non-renewable natural resource has numerous important purposes and functions according to the aspect of human society and natural environment. In the first place, soil relates us to growing food and biomass as well as to forest management; however it has also an important role in organic ciruclation serving as a buffer, preserver and transformer. Soil binds and filters water, carbon and nitrogen; has the ability to manage pollution and destroy infectious agents. It is a living environment and a gene bank for a great number of various species of micro-organisms and bacteria among which only a few are known. In a post-industrial society, the importance of soil is underestimated. It is a substance with physical and chemical qualities, yet it has remained unapparent in our everyday life. When talking about soil, one cannot escape the topics of life and death. Soil connects the living and the dead, families and country, tells about the biological inevitability of being a human.“

Exhibition will be open until October 31st, 2016.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

03.11.- 21.11.

KRISTI KONGI

Have you seen yourself?

03.11.- 21.11.

KRISTI KONGI

Have you seen yourself?

Kristi Kongi (1985) will open her personal exhibition „Have you seen yourself?“ in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Thursday, November 3rd, 2016.

Kristi Kongi has made a name for herself among local art audience – she is undoubtedly one of the most prominent and active artists among the new generation of painters. Kongi has graduated from the department of painting at Tartu Art College in 2008 and obtained MA degree at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2011. In 2007, Kongi was an exchange student in Lahti, Finland. She has been awarded the Young Artist Prize (2011) and Sadolin Art Prize (2013). Among Kongi’s recent exhibitions, the following must be emphasized: „Then. Now. Between All Those Times.“ held in Tallinn City Gallery (2014) and her large-scale exposition in group exhibition „Can’t go on. Must go on.“ in Tallinn Art Hall (2014). This year, Kristi Kongi was nominated to Köler Art Prize. Her painting installation „Vision through tears“ at the exhibition of Köler Prize nominees in Contemporary Art Museum Estonia (EKKM) was a perfect summary of the artist’s former work that has been focused on colour and spatial studies. Kristi Kongi was also nominated for Konrad Mägi Prize 2016.

Art historian Kati Ilves has written on Kongi’s work as follows: “In her work, Kristi Kongi concentrates on colour, light and space while often giving her paintings an installative or site-specific form. Her work is distinguished by vibrancy due to the use of spectral colour scheme. The use of nontraditional materials such as Plexiglas, wood and plastic and integration of video, laser and sound into an exhibiting environment makes Kongi’s work dynamic and diverse.“

The artist introduces her current exhibition: „Present painting installation forms a whole in Hobusepea gallery, consisting of patterns collected during the past years, originating from various packaging – plastic bags, gift wrap paper etc. Every detail is a part of a story that can be created by the act of remembering. Time is made of different keywords and sensations. One of the important aspects for me is the hidden existence of a package – every package has something in it, is addressed to someone or from someone. There are objects with specific function in packages. For instance flowers that will finally wither and vanish. The wrap paper, however, will remain. The shadows of objects appear through some paintings hinting at their presence either in an abstract or realistic form. While working with this exhibition I have probably been focused most on the concept of existence – this is definitely caused by everything surrounding us. Patterns and colours contribute to covering up the things we don’t really want to see or feel. And yet, they help us to think about ourselves.“

Exhibition will be open until November 21st, 2016.

The artist gives her thanks to: Ahti Lill, Tiit Kongi, Taavi Suisalu, Anna-Kai Tõrs

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and „Vana Tallinn“.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

www.kristikongi.com

23.11.- 12.12.

PAUL RODGERS

Still life with windmills

23.11.- 12.12.

PAUL RODGERS

Still life with windmills

hobusepea gallery

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28.11.- 04.01.

KRISTA LEESI

In Spe. Saint Victor and Four Dragons

28.11.- 04.01.

KRISTA LEESI

In Spe. Saint Victor and Four Dragons

You are welcome to the opening of Krista Leesi‘s exhibition In Spe. Saint Victor and Four Dragons at Draakon gallery on Thursday, November 28, at 18.00. The exhibition will remain open until January 4, 2025.

The exhibition draws inspiration from the martyrdom of Saint Victor, as portrayed on the main altar of St. Nicholas Church in Tallinn. The altar, crafted in the workshop of Lübeck master Hermen Rode, was brought to Tallinn 543 years ago.

“The times are tense, even frightening.
Such that every means and possibility must be put into service.
Why not even mythical creatures and medieval patron saints.
Tallinn’s patron saint was Saint Victor.
He is often depicted on altars alongside Saint George, the dragon slayer.
But Saint Victor did not slay dragons.
Perhaps dragons might protect the knightly saint and us instead?”

The artists gratitude goes to: Heino Prunsvelt, Kadi Kibbermann, Äli-Ann Klooren, Leelo Leesi, Mari-Leen Leesi, Aivi Valliste.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions at Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Krista Leesi is an artist and designer with a distinctive textile art practice and extensive teaching experience at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She stands out in the field of textile art with her conceptual approach, often exploring the multi-layered meanings of language (as the author of tekkSTIILIkunsti SÕNAraamat). Leesi graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1993 and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Estonia and abroad since 1992. Her first solo exhibition was in 1999. Leesi's work encompasses both distinctive unique creations and practical small productions. Her works are part of the collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design. Her works can be encountered in several museum collections around the world: in Tartu Art Museum, the China National Silk Museum (Hangzhou, China), the Contextile Contemporary Textile Art Biennial (Guimarães, Portugal), and World Textile Art (Miami, Florida, USA). In 2019, Leesi was awarded the annual award by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia for her work. In 2020, she won the main prize at Contextile, one of the world's most prestigious contemporary textile art biennials. In 2021, her site-specific exhibition Verbarium, which conceptually connected language and visuals, was shown at Tartu Art Museum. Leesi has been named Textile Artist of the Year four times and is a member of the Estonian Textile Artists’ Association and the Estonian Artists’ Association. www.kristaleesi.ee

08.01.- 01.02.

MARKO MäETAMM

Once Upon a Time

08.01.- 01.02.

MARKO MäETAMM

Once Upon a Time

On Wednesday, January 8, at 18.00, Marko Mäetamm’s exhibition Once Upon a Time will open at Draakon Gallery. At the exhibition opening, there will be an artist talk between the artist and art historian Aleksander Metsamärt at 7 PM. The exhibition will remain open until February 1, 2025.

Psychiatrists and psychopaths might appreciate what Marko Mäetamm is doing, though I suspect both— for entirely different reasons— would take offense at the suggestion. Jungians and Freudians alike have long praised the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and other Northern storytellers for introducing young children to life’s harsher realities.

“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will give you the man.” This quote is often attributed to Ignatius Loyola, but Marko Mäetamm’s interest in exploring our childish minds is quite different. Mäetamm is not focused on shaping children into Jesuit missionaries; rather, he is searching for the Berserker within us—the Viking warrior driven by madness—who might understand and even appreciate Snow White’s desire to behead the seven dwarfs for their trivial, gnome-like fantasies and who would also understand Red Riding Hood’s need to give the Wolf Viagra so he is ripe for the rape of her grandmother. The reader must also understand why a child might confuse a pedophile on the roof with Father Christmas, and consequently welcome him into their bed. If you don’t grasp the distinction between right and wrong after engaging with Mäetamm’s fairytales, you likely never will.

Alistair Hicks, freelance curator, London, UK

Exhibitions at the Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Marko Mäetamm For artist Marko Mäetamm, creation is a means of communication. He seeks to spark dialogues between his artwork and the viewer, encouraging audiences to confront their comfort zones and question societal taboos. His works arise from what deeply concerns and disturbs him in the world around him. They are reflections of the present moment, as the present is the only time that truly exists. Marko Mäetamm studied printmaking (BA 1993) and fine arts (MA 1995) in Estonian Academy of Art and printmaking techniques in Swedish Royal Art High School. He has been in artist residencies in New York (2010) and Paris (2011). He has participated in international group exhibitions and presented numerous solo shows. In 2003 (together with Kaido Ole) and 2007 the artist represented Estonia at the Venice Biennale. Mäetamm has been awarded the Kristjan Raud Prize (2000) Fifth Class Order of the White Star (2008), the Baltic Assembly Art Prize, the Estonian National Culture Award (2010 and 2019) and been nominated for the Köler Prize. Official home page: www.maetamm.net

04.02.- 01.03.

PAULA ZARIņA-ZēMANE (LV)

Stories in My Eyes

04.02.- 01.03.

PAULA ZARIņA-ZēMANE (LV)

Stories in My Eyes

On Tuesday, February 4 at 6 p.m. Paula Zariņa-Zēmane will open her solo exhibition “Stories in My Eyes” at Draakoni Gallery in Tallinn. The exhibition is curated by Peeter Talvistu.

Paula Zariņa-Zēmane is a Latvian painter whose artworks drift in the dream-like realm between abstraction and half-glimpsed reality. For years, she has sought ways to capture the views and stories that she perceives before her eyes, resulting in ethereal landscapes or “landscape illusions” which convey to the viewers certain emotional experiences. Within these landscapes, elements of presence emerge: a gaze, a touch, something eerily physical, a glimmer from a source of illumination. Yet, these elements remain only suggestions, never solidifying on the canvas, and instead invite the viewer to activate the works through their own interpretation.

Recently, Zariņa-Zēmane has turned towards ceramics to complement her paintings with an additional dose of physicality. The resulting objects echo motifs from the canvases, seemingly affirming the idea that the works on display act as portals to these new realms. However, as the viewer approaches, the glazed surface reflects the viewer as if the teleportation to the world of the artist has finally taken place.
Zariņa-Zēmane adds: “I want to resolve my own thoughts as images. These are visions, which arrive to me as future works of art. In a way, these images act as ‘filters’ through which people can look at the surrounding world through my eyes. I would say that the whole process can be called a form of ‘magical realism’.”

“Stories in My Eyes” remains open until March 1, 2025 and it is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia.

Exhibitions at Draakon gallery are supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Paula Zariņa-Zēmane (LV) (1988) is a painter from Latvia who graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia (both BA and MA). Her last exhibition “Eyes Open, Closed” ended in January at the ASNI Gallery in Riga. Her previous appearances in Estonia include the 2022 group exhibition “Three of a Kind” at Kogo Gallery, Tartu (curator: Juriaan Benschop) and the 2023 solo exhibition “Possibilities” at the Tartu Art House (curator: Peeter Talvistu).

05.03.- 29.03.

MADLEN HIRTENTREU

Samurai Horizon

05.03.- 29.03.

MADLEN HIRTENTREU

Samurai Horizon

2024

27.12.- 20.01.

LILLI-KRõõT REPNAU

On The Edge of A Disappearing Landscape

27.12.- 20.01.

LILLI-KRõõT REPNAU

On The Edge of A Disappearing Landscape

Lilli-Krõõt Repnau will open her solo exhibition On The Edge of A Disappearing Landscape in Draakon gallery on Friday, December 29, 2023 at 17:00. The exhibition will remain open until January 20, 2024.

The exhibition On The Edge of A Disappearing Landscape brings together fleeting quotidian observations of urban and personal spaces. The layers of different places intertwine: they disappear, fade and re-emerge. These figments of imagination have been captured in graphic prints over several years. The process has often been set in motion by the changes that occur in the environment due to differing light conditions. The places are chosen from my daily trajectories, so it happens that a building located at Tartu mnt 24 in Tallinn is set side by side to Palganeem in Lääne-Virumaa. In the exhibition, I invite the viewer to take a closer look at the rapidly disappearing habitats around us, and its dislocation both in urban space and in landscapes.

In the pursuit of making this inherent impermanence visible, I have used a method known as ghost printing – after repeatedly printing from the same plate, the pigment fades. It is important for me not to focus on techniques, but to explore different ideas through graphics. The dimension of time in the process of intaglio printing, working with material and meaning-creation are all compelling. Creating On The Edge of A Disappearing Landscape has been an exploratory process in which I have used different colors and layers to create new graphic works.

Lilli-Krõõt Repnau

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Lilli-Krõõt Repnau has graduated from the Graphics department of the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2005 and the Animation department in 2015, where she currently works as a department head. From 2020, she continued her master's studies in art pedagogy. In addition, she has studied in the Video department of the Lucerne School of Art and Design in Switzerland. In 2010, Lilli-Krõõt Repnau was awarded with the Edmund Valtman scholarship for her graphic works and in 2018 with the Tallinn Print Triennial prize. She is a member of the Estonian Artists' Union, the Association of Estonian Printmakers and graafika.ee studio.

22.01.- 17.02.

DARIA MELNIKOVA & VIKTORIJA DANILIAUSKAITĖ & MERILIN TALUMAA & HELENA KESKKüLA & MARGE MONKO

Swirling, Twirling, Spinning

22.01.- 17.02.

DARIA MELNIKOVA & VIKTORIJA DANILIAUSKAITĖ & MERILIN TALUMAA & HELENA KESKKüLA & MARGE MONKO

Swirling, Twirling, Spinning

On Wednesday, January 24 at 6 pm we welcome you to the opening of the exhibition Swirling, Twirling, Spinning curated by Merilin Talumaa. The exhibition includes works by Daria Melnikova, Helena Keskküla, Marge Monko and Viktorija Daniliauskaitė.

The exhibition Swirling, Twirling, Spinning unites artists across generations in an empowering context, drawing inspiration from the ideas of Lithuanian-American archaeologist and anthropologist Marija Gimbutas. Her profound research brought attention to the ancient cultures of the Baltic region and the broader Indo-European world, exploring archaeological artefacts, linguistics, ethnography, and folklore. Gimbutas posited a thesis that prehistoric European culture centered around the worship of a Mother Goddess, as the giver of all life. A spiritual sense of connectedness was artfully expressed through a sophisticated symbol system and an abundance of ritual objects. Nature and body were honored in Europe for tens of thousands of years. Whereas women had an especially strong position in societies across Eastern and Central Europe – a tendency no longer necessarily evident today.

Swirling, Twirling, Spinning poetically weaves a narrative that bridges ancient myths and beliefs, natural cycles, and the transformative power of feminine energy across different cultures and times. Gimbutas, who having opened the treasure trove of prehistory, inspired a belief in a peaceful existence in our time – to bring back to life suppressed vital elements, such as the earth, the body (health), the feminine, and the subconscious. Participating artists, through imaginative and fictitious narratives, share personal stories and cultural myths that also reflect the influence of Gimbutas’ theories on ancient symbolism. Their works echo these concepts through a contemporary lens, incorporating elements such as spirals, circles, and motifs such as snakes and birds – symbols rooted in ancient European matriarchal cultures that continue to resonate in Baltic art and culture.

The exhibition contemplates on reimagining a world centered around goddess worship, with its emphasis on embracing womanhood, preserving nature, and forsaking warfare. Could this theoretical concept transcend into the tangible reality of our future society? Swirling, Twirling, Spinning seamlessly intertwines historical narratives and mythology, immersing us in the themes that Marija Gimbutas ignited: the celebration of life’s cycles, constant renewal, the sanctity of the female body, and the spirituality inherent in these concepts. Gimbutas’ exploration of the spiritual dimensions of a harmonious Old Europe and her vision for a New Europe free from dominance and warfare, feels remarkably pertinent in our contemporary world.

Participating artists: Daria Melnikova, Helena Keskküla, Marge Monko, Viktorija Daniliauskaitė

Curator: Merilin Talumaa

We would like to thank our partners and supporters: Draakoni Gallery, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Mario Nurmelaid, Naked Island
The exhibition will remain open until February 17, 2024.

First exhibition around the heritage of Marija Gimbutas took place in L’Atlas Gallery in Paris, France (7 November 2023–3 January 2024). The cycle of exhibitions is foreseen to continue with an upcoming show in La Traverse in Marseille, France (27 August–26 October 2024).

Marija Gimbutas (1921–1994) was a Lithuanian-American archaeologist and anthropologist. She contributed to what is considered to be one of the most significant academic watershed moments in women’s studies with her archaeological and philosophical work on Neolithic culture and religion. Gimbutas is best known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of “Old Europe,” a term she introduced. Old Europe referred to both the geographical area and social structures that existed before the Indo-European influence. Gimbutas unequivocally established the existence of a Goddess religion who is the most persistent feature in the archaeological record of the ancient world. The Goddess in all her manifestations was a symbol of the unity of all life in nature. Gimbutas’ discoveries took on great symbolic importance for feminists across various disciplines who found, in her vision of a peaceful, nature-revering society, a sense of hope for the future based on this foundation in the distant past.

Roots to Routes is an initiative created by curators Merilin Talumaa, Maija Rudovska and Justė Kostikovaitė, gathering a community of artists, curators and cultural producers whose trajectories are connected to the Baltic states region. Acting as a nomadic agency, its goal is to support and make visible artistic practices beyond cultural and (geo)political borders. An important part of the collaboration is to create and develop possible joint projects, aiming to build sustainable networks and forms of cooperation between various art scenes.

https://roots2routes.org/

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Daria Melnikova is an artist from Riga, Latvia. Her work results from a meditative study of daily routine, clichés, architectural details and mere casual moments attempting to reconstruct their inner logic as well as to bring to light private experiences that once made them possible and necessary. Melnikova runs a journeying platform called Palette that functions as a bar. Between 2022–2023, Palette used a seasonal venue – a kiosk as a part of the urban environment – an intervention in the garden meadow of the Sporta Pils dārzi in Riga. The project activated a work of art as a meeting point, where the artist meets visitors in non-institutional and informal settings. Melnikova has held solo shows at Gallery Vartai in Vilnius (2020); Karlin Studios in Prague (2019); PLATO in Ostrava (2019); Kulturfolger in Zurich (2018); Kim? in Riga (2017, 2014, 2011); and has participated in group shows at L'Atlas in Paris (2023); KHB in Bratislava (2019); Kiasma in Helsinki (2018); Rupert in Vilnius (2018); Silberkuppe in Berlin (2017); Art in General in New York (2015); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2014). Her works are included in the collection of Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland; Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga; Latvia; Zuzeum Collection in Riga, Latvia; among other public and private collections. https://dariamelnikova.com/

Viktorija Daniliauskaitė is a visual artist born in Yakutsk, Russia. She is living and working in Vilnius, Lithuania. Having graduated from the Lithuanian Art Institute (today, the Vilnius Academy of Arts) in 1974, Daniliauskaitė immediately discarded the art clichés proposed by official art and got immersed in the search for her individual style, discovering the inexhaustible sources of folk art and new art forms. Till today, she is often expressing her artistic visions through linocut. The tradition of linocut is often related with folk engravings and the postwar school of Lithuanian graphic art; however, the artist intuitively realised that this technique contains yet unexplored possibilities of expression. While connecting the heritage of folk art with 20th century modernism and postmodernism, Daniliauskaitė built a bridge between the old tradition and contemporary modern art. She recently participated in a group exhibition in L'Atlas, Paris (2023). She is participating in an upcoming group exhibition in MO Museum, Vilnius (2024). Her works belong to the National Museum of Lithuania, Vilnius; MO Museum, Vilnius; among other public and private collections.

Merilin Talumaa is a curator, art historian and cultural manager who lives and works in Paris and Tallinn. She has graduated from the Department of Art History and Visual Culture at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She is also a graduate of Environmental studies from University of Tartu. Her practice has evolved around research about artists' studio and work environments and notions of migration and belonging. Her recent on-going projects include Roots to Routes (since 2020) – a curatorial initiative gathering a community of artists, curators and cultural producers. Prior to the book „Your Time Is My Time”, Mousse Publishing, 2023, she compiled and edited the book „Artists' spaces : 16 studio visits”, Estonian Academy of Arts Press, 2017 (both together with Annika Toots). https://roots2routes.org/

Helena Keskküla is an Estonian artist who lives and works in Amsterdam. Her previous work centres around video, performance and installation. Humor, insecurities and failures play an important role in Keskküla's work, which she uses to speak about universal issues. She has graduated from the sculpture and installation department of the Estonian Academy of Arts, Gerrit Rietveld's VAV - moving image department, and Sandberg Institute's master's programme in fine arts. During the last three years, Kesküla has focused her practice on mythology and stone carving, while forging connections with performance and modern materials.

Marge Monko (Marge Monko) is an artist living and working in Tallinn, Estonia. She has studied in Estonian Academy of Arts (MA in Photography, 2008), and in University of Applied Arts in Vienna. In 2013-2015 she participated in a studio program in HISK (Higher Institute for Contemporary Art), Ghent, Belgium. She works as a professor in the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Marge Monko uses photography, video, and installation. Her works are inspired by historical images and theories of psychoanalysis, feminism, and visual culture. Monko’s works can be found in private and public collections (e.g MUMOK - Museum of Modern Art in Vienna; Folkwang Museum, Essen; Muzeum Sztuki Łódź, Poland; FRAC Lorrain, France; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Estonian Art Museum). In 2012, she was awarded Henkel.Art.Award for Eastern and Central European artists. Monko has been selected for the residencies in ISCP (International Studio & Curatorial Program), New York (2015); KulturKonakt Austria, Vienna (2016), ParaSite, Hong Kong (2017) and Videobrasil, São Paulo (2018). Her recent exhibitions include a.o. Modern Love in Tallinn Art Hall and National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (2021-23), Great Pretender in Kai Art Center (2021), Tallinn; Stones Against Diamonds in Museum Folkwang (2019); Crush in Para Site Hong Kong (2018), RIBOCA Riga International Biennial for Contemporary Art (2018); It Won't Be Long Now, Comrades! in Framer Framed, Amsterdam (2017). www.margemonko.com

20.02.- 16.03.

ANDRES TALI

i n t e r m e z z o. images and transformations

20.02.- 16.03.

ANDRES TALI

i n t e r m e z z o. images and transformations

Andres Tali‘s solo exhibition i n t e r m e z z o. images and transformations opens in Draakon gallery on February 20. The exhibition will remain open until March 16, 2024.

intermezzo (in Italian) – a short piece intended to be performed in between parts of a larger composition.

Andres Tali: “The images and transformations that were the source of this set of works have been noted down as fragments during the year 2023, and took their final shape by the beginning of January 2024. I felt the need return to the origins of my creative journey, but as always it turned out to be unachievable – it is impossible to step into the same river twice. Yet, during this process, another way of being has emerged.

There is no need to look for socio-political statements in my work. It is an emotion-based communication from the author to the viewer that relies on the (sub)consciousness in its specific visual language. The author does not intercept the stream of consciousness with brutally mundane comments. Perhaps this is his statement about the contemporary condition.

The preparation of the exhibition was going full steam ahead, when in the middle of January, a blind chance in the form of an accident intervened. The completion of the works proved impossible. But maybe it was better that way, as the works have more sketchiness, air and emotionality, and are much less bluntly finished.”

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and AS Liviko.

Andres Tali (1956) graduated from the Estonian National Art Institute in 1980, with a degree in graphic art. He has worked as an art editor and as the head of the art editorial department of Eesti Raamat, once the largest publishing house in Estonia, and has also worked as an AD of an advertising agency. Tali has been an active freelance artist, graphic designer and photographer for many years. He has been a professor in the Department of Fine Arts, dean of the faculty and vice-rector in the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has been socially active participating in the governing bodies of the Estonian Artists' Union, as well as in the council of the Tallinn Graphics Triennale, and was a member and chairman of the council of KUNO, a cooperation organization of art universities in the Nordic and Baltic countries. He has been granted the Grand Prix of the Tallinn Graphics Triennale, three annual awards from various panels of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Kristjan Raua award, the Baltic Assembly award and dozens of awards from Estonian and Baltic book design competitions. In 2010, the President of Estonia decorated him with the Order of the White Star (IV class).

20.03.- 13.04.

IVAR VEERMäE

A Little Less Blue Skies, A Little More Red Sunsets

20.03.- 13.04.

IVAR VEERMäE

A Little Less Blue Skies, A Little More Red Sunsets

We welcome you to the opening of Ivar Veermäe‘s solo exhibition A Little Less Blue Skies, A Little More Red Sunsets at Draakon gallery on Wednesday, March 20 at 18.00. The exhibition will remain open until April 13, 2024.

The 1992 eruption of the Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines reduced the global average temper-ature by 0.4°C for approximately one year. This happened due to sulfur particles thrown into the stratosphere, which reflected 10% of the sun’s radiation back into outer space.

Ivar Veermäe: “The exhibition stems from a concept in geoengineering, stating that in theory it is possible to imitate the activity of volcanoes and thus reduce climate warming. One of the most scientifically studied processes describes the spraying of large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere, where they would scatter the sun’s radiation and thereby reduce the amount of energy reaching the earth’s surface. It would be a deliberate intervention in the global cli-mate system, it would have to be done for about a few hundred years, and its fully realised form could not be interrupted without catastrophic consequences.

In the works of this exhibition, I have attempted to think about the scope of such process and the intricacies of biological and geological relationships. Photographic prints of close-ups of the sun* become a testing ground for the study of changes made by microscopic life on its surface. Metabolic transformations take place through microorganisms in human saliva brought into con-tact with an energy source and the surface of the image. Life on the images changes the visible throughout the exhibition and continues to alter it afterwards. I have taken a closer look at the same processes with an electron microscope (SEM), which underlines the morphological com-plexity of what is happening even more. To add another level, I have “translated” the results into audible sound waves, which can also be converted into radio waves.

The more abstract part of the exhibition is combined with a video work, which includes material from Effelsberg radio telescope combined with my conversations with several geoengineering experts. The design of one of the world’s largest mobile telescope fully steerable radio tele-scope is massive yet mechanically relatively simple. It is used to research distant territories far away from Earth, the formation of stars and the disappearance of matter into black holes. Also to detect radio waves from neighboring galaxies. I have chosen this as a research object in order to think about what can be perceived and understood through visibility? How visual simplicity fails to convey the complexity of such sets of relationships? Or how to think of inconceivable scales – some too grand and some too small?”

* The source of some of the images used in the exhibition: NASA

The artist thanks: Laura M. Hartman, Douglas MacMartin, Elspeth Spence, Forrest Clingerman, Wake Smith, Duncan McLaren, Masahiro Sugiyama, Valdek Mikli, Kalev Tamm, Toomas Täht, family Veermäe, Anja Dreißig.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and AS Liviko.

Ivar Veermäe (1982) Ivar Veermäe lives and works in Berlin. He has held solo exhibitions in Edith-Russ-Haus, Oldenburg, Germany, Gallery Im Turm in Berlin, Tallinn Art Hall gallery, Hobusepea gallery, AV17 gallery in Vilnius, Cultural Center Belgrade, Tallinn City Gallery and elsewhere. His works have been presented in the following group exhibitions: Riga Biennale, Venice Architecture Biennale, BIENALSUR in Buenos Aires, transmediale festival in HKW in Berlin, The Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Bozar Brussels, ZKM in Karlsruhe, MMB gallery in Mumbai, KUMU, Tallinn Art Hall, File Festival in São Paulo, Pinnacle gallery in Australia. His video works have been screened at the Rencontres Internationales Festival in Paris and Berlin, Haus Der elektronische Künste in Basel, transmediale festival, e-flux.com, MoMa web platform, AND festival in Manchester, EMAF in Osnabrück and Virtual Memorial festival in Cambodia. The artist has received different scholarships and research grants, the Kunstfonds Arbeitsstipendium, the Edith-Russ-Haus Media Art Grant, the Elsa-Neumann-Stipendium in Berlin and several awards from the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

17.04.- 11.05.

MARIA KAPAJEVA

Listen To My Scream, Hear Their Dreams

17.04.- 11.05.

MARIA KAPAJEVA

Listen To My Scream, Hear Their Dreams

We invite you to the opening of Maria Kapajeva‘s solo exhibition, “Listen To My Scream, Hear Their Dreams” at Draakon Gallery on Wednesday, April 17th at 18:00. The exhibition will be open until May 11, 2024.

Maria Kapajeva’s exhibition, “Listen To My Scream, Hear Their Dreams,” is profoundly influenced by Draakon Gallery’s location directly across from the Russian Embassy in Tallinn’s Old Town. Positioned in this manner, Kapajeva aims to foster a more nuanced dialogue regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has led to a continual exposure to harrowing imagery. Consequently, a process of desensitization has transpired, rendering us less able to empathize with the enduring violence faced by real individuals still fighting for their lives in Ukraine. The intricate details, nuances, and personal narratives have been reduced to easily shareable content that briefly crosses our screens before fading into obscurity.

The artworks selected and created for this exhibition stem from the necessity to provide a platform for the personal accounts of those who have fled Ukraine, as well as the artist’s own imperative to express and scrutinize her suppressed anger regarding the ongoing conflict. In this exhibition, there are no images of war; instead, viewers are presented with works that demand time to engage with— to be read, listened to, and truly heard. These artworks compel us to scrutinize the language of the oppressor, where imperialist ambitions lurk behind ostensibly positive rhetoric. We encounter intimate tales of despair and devastation, yet also of hope and compassion. We are invited into a tumult of emotions, ultimately finding catharsis in releasing the anger buried deep within us.

Designer: Kersti Heile
Installation: Hans-Otto Ojaste and Valge Kuup

The artist expresses her gratitude to Lena, Sasha and the whole their family, Polina Kuznietsova, Alena Kapajeva, Inese Strupule, Kateryna Popkova, Hilda Vaike, Gulya Sultanova, Nastassia, Alia, Elizaveta Klepikova, Aditi S Sharma, Jacobina de Rivera, Annika von Hausswolff, Redi Koobak, Irina Andrushko, Aljona Tubaleva, Mari Volens, Valge Kuup and Aksel Haagensen, Kersit Heile, Jake Sheperd and the team of Draakoni gallery.

Maria Kapajeva , having been born in the Soviet Union, raised in independent Estonia, and educated in the UK, has found herself in an involuntary position of 'the other'. This position, which she has embraced and incorporated as a cornerstone of her artistic practice, propels her to investigate a diverse spectrum of cultural identity and gender issues within historical and contemporary contexts. Utilizing various mediums—including video, photography, textiles, and installations—she brings to the forefront elements that are frequently overlooked or relegated to the periphery of our vision. www.mariakapajeva.com

13.05.- 08.06.

JOHANNA ULFSAK

Guiding Threads

13.05.- 08.06.

JOHANNA ULFSAK

Guiding Threads

12.06.- 06.07.

LIISI EELMAA

I Create What I See – ABACADABRA

12.06.- 06.07.

LIISI EELMAA

I Create What I See – ABACADABRA

Fom Wednesday, June 12 I Create What I See – ABACADABRA by Liisi Eelmaa is open at Draakon gallery. The exhibition will remain open until July 6, 2024.

Hot afternoon, a little bit too airless, the studio is being heated from three windows by the spring sun. I am kept awake by the strong coffee and its stimulating taste.

There is a bunch of different objects on the table: there are read and not yet read books, crumbs from white bread, eaten apple core, a fork, a cup, a notebook used for three years, papers, sketches, pencils, napkins, loudspeakers, some pencils, brushes, colors in tubes, bottles, walnut oil, a glass mortar, different natural mineral pigments. PIGMENT – MATTER, just matter, material. It can become anything, any object and being. It is especially pleasant to know that when putting your hand deep into the package, so it seems that the hand drowns into the yellow flour.

This flour could become spirit. Easily dusting material squeaks silently between the walnut oil mortar and glass. Transforming smoothly into creamy matter, to transform later even more and even further. If the objects aren’t made alive, they are just things, just as dust on the table.

The matter could become spirit, for that one must give soul to the matter. Making the matter alive, such as the job of the alchemist, who sees, uses and directs the forces of consciousness, energy and matter and understands the unity in them. Do I also transform together with the pigment, do I also change? Isn’t it then the karma of a human to be born, then become matter again and then get closer to one’s true nature, closer to spirit, year by year?

But where are the spirits who have left the material world?

The holy places in nature, holy forests, stones, trees, soulful nature. The places, that have to do with the togetherness of the alive and the dead, because the matter and spirit have become one. There can also be a holy place in the spiritual sphere, such as the reflection of stones on the surface of water here in the material world. Spiritual sanctuary, that you constantly see in dreams and that is more real than any other room. First you have to create it in the sphere, so that it would reflect through all these elements. Through the holy forests, stones, trees, meadows, walls, electricity plugs, floors, tables, colors, through the brush and hand.

Liisi Eelmaa

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and AS Liviko.

Liisi Eelmaa (1982) Liisi Eelmaa is an Estonian theatre artist. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in scenography from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2004 and a master’s degree from the Department of Liberal Arts at the Estonia Academy of Arts in 2017. She has been performing in exhibitions since 2003 and has worked as a freelance artist in various theatres since 2005. Her most recent solo exhibition I Create What I Think – ABRACADABRA was held at the Large Gallery of Tartu Art House in 2020.

08.07.- 03.08.

MATTI PäRK

Inspirations

08.07.- 03.08.

MATTI PäRK

Inspirations

On Monday, July 8, at 18.00, Matti Pärk‘s solo exhibition Inspirations will open at Draakon gallery. The exhibition will remain open until August 3, 2024.

According to the artist, the global condition is an important influence on the works. In this exhibition, Matti Pärk presents illustrations for the literary works that have most inspired him. Although the pieces were created over a long period of time, they fit timelessly into contemporary themes and resonate with the world around us. The illustrations for Mats Traat’s poetry collection Ajalaulud were completed in 1985, but the artist finds the author’s texts still painfully relevant. The illustrations for a Catalan fairy tale collection date back to 1985, but for this exhibition, new interpretations are brought to life. The artist continues to find inspiration in the timeless truths and wisdom of fairy tales.

The artist is bundling up feelings and perceptions, the personal and the intimate, with the tensions in society. Portraits of his father, Rudolf Pärk, and illustrations completed in 1999 for his wife Aita Kivi’s poetry collection Tunde küsimus have found ever-new interpretations, inspired by people closest to him. As a separate subtheme, Pärk presents pastel paintings inspired by a 1932 oil painting of Pärnu Beach by Pallas artist Nigul Espe.
Matti Pärk: “Many years have passed since I created the illustrations (for Aarne Puu’s poetry collection Ring nn nii pikk, Mats Traat’s poetry collection Ajaraamat, Aita Kivi’s poetry collection Tunde küsimus, and the Catalan fairy tale collection), and now I perceive the world differently. In large-scale works inspired by my earlier works (and by the texts in the books), I have reflected on contemporary issues.”

Exhibitions at Draakon Gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Matti Pärk (1945) studied wood work at Tartu Art School in 1963–1969 and graphics at the Estonian State Art Institute in 1970–1976, graduating as a book illustrator and graphic artist. Pärk worked as a designer at the furniture factory Standard, as the head of the artistic editorial office at the publishing house Valgus in 1975–1984, as the artistic editor at the Estonian Encyclopaedia publishing house, and as the head of scientific editing for illustrations and cartography at ENE. Since 1984, Pärk has been a drawing teacher at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Pärk has illustrated and designed layouts, textbooks, reference books, fiction, and art books for nearly fifty years. He has participated in numerous exhibitions, both at home and abroad. Pärk has been a member of the Estonian Artists' Association since 1989.

07.08.- 31.08.

SIBYLLE EIMERMACHER (DE/NL)

House of Healing Hearts of Heaven

07.08.- 31.08.

SIBYLLE EIMERMACHER (DE/NL)

House of Healing Hearts of Heaven

On Wednesday, August 7, at 18.00, Sibylle Eimermacher‘s solo exhibition House of Healing Hearts of Heaven will open at Draakon gallery. The exhibition will remain open until August 31, 2024.

“We urge you to dream wisely to find the future you most desire, to anchor it in your heart, knowing the path is chosen.”*

Rocks, stones, minerals and the metals extracted from the ore are the point of departure in my work in order to reflect on the ambivalent relationship of man towards nature. Through the tactility, seductive beauty and energetic properties of this matter I search for ways on how to overcome the separation that we as humans created with the world around us, and reconnect with it.

We live in an era where we are forced to restore the balance between man and Earth. At the same time we are constantly searching for our personal inner balance on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level. For this purpose we draw strength and energy from nature. We extract stones, minerals and metals from the Earth, place them into our cultural context and assign them new shapes, meanings and functions. But is this boundary that we draw between culture and nature an inherent one or one that we made up and keep alive? How do we find our place in the cosmos, replace our attitude of dominance with humbleness and use our power to contribute to the equilibrium of the planet? Can our urge for creation serve the values of healing, care and tenderness in a relationship of reciprocity instead of exploitation and damage?

Sibylle Eimermacher

*Path of Empowerment – Pleiadian Wisdom for a World in Chaos, Barbara Marciniak, 2004

Exhibitions at Draakon Gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Sibylle Eimermacher (DE/NL) is born 1979 in Münster, Germany, and lives in the Netherlands now for more than twenty years. Holding a MFA from the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen (NL) and a BFA from the AKI Academy of Art & Design in Enschede (NL), she works in the fields of sculpture, photography, video, sound, performance and artist books. Her interest in the ambivalent relationship between man and nature often leads her outside her studio, roaming the Dutch flatlands a well as untouched Scandinavian mountains. In 2021 her photobook A Guide Through Hue was published by The Eriskay Connection, wherein she translated her autobiographical background to the migratory routes of erratic rocks. Sibylle’s work is exhibited internationally, including Undercurrent, with Johannes Eimermacher, Old Mine, Outokumpu (FIN), 2024; Dig In & Grow Up / Turnstone at abC Art Book Fair, Hangzhou (CN), 2023; Antimony at Bærum Kunsthall, Fornebu (NO), 2023; Stenvender at Enter Artspace Arhus (DK), 2022; Les Rencontres d'Arles: The 2022 Book Awards, Espace Van Gogh, Arles (FR), 2022 and Hover to Slide, Omstand, Arnhem (NL), 2018.

04.09.- 28.09.

LOORA KAUBI

Although One Is Often Aware of Some Far Brighter Light

04.09.- 28.09.

LOORA KAUBI

Although One Is Often Aware of Some Far Brighter Light

On Wednesday, September 4th, at 18.00, Loora Kaubi‘s solo exhibition Although One Is Often Aware of Some Far Brighter Light will open at Draakon gallery. The exhibition will be open until September 28th, 2024.

“Exhaustion is inherent to the experience of life. It lacks clear boundaries; its tentacles seem to reach everywhere. Yet exhaustion could be followed by a certain freshness, a respite, and relief. But what to do when one awakens from a refreshing slumber feeling weary – more weary than before lying down? What happens when exhaustion does not subside? Perhaps one person’s fatigue is something greater; maybe we are seized by shared fatigue? How deeply has the darkness, so prevailing on this latitude, seeped into our essence? Can fatigue be an inherent part of a person?

Hands work, and hands are shaped by work. Hands grow weary, even if they are big and strong. Arms, with their ability to caress, with their rough knuckles, scratched forearms marked by labour, and the muscle memory of their knobbly fingers. Arms, like blind creatures, droop wearily. Bodies, curled up and feeble, allow to come close. This feebleness has grown into an all-embracing neglect, into doubts and an endless uncertainty. Bodies are fragile and mortal. In due course, reincarnation is no longer possible – old skin cannot be shed; it is not regenerated or renewed but instead remains a heavy burden. Yet this old skin has a few fissures through which one can see clearly. For the time being, these fissures are raw, more like cracks.

Loora Kaubi explores mental and physical exhaustion and, in her work, plays with the idea of months-long, or even eternal, uninterrupted sleep. Her pieces are sensual reflections: discarded skin, powerless bodies, and exalted hands that offer comfort and may even redeem. “Hands touch, hold, and hurt. If those big hands were to come down from the heavens, would they scare or break something? Would they be dangerous? Or would they actually fix something?” the artist asks, pointing to a sgraffito. Under the gray haze lies a fragment of hope – even if a person never sees the sun in their dreams, there may be some brighter light somewhere that will help one escape. The awareness of light is there; yet in order to reach it, one must scrape the surface.”

Text: Helena Aadli.
Advisor: Laura De Jaeger.
Graphic Design: Sonja Sutt.

Thanks: António Taínha, Eva Mahhov, Cristo Madissoo, Paul Raud, Saara Liis Jõerand, Kristi Kaubi, Ats Kruusing.
Exhibitions at Draakon Gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Loora Kaubi (1998) is an artist working in Tallinn. She is interested in themes such as eternal sleep, longing, and exhaustion. Wandering in the space between reality and imagination, she focuses on intense emotions portrayed through sculptural installations. Loora has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts painting department and has studied in the sculpture department at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She has done an internship at the Ceramica Suro ceramics factory in Mexico and participated in Casa Lü residency in Mexico City. Loora Kaubi has received the Weekly Prize from the Estonian Young Contemporary Art Union and has participated in exhibitions in Mexico City, Vienna, and Estonia.

03.10.- 26.10.

LAIVI / I Λ I V I

Fragmented Unity

03.10.- 26.10.

LAIVI / I Λ I V I

Fragmented Unity

You are invited to the opening of Laivi Suurväli’s exhibition Fragmented Unity at Draakon gallery on Thursday, October 3rd, at 18.00. The exhibition will remain open until October 26th, 2024.

Today, I am neutral. Expressively unexpressive. A blank canvas. A white t-shirt* on bare skin. Faithful. I am free in a swathe of possibilities. In full emptiness.

In the mundane grip of conformity, I yearn to yearn. To be something more. To stand alone. To be a dress like a story. A narrative layer, where contrasting details and parts melt together at the seams. To flow in dispersed definition. I want to try to defy…

To be overtly unattainable in my inner multiplicity. Elusive, like a text brimming with references. To not even be aware of all my secrets and abilities.

I can fray; you can wear me in many ways. Find hints and hidden spaces. To be contradictory. To be sincere and innocent and grumpy and sinful.**

Laivi

Photos: Roman-Sten Tõnissoo

The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.
Exhibitions at Draakon gallery are supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

___________________________________________________________________________
* I am seemingly resistant to the pressures of fashion. The opposite of discomfort.

** In theorizing the nature of fashion, we examine a phenomenon that extends beyond the superficial appearance of its objects. We seek depth within the surface. It is the everyday environment that creates the divide between fashion and clothing. We submit to paradoxes. In a continuous, self-consuming cycle, the repetition and defiance of what came before becomes the newest trend.

Laivi / I Λ I V I (Laivi Suurväli) is a freelance artist who expresses herself through fashion design. Her work is thematically driven by recurring keywords: desire and longing, dependence and praise, production and supply, preservation and destruction, and the evaluation of value. Her work is characterised by a material-centred and experimental approach to textiles that expands from garments and accessories to sculptural installations and large-scale works on canvas. She analyses fashion as a phenomenon, examining garments and methods of covering the body on visual-aesthetic, functional, and expressive levels. Laivi holds a BA in Fashion Design from the Estonian Academy of Arts and a MA from Aalto University in Helsinki. She has been in residencies in London, Copenhagen, Barcelona, and Brussels. Since 2014, she has participated in group exhibitions and has showcased her work in several solo exhibitions. In 2024, she had two solo exhibitions, Mapping Paradise at the ARS project space and Infinite Present at the WIELS Contemporary Art Centre Affiliate gallery in Brussels. Her new series Liquifying the Hard Core Identity is currently on display at the Improper Walls gallery in Vienna. In the beginning of 2022, she received the annual award from the Estonian Cultural Endowment for her methodic work in visual and applied arts. Her solo exhibition Collecting and Preserving at Hobusepea gallery and her participation in the international group exhibition Intimacy at the Design Museum in Helsinki, with the installation Notes, Shed Skins, and Dissolved Memories, consisting of sculptural objects and a series of paintings, and the project Goods & Services, were both recognised.

31.10.- 23.11.

KILLU SUKMIT

Talks with a Tiger

31.10.- 23.11.

KILLU SUKMIT

Talks with a Tiger

On Thursday, October 31, at 6 p.m., Killu Sukmit’s exhibition “Talks with a Tiger” will open at Draakon gallery. The opening will be accompanied by a live music performance by Hello Upan & Killu Sukmit. The exhibition will remain open until November 23, 2024.

Killu Sukmit’s exhibition deals with feminist folklore in fairy tales. In the 17th century, Baroness Marie Catherine D’Aulnoy coined the term conte de fée (fairy tale). The earliest fairy tales served as feminist critiques of patriarchy, exposing behaviors that oppressed and degraded women. D’Aulnoy and other female authors of the time mixed elements of pseudo-history, autobiography and adventure in their stories.
Stories by the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and the family policy platforms of conservative parties also offer an endless trove of patriarchal fairy tales. The original versions of these so-called classic fairy tales often feature particularly brutal violence against women. These tales were drawn from real life and intended to serve as moral lessons, but justice within them is notably biased. It seems that in order to change these macho fairy tales, real life itself must change first.

The works in Killu Sukmit’s exhibition Talks with a Tiger tell stories of an emancipated wind, a great grandmother who was a sound artist and a 12th-century feminist activist tiger. Was the Venus of Milo posing as a warrior, a mother holding a child or spinning yarn? Cinderella embodies all of these roles as she peers through the looking class. The exhibition primarily features embroidery, also including sound.

The works draw inspiration from a variety of fairy tales, including Madame D’Aulnoy’s Cunning Cinders and The Hind in the Wood, Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald’s The Orphan’s Hand-Mill and Goldspinners, Donald Bisset’s Talks with the Tiger and Other Tales, Italo Calvino’s Miss North Wind and Mr. Zephyr, Hans Christian Andersen’s The Princess and the Pea, Emil Kolozsvári Grandpierre’s The Magic Flute and The Princess Dancing on Razors, and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.

Thanks: Urve Sukmit, Kaarel Kressa, Robin Kressa, Hello Upan, Carlea Holl-Jensen, Rachael Marr, Melissa Ashley, Deborah Frances-White, Anna Mari Liivrand.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions at Draakon gallery are supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Killu Sukmit is an artist and musician, with a background in graphic arts. She co-founded Kraam, an artist-run space (with Minna Hint), and was one of the organisers of Ladyfest Tallinn. Sukmit has participated in groups such as the Valie Export Society, The Elfriede Jelinek School of English Language, and Feminismiehitaja (Feminism Builder). Her recent solo exhibitions include K’s Garden (Kraam artist-run space, 2019), Artist and Her Work (Tartu Art House, Monumental Gallery, 2021), and Pudu and Bread (Pärnu City Gallery, 2022). She has played drums for bands such as Dr. Dorothee & Why, Extrafine, Paul Cole & Ring My Bell, and Punane. Since 2012, she has been part of the duo Hello Killu (with Hello Upan). She was awarded the Estonian Cultural Endowment Annual Art Award in 2001 (with Mari Laanemets) and in 2019 (with Minna Hint).

2023

12.12.- 07.01.

TAAVI REKKARO

thank you for everything

12.12.- 07.01.

TAAVI REKKARO

thank you for everything

Taavi Rekkaro‘s solo exhibition thank you for everything will be opened in Draakon gallery at 18:00 on Tuesday, December 13th, 2022. Together with the exhibition opening there will be also a presentation of the artist book based on the current exhibition. Exhibition will be open until January 7, 2023.

When a long-term relationship suddenly ends, the artist discovers himself in a complete emptiness. His partner takes all her things and when she leaves then all the meanings leave with her.

Only the good-bye message “thank you for everything” left on the mirror reminds the artist of the fact that a certain world has existed somewhere at some time before. From the mirror, I am facing life that seems to have failed for good. I have studied a specialty that is now just a diploma for me and not my calling. My long-time loved one has found herself a better partner. My room is empty.

What would be your last straw if you’d lose everything?

A journey of a drowning man begins where art serves as the last tower of strength instead of self-expression. A lifebuoy to which to cling. Documenting self-pity, implacability, fussiness and growth is a path that one can follow only alone.

What does the drowning man see?

Winter reflecting from the books of the former loved one.

The undone bed that still remembers the warmth of the partner who has left.

Frames turned upside down, taken off the wall but that have not left the room.

Incoherent pain that wants to become words.

But also the study material for growing plants and survival drive.

This is letting go and recording of letting go.

Being reborn while wishing to bring the old life with me. Moving along the circle and hoping that it is a spiral. Perhaps it is?

thank you for leaving me in darkness
thank you for teaching me how to breathe

thank you for getting and giving and getting everything
with you

I am angry happy
I will never make peace and
I have already forgiven

thank you for everything

Exhibition text: Joonas Veelmaa
Graphic design: Kert Viiart

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Artproof.

Exhibition opening is supported by Hartwall Estonia and Põhjala Brewery.

The artist expresses his gratitude to everyone how has supported him during the past two years, both with the exhibition and in general.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Taavi Rekkaro (1988) has studied graphic art at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Besides his artistic practice he works with artists' projects in Artproof and has no idea what will happen after the exhibition.

09.01.- 04.02.

MARIA ERIKSON

Soft Touch on the Deckle

09.01.- 04.02.

MARIA ERIKSON

Soft Touch on the Deckle

Maria Erikson‘s solo exhibition Soft Touch on the Deckle opens in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, January 11, 2023. Exhibition will stay open until February 4, 2023.

At her present exhibition Soft Touch on the Deckle, the artist observes her relationship with the process of graphic art involving the body of the artist and the lithographic limestone. Seeking parallels and contradictions between them a comparison is made between a body and its surface to the one of the stone. While attributing limestone with human skin-like ability to memorize, Erikson explores her personal artwork as a dialogue between the two bodies – the one of the artist and the one of the stone. Through material interactions and contact events new forms of co-existence and non-hierarchical ways of communication between them emerge.
The surface of lithographic stone is smooth and porous. Similarly to skin it records the touch that stratifies over time. Lithographic liquid tusche is commonly used in Erikson’s artistic practice. Its dried coatings on the surface of the litho stone result in reticulation that can be seen as an abstract landscape. In this way the touch between the artist and the material as well as the stone´s geological strata are interwtined.

Soft Touch on the Deckle is a three-part exhibition project – the first part is being exhibited here in Draakon gallery, the second one will be displayed in Ratamo gallery, Jyväskylä in March 2023 and the third part will be held in the Museum of Lithography in Sweden in April 2023.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The artist expresses her gratitude to: Liina Siib, Paul Rannik, Mart Saarepuu, department of graphic art at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Maria Erikson artistic practice is centered around engagement and contact. With the focus on materiality and materials as sets of relationships, she investigates visible and non-visible relations that are produced by the gestures between them. In new structural arrangements she investigates their jointness and indifferences, bodiliness and ability to inhabit shared space. Maria Erikson has completed two-year studies as a collaborative lithography printer and holds a Master Printer certificate from Tamarind Institute (USA), obtained MA degree in the printmaking study area at the Academy of Fine Arts/Uniarts Helsinki (Finland). In 2019, Maria Erikson received the Eduard Wiiralt grant and in 2021 she was awarded with Ann-Margret Lindell Grant for Printmaking (Sweden). Among her recent exhibitions are Notes from Borderspace (ARS Project Space, 2022); Taidegrafiikan tapa olla – materiality, collaboration and agency (Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki, 2021); Grafik (Gallery Sander, Norrköping, Sweden, 2021).

06.02.- 04.03.

MARET SARAPU

Free and Held

06.02.- 04.03.

MARET SARAPU

Free and Held

On Tuesday, 7 February at 18.00 Maret Sarapu opens her solo exhibition Free and Held at Draakoni gallery. The exhibition is open until 4 March.

Through five artworks, the artist maps quotidian rituals and symbols, activities and stories that help to ensure our mental sharpness, emotional well-being and a sense of safety in everyday life. That is, focal points that help us make sense of life, prevent crises and find strength in the everyday.

The conceptual center of the exhibition is simultaneously poetic and practical – on the one side, it allows the viewer to make their own everyday life more poetic and start consciously and playfully mapping out activities, events and ideas that provide support and strength. On the other side, this kind of poetization has a thoroughly practical effect – conceptualization and structuring of our routines grounds us and plays a significant role in achieving emotional well-being and maintaining our joie de vivre.

At the exhibition, the artist displays installations and objects: wall panels with nature motifs, mosaic trophies, glass “breaths” and sand boxes reminiscent of Japanese gardens on walls and around the exhibition space. Alongside these objects, the exhibition includes a set of postcards, inviting the viewer to discover their own everyday and internal landscapes through exercises of creative writing.

As part of Free and Held, three thematic creative writing workshops led by Berit Kaschan will take place at Draakoni gallery. The workshops will be held on three consecutive Tuesdays – on 14, 21 and 28 February from 18.00 to 20.00. Pre-registration is required. Please register to the workshop no later than 12 February: kaisamaasik@gmail.com. Participation fee: 10€. Size of the group: 10 participants. The workshop will be conducted in Estonian.

Curators: Kaisa Maasik and Berit Kaschan
Graphic design: Pamela Sume
Photos: Karel Koplimets

Thank you: Karel Koplimets, Maarin Ektermann and Prologue School, Sven Sapelson, Tiina Sarapu, Kairi Orgusaar, Kaie Vakepea
The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Liviko AS.

Maret Sarapu (1978) is an artist based in Tallinn. She has graduated from the Department of Glass Art at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA 2002, MA 2005) and taken part in numerous courses and art residencies both in Estonia and abroad. In her work, Sarapu is mostly inspired by everyday life and often uses nature motifs and repetition. Recently, her experiments with form and concept have led her towards methods like automatic and stream of consciousness writing. Often, the aim is to achieve mental well-being and find harmony between intelligence and emotions. Her alternating process (thinking, writing, working in the studio) and collaboration with material lead to results that give both the artist and the viewer a possibility to make conclusions and generalizations.

08.03.- 01.04.

MARIA IZABELLA LEHTSAAR & SARAH NõMM

Beauty in the Belly of the Beast

08.03.- 01.04.

MARIA IZABELLA LEHTSAAR & SARAH NõMM

Beauty in the Belly of the Beast

Maria Izabella Lehtsaar & Sarah Nõmm open their duo exhibition Beauty in the Belly of the Beast in Draakon gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, March 8th, 2023. Curators of the exhibition are Anita Kodanik and Brigit Arop. Exhibition will be open until April 1st, 2023.

With their duo exhibition Beauty in the Belly of the Beast, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar & Sarah Nõmm focus on their shared interests towards intimacy, sexual self-expression and various representations of love and violence between people. Current exhibition is based on the con-cept of bedroom as a place where one can rest, dream, feel pleasure and fear. It is also a place where one reads texts that shape us as human beings and creators and the place where meetings for this collaboration have taken place. The “bedroom activities” form a socially controversial subject. This place is intimate and reveals the nuances about us that are private and make us vulnerable. It is something that entirely belongs to oneself and at the same time is completely shared with the dearest ones. And yet, not all bedrooms are safe – besides soft-ness, there could also be violence experienced under the roof of love.

The artworks at the present duo exhibition have been inspired by the contradictions related to the intimacy of a bedroom where the expressive means of tenderness and harshness are inter-twined. For instance, Nõmm’s artwork “Little Switch” refers to a whip as an object with the purpose of hurting, that can be read in several ways. On one hand, it is an object of power and violence that is used for punishing disobedient bodies; on the other hand, the whip has its place in sexual practices where harshness, care and pleasure are combined. Lehtsaar’s new linocut works “Pillow Princess” and “Unknown Pleasures” continue expanding the artist’s visual queer vocabulary. “Loveless V” is their final addition to the series on the subject of boxing as self-defense and self-love, while also referring to their attempt to challenge gendered stigmatization of extreme or violent sports. Nõmm’s installation “Untie My Ribbons” is inspired by non-normative romantic relationships that won’t classify under the seemingly obligatory relationship form of monogamy. Through the cuddly weapons from the series “The Softest Touch” and the pictures completed by manual typesetting titled “Queer Scissors I II III”, Lehtsaar observes the world of signs related to lesbianism while in some cases using it for self-empowerment and in other cases ironically repeating uniform stereotypes to absurdity.

The stories of the interwoven destinies of a beauty and a beast are as old as our civilization. These usually begin with the imprisoned princess and end with marrying the prince who has killed the dragon. Sometimes these stories have also been told from the point of view of a princess with a higher agency, revealing for instance that the prince might be even more monstrous than the dragon, or that the princess could save herself on her own, or will choose an-other partner in life. Yet these stories won’t tell us anything about the daily life of the new couple nor the fact that there are beasts sleeping underneath their bed. Beauty in the Belly of the Beast attempts to offer more diverse narratives about intimacy and to enrich the common ground for mutual understanding while emphasizing the importance of safe experiences to people’s welfare.

Anita Kodanik (she/her) is an Estonian-Ukrainian freelance art worker based in Tallinn. Her research and curatorial practice focus on the visual cultural expressions of collective and personal identity politics. Kodanik graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a bachelor’s degree in art history and is currently doing her master’s in curatorial studies. Her recent curatorial projects include exhibitions Imageries in Blanks (2022) at Maardu Decennial and Exercises for Dreamkeeping (2022) organised together with roam Berlin residency program.

Brigit Arop (she/her) is a freelance art worker based in Tallinn with a background in semiotics, who mainly curates and writes. She is interested in artistic practices that use poetry, material-sensitive approaches and humor to shift stale values. Arop has a bachelor’s degree in Semiotics and Cultural Theory from the University of Tartu, and is currently studying for a master’s degree in Curatorial Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Her last curatorial project was the group exhibition Greetings, and Whatever Customarily Restores a Bond About to Break in Kogo Gallery, Tartu (2023).

Graphic design: Kertu Klementi
Photos: Roman-Sten Tõnissoo

Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Student Council of Estonian Academy of Arts.
Special gratitude goes to: Anton Serdjukov, Karl-Christoph Rebane, department of graphic art at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Eda Urmet, Kristi Kongi, Marge Monko.

Exhibitions in the Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Maria Izabella Lehtsaar (they/them) is an artist based in Tallinn who combines textiles, graphics, drawing, installation and text in their work. Their works deal mainly with the themes of queer experience and mental health, often playing on the fragile border between reality and fantasy. Lehtsaar graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Art and is currently studying in the Contemporary Art MA programme. In 2021, they were awarded the Edmund Valtman scholarship and in 2022, they were nominated for the AkzoNobel Art Prize with Sarah Nõmm.

Sarah Nõmm (she/her) is an artist based in Tallinn who works primarily with sculpture, installation, video and performance. Her work deals with the female body and the spaces surrounding it. Nõmm’s works are often based on personal experiences and look at themes of the body through popular beliefs, myths, taboos and everyday rituals. She has a bachelor’s degree in Sculpture and Installation from the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2021, she was awarded the Young Sculptor Prize, in 2022 she was nominated for the AkzoNobel Art Prize with Maria Izabella Lehtsaar, and won the Eduard Wiiralt scholarship.

03.04.- 29.04.

TANEL VEENRE

EX POST

03.04.- 29.04.

TANEL VEENRE

EX POST

On Thursday, April 6th, the exhibition EX POST by Tanel Veenre, will be opened simultaneously in Draakon gallery and the VAULT of A-Galerii.⁠ The exhibition will stay open in Draakon gallery until April 29 and in the VAULT of A-Galerii until May 6. ⁠⁠On April 22 a public artist talk with Tanel Veenre will take place at A-Galerii after which there will be an exhibition tour in A-Galerii and Draakon gallery.

What comes after?
I’m in the moment between then and now, confined in space and time. But what comes after?

Tanel Veenre

The exhibition EX POST began when Tanel’s father, a musician and craftsman, offered his son the pipes of an organ that was left unfinished with restoration work. The wooden organ was acquired by his father when Tanel was still a child and most likely comes from an old parsonage in Keila, Estonia. Initially, some of the organ pipes found their way to Veenre’s solo exhibition “Organ” at the Temnikova & Kasela gallery in the early summer of 2021, where the artist exhibited his gloomy series of jewellery on them. The pipes, however, stuck on Tanel’s mind and he started working with the wood – slicing, sanding, glueing it. He also involved his father in the process, who gave the finishing touches to the wood, and thus the exhibition pieces are a joint effort.

The exhibition that is spread out over two spaces – A-Galerii and Draakon gallery, located a few steps away from each other, exposes an army of pipes, otherwise hidden inside the organ. In addition to jewellery, for the first time, Veenre has also created jewellery for space. The exhibition features objects of sound and an installation of a flying organ. The miniature precious works on display in A-Galerii act as crystalline echoes of the large works presented in Draakon gallery.

Eliminating noise and achieving clarity of thought has been important for Veenre in creating the exhibition. The main materials used in the pieces are the wooden organ pipes combined with some engraved stone and silver.
“I have never before been so minimalistic, but at the same time, the organ pipes as a symbol gave me a powerful arsenal of meanings. Sound became the invisible inevitability of the exhibition – the wooden glow of the organ. If jewellery is considered “wearable art”, then for the jewellery of this series, it would be more accurate to use the expression “wearable sounds”. Each pipe has a unique timbre and sound that I tried to preserve. The more than a 100-year-old instrument from an old Estonian parsonage in Keila has reached its end destination and transformed into something new. One organism (organ = organ) is dispersed into fragments, each of which has its own being.” – Tanel Veenre

The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Cultural Foundation and La Gioiosa.

Exhibitions in the Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Tanel Veenre (1977) is an Estonian jewellery artist and designer. Growing up in a family of artists and musicians, Veenre was interested in art since his childhood, and his art studies began in the art class of Pelgulinna High School. In 2005, Veenre graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts, majoring in jewellery. In 2014, he created his brand, Tanel Veenre Jewellery, which due to expansion into fashion and lifestyle from 2021 carries the name Tanel Veenre. Tanel Veenre’s work has been recognized both locally and internationally. Among other honours, he is a laureate of the Kristjan Raud Art Award (2010), Estonian National Cultural Award (2016) and the Tallinn Fashion Week’s Estonian fashion design grand prix Kuldnõel (2019). His work has been shown at nearly 300 exhibitions and fashion shows around the world: from Berlin to Bangkok and from Amsterdam to Santiago. Veenre has also been awarded with the best display and curating award of the International Fashion Showcase at London Fashion Week and in 2014 he was the first Estonian jewellery artist to be mentioned in Vogue Italia. Tanel Veenre’s jewellery invites the wearer to believe in fairy tales, fantasy and the vastness of imagination.

04.05.- 27.05.

ROMAN-STEN TõNISSOO & ELLEN VENE

If This Is Light, Then Give Us Darkness

04.05.- 27.05.

ROMAN-STEN TõNISSOO & ELLEN VENE

If This Is Light, Then Give Us Darkness

Roman-Sten Tõnissoo & Ellen Vene will open their co-exhibition If This Is Light, Then Give Us Darkness in Draakon gallery at 18:00 on Thursday, May 4th, 2023. Exhibition will be open until May 27th, 2023.

If This Is Light, Then Give Us Darkness, the co-exhibition of Roman-Sten Tõnissoo and Ellen Vene, serves as an ongoing collaboration between the two artists. Their distinctive styles exchange locations, reflect each other and create new forms of dialogue.

Through site-sensitive artwork, Tõnissoo and Vene attempt to disentangle and redefine visuals from fantasies that stem from one’s desire to escape into alternative environments from the restless quintessence of the world. Relying on technological development, the practice of referring and sampling has established itself even more firmly in visual culture – and therefore, the perception of contemporaneity is increasingly complemented by a collage of fragments from different eras. During pivotal times, one often yearns for magical archaism, a concept based on the imaginary, fragmented past. With their current exhibition in Draakon gallery, located in the heart of the old town of Tallinn, the artists observe the Middle Ages as a platform where all kinds of ideas and ideals can be projected. Examples of recycled medieval aesthetics, symbols and milieu are found in every field of culture – music, fashion, fiction, games and films. The darkness of the Middle Ages seems to be an alternation to the flickering light of screens reflecting modern despair.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Roman-Sten Tõnissoo (1989) has graduated from the department of photography (BA) and contemporary art (MA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and has also studied at FAMU, Film and TV School in Prague. The focal point of his artistic practice lies in the quest for spirituality and purpose in contemporary society, and in the fragile connections between aggression and the sense of security. The artist's cross-media work methods refer to and search for spatial moments of dialogue, including the potential to visualize new possible future perspectives. Among his recent exhibition projects are “Your Afterlife Is Cancelled” together with Ellen Vene in ARS Project Space (2022), “Out of Sight Is Out of Mind” together with Ellen Vene in ROAM Project Space in Berlin (2022) and “Dreams in Unfreedom” together with Sven Parker in the Monumental Gallery of Tartu Art House (2022).

Ellen Vene (1990) has obtained BA in the department of sculpture and installation and MA in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and additionally studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and Central Saint Martins College in London. The core of her installative artistic practice includes strategies based on cultural and art history while illustrating the ways how historical systems and roles are reflected in the present. Among her recent exhibition projects are “Exercises for Dreamkeeping” in TYPA gallery (2022), “Your Afterlife Is Cancelled” together with Roman-Sten Tõnissoo in ARS Project Space (2022), “Out of Sight Is Out of Mind” together with Roman-Sten Tõnissoo in Roam Project Space in Berlin (2022).

12.06.- 08.07.

HELENA KESKKüLA & JIHYE LEE & ALICE SLYNGSTAD

salty ember normal smoulder

12.06.- 08.07.

HELENA KESKKüLA & JIHYE LEE & ALICE SLYNGSTAD

salty ember normal smoulder

10.07.- 05.08.

MARIA LAPTEVA SIDLJAREVITš

What Happened with this Lovely Girl?

10.07.- 05.08.

MARIA LAPTEVA SIDLJAREVITš

What Happened with this Lovely Girl?

Maria Lapteva Sidljarevitš opens her exhibition What Happened with this Lovely Girl? in Draakon gallery at 18:00 on Monday, July 10th, 2023. The exhibition will be open until August 5th, 2023.

“My interest in memory and remembering arises again and again, thus I think it cannot be coincidental. It must be something essentially important for it to disappear for a while, but then always surface again.

In November 2022, I showed a series of paintings bearing the same name in the exhibition Is there Hope For Lovely Creatures?, held in the Lasnamäe Pavilion of Tallinn Art Hall. Tamara Luuk, the curator of the exhibition, has written about the works: “Reviving memories in order to banish them has often been the motivation behind distinctive works of figuration. As time passes, Maria is growing more and more skillful in manipulating what has been stowed away in her memory. She adds, cuts, accentuates and disperses, resulting in paintings of fragmentary mosaiques and drawings of wildly branching fables. Often, only the title references back to the initial impulse, the work itself tries to break this bond, and to move on to another scale. It is peculiar how memories come around a long time later, in a happy, balanced period of life. And it is peculiar how the will of self-expression can spread over such wide landscapes.”

“In the works shown in the Lasnamäe Pavilion I tried to awaken and revisit my most vivid childhood memories. This time I have taken a slightly different path to understand how the environment in which I grew up influenced my coming of age and my personality. I tried to recreate a kind of universal yet personal and predominantly feminine figurative language. And – how many times already! – I notice with a surprise that none of the images emerge from the others, and that the exhibition as a whole carries contradictions that are still looking for a resolution.”

Maria Lapteva Sidljarevitš

The artist expresses her gratitude to: A. Litvinov, Järsi OÜ, P. Laptev, K. Kogelnik, T.Luuk.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Maria Lapteva Sidljarevitš (1982) completed her master's degree in painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2014. She has had several personal exhibitions and has participated in numerous group exhibitions. Sidljarevitš has received wide attention, including on to the popular platform ZA/UM, where the writer Mudlum characterizes her as follows: "As a painter, Maria is a kind of an unexpected mixture of naivism and expressionism, but she is in constant progress. Also, I believe that there are strong ties to Russian conceptualism of the 1920s /…/ In her paintings, she tries to find answers to the main questions of life, the endless allures of life, death, love and suffering. Who are you in this world? Where do you belong, what do you have to do, where do you have to go, who do you have to become? Where is god? What is loneliness? There is no false shame in facing the big questions of life, no social art. When she paints, she talks to her canvas, touches it, and sometimes it seems as if she is not creating the painting, but the painting is creating her and itself simultaneously, as if the painting is emerging out of itself.”

11.08.- 02.09.

EDGAR TEDRESAAR

Where Is Your Red Line?

11.08.- 02.09.

EDGAR TEDRESAAR

Where Is Your Red Line?

On Thursday, August 10th, 2023 at 18.00 Edgar Tedresaar will open his exhibition Where Is Your Red Line? in Draakon gallery. The exhibition will be open until September 2nd, 2023.

Red lines can be stable, axiomatic and discreet. Yet they can also be unstable and larger than life. The latter have suddenly appeared in our lives. These are thick lines, effervescent and unnerving.

In the field of security, red lines mark an area within which someone wants to be sovereign, or perhaps even dominate another. Such actors are rational and have agency. Their areas of activity inevitably overlap, albeit partially.

There would be no need for red lines, if there were no other actors in our vicinity. The overlap of ambits is an aspect of our social life — our actions will extend to and across other people’s boundaries. For example, we know how painful it is to see something dear break in our hands, but even more so if it happens to break in someone else’s hands. Even if the thing is imagined, it is a part of us.

In other words, one’s actions will, directly or indirectly, affect their interests and activities, their personal sphere. If someone crosses another’s red lines, they must accept that there will be a reaction, possibly even a counter-action.

A world of larger-than-life red lines is a traumatised world where someone is directing aggression at us. In such a world, we are vulnerable. Every move can be interpreted as an existential threat. It is a struggle. Other, inner red lines emerge from behind the outer lines. In time, when someone tramples over this certain inner threshold, you break. These are lines which should not be crossed as that would exhaust your will and resources. This inner red line represents a breaking point, a moment of surrender.

In the world of red lines, everyone is engaged in a struggle for survival, fighting for their lives or interests. Self-expression is a show of power. Rules are scarce or do not apply.

It is a world of suspicion and anxiety. A world where force reigns.

One can imagine a different world where interactions are based on rules rather than force. The red lines would encompass a modest area of personal and private affairs. The rules would enforce stable and mutually recognized red lines. In such a world, there would be no real fear that someone will put too much pressure on you, set you up, dominate you. And you would not have to assert yourself by force. The basis of communication would be the rules which are not the result of an ever-fluctuating compromise, but an expression of consensus and co-operation. Rules represent the possibility of interacting with another actor as an equal. In the world of modest red lines, the contact area of actors is broad and deep, and there is no threat in self-expression. In such a world, communication is playful and cannot be reduced to force.

Rules exist in the world of larger-than-life red lines, but they treated as signs of a temporary truce. In a world of thick red lines, rules are more like a means to an end – they are instruments that assist with implementing one’s interests.

On the other hand, in the rule-based world of modest red lines, communication is the soil on which new opportunities sprout, where new conversations are made and carried. The foundation of this world is dialogue. There is no attempt to subjugate the other, instead, they are treated in the same way as oneself. In this world, everyone has inherent autonomy, as one cannot have freedom without assigning it to the other.

Rules are an expression of equality and equivalence. Rules uphold freedom, as their purpose is to create a common, freedom-based space for all players.

Of course, there is no ideal world. But it is important to notice which one adds more colour.

Force or freedom?

Illimar Ploom

Photos: Roman-Sten Tõnissoo

The sound piece is created by Indrek Asukül.
Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Tartu Cultural Endowment.
Exhibitions in the Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Edgar Tedresaar is a painter and a member of the art group Piiritus. He has studied painting at Pallas Art School in Tartu (BA), and Tartu University (MA), and has been an exchange student at the University of Art and Design Linz in Austria. Tedresaar's painting practice values recycling. His abstract compositions are formed by sewing and glueing together structured linen fabrics. The material is treated with pigmented glazes, creating a watercolour-like glow. In recent years, the artist has focused on the Anthropocene, the era of human dominance over the biosphere. Tedresaar’s main subjects are landscapes that have been transformed and re-organised by the extraction of minerals and other resources which are important to our technology-oriented world. It is not a thought that crosses our minds daily, but as a result of their extraction, the environment and the species living in these areas are destroyed, and a large number of people suffer for economic gain.

06.09.- 30.09.

KELLI GEDVIL & KRISTEN RäSTAS

Wake Me Up When It’s All Over

06.09.- 30.09.

KELLI GEDVIL & KRISTEN RäSTAS

Wake Me Up When It’s All Over

On Wednesday, September 6, 2023 at 18.00, the co-exhibition of Kelli Gedvil & Kristen Rästas Wake Me Up When It’s All Over will open in Draakon Gallery. The exhibition will be open until September 30, 2023.

Wake Me Up When It’s All Over, the co-exhibition of Kelli Gedvili and Kristen Rästas, poetically reflects on the introverted urge to find shelter from everyday sensitivities and encapsulate in the digital world. The artists are focused on creating an atmosphere in which they explore the contemporary condition of humans living through one crisis after another.

The artists portray fantasy-based, long-lost and non-existent forms of life and landscapes in which to get lost in. They create symbols inspired by longing and grief, through which new artificial forms of life are born that can change the habitual ways of looking at the past and the way we form memories.

The exhibition includes an array of media – installative sculptures, intimate miniature works, interactive user experience based digital works and virtual reality, all accompanied by atmospheric soundscapes.

Sound design for Kristen Rästas’ work: Mataya Waldenberg.
Technical support: Ian Simon Märjama.
Graphic design: Nathan Tulve.

The artists’ gratitude to: Natalia Wójcik, Sten Saarits, Leegi Kiis, Marek Gedvil, Ago Märjama, Johannes Luik.

Remembering Anti Kidron.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media in the program NEUSTART KULTUR Module D – Digital Mediation Formats.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and AS Liviko.

Kelli Gedvil (1994) has graduated the Estonian Academy of Arts with a bachelor's degree in painting and a master's degree in contemporary art, carried out exchange studies at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and the Valand Academy in Sweden. She has participated in several exhibitions in Estonia, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Hungary and Poland. Gedvil is the co-founder of the art group Robin Ellis Meta and the curator and web developer of the online gallery post-gallery.online. In her latest exhibitions "4EVER" and "Purifying Your Skin", she has explored the behavioral patterns surrounding self-presentation in various virtual communities, how such patterns are expressed and how they affect the physical body.

Kristen Rästas (1992) is an Estonian artist. He has graduated from the faculty of fine art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2019 (MA degree in contemporary art). Rästas has taken additional courses in the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and in Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK), School of Arts in Gent, Belgium. The artist has been participating in exhibitions since 2021 and he has held exhibitions in Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Iceland and Belgium. Rästas works as an interdisciplinary artist who involves painting, conceptualist art and various multimedia projects in his artwork. His recent artwork has studied virtual and artificial landscapes, digital errors and the general obscurity of being an artist. Kristen Rästas is one of the artists working under the pseudonym Robin Ellis Meta and co-founder of post-gallery.online online gallery. The artist lives and work in Berlin and Tallinn.

02.10.- 28.10.

TUUKKA KAILA (FI)

And After

02.10.- 28.10.

TUUKKA KAILA (FI)

And After

On Thursday, October 5, 2023 at 6 pm, the solo exhibition “And After” by Tuukka Kaila will open in Draakon Gallery. The exhibition takes place in the framework of the Tallinn Photomonth satellite program. An artist talk will take place at the exhibition on Saturday, October 7 at 4 pm.

In a gathering of some recent ideas and objects, this is one way how things could turn out. And After continues the artist’s work around knowledges arising from various curiosity based systems.

Tuukka Kaila

The exhibition will remain open until October 28, 2023.

Supported by: Arts Promotion Centre Finland
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and AS Liviko.

Tuukka Kaila (FI) (1975) is a Helsinki based artist operating in the expanded fields of photography and publishing. He is a co-founder of the artist-run publishing initiative Rooftop Press and a long time active member of the artists' darkroom co-op Värinä. Since the late 1990s, Kaila has been actively involved in the development of independent publishing houses, artist-run projects and other self-organizing cultural production forms within and outside of institutions. Kaila's work as an artist has been consistently focused on enabling a learning experience, which is accompanied by active participation and directing art production and distribution methods into the hands of the artists themselves. He is the co-founder of numerous projects such as Numero Zine (1998-2004), publishing event "Bookies" (2012-), Vallilan risopaja micro press (2017-) and Rooftop Press (2017- ) and a member of Värinä darkroom co-op (2002-) and Myyälla2 Gallery (2003– ). Tuukka Kaila's work mostly takes the form of photos, texts and public events. Kaila's works are based on questions related to the production of knowledge and are completed in an organic process that includes a wide range of different art forms and epistemological strategies, including dialogues, practice-based research, technical experimentation in the darkroom, and printed materials. Additional information: https://tuukkakaila.com  https://rooftoppress.fi

30.10.- 25.11.

PAUL KUIMET

Crystal Grid

30.10.- 25.11.

PAUL KUIMET

Crystal Grid

From Tuesday, October 31, 2023 Paul Kuimet’s solo exhibition Crystal Grid will be open in Draakon gallery. The opening event takes place on November 1 at 18:00. The project-related artist’s book presentation will take place on November 23 at 18:00 adjacent to the gallery in Kanuti Gildi SAAL.

“… How to give structure to something that itself is lacking one? How to present something like that? This is a question of visibility and making visible. What are the means for making visible something that always remains invisible? More precisely: the thing that remains invisible in real life, but of which we can get a glimpse in Crystal Grid, is the structure of capitalism. But how to display something like that?”

Neeme Lopp Paul Kuimet’s Analytical Photography
Essay from artist’s book Crystal Grid (Lugemik, 2023)

The exhibition features 25 new works from the Crystal Grid series. The series, commenced in 2020, consists of collages composed of photos taken in palm houses of various botanical gardens around the world. The collages are arranged in sets of two, three or four, juxtaposing plant fragments, which in reality are located hundreds or even thousands of kilometers apart.

For the collages, a pattern is used, derived from the structure of the ceiling of the central transept of the Crystal Palace, erected for the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. For each work, a new pattern is designed within the existing framework, based on the internal composition of each photo – part of the image is cut according to the pattern, and part is left uncut.

The exhibition will remain open until November 25, 2023.

Photos: Paul Kuimet

The exhibition is a part of the satellite programme of the contemporary art biennial Tallinn Photomonth (6.10.–26.11.2023). More info: fotokuu.ee

Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhjala Brewery
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and AS Liviko.

Paul Kuimet (1984) is an artist who works with photography, 16 mm film, and installation comprising of these media. Although his work is often described by a technological way of seeing, his practice places emphasis on the movement and presence of the beholder in the exhibition space. Since 2013, his work has been interested in modernist forms. In his latest works he has concentrated not so much on the forms of modernism, but on its materials, such as steel and glass, and their relationship to the development of modern capitalism since the mid-nineteenth century. He received an MA degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts (2014). In 2018, he participated in residency programmes at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, and at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York City. Since 2022, Kuimet is the Associate Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Department of Photography.

27.11.- 23.12.

MARI ROOSVALT

Connections. Paintings 1998-2023

27.11.- 23.12.

MARI ROOSVALT

Connections. Paintings 1998-2023

On Tuesday, November 28, 2023, Mari Roosvalt‘s solo exhibition Connections. Paintings 1998-2023 will open in Draakon gallery. The exhibition will remain open until December 23.

Mari Roosvalt’s oil paintings and watercolors of the 2010s, which contained collage and were built on the principle of collage, carried the idea of deep layers of culture in Europe extending into modern life and of nature in the urban environment. These topics have remained close to her heart. However, the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022 prompted the use of different images than before. In the painting “Waiting” (oil, canvas, mixed media), the artist combined the well-known equestrian monument of condottiere Bartolommeo Colleoni, a mercenary leader in the service of Venice in the 15th century, modeled by Andrea Verrocchio, as a symbol of an invading military force, and as a counterbalance to it, the Russalka monument created by Amandus Adamson with an angel holding a wreath of peace instead of a cross. This painting was a first in a series of works with similar motifs. The urge to express her social stance reminded the artist of the 1990s, when, on the one hand, under the influence of major social changes and, on the other hand, trying to update and enrich her painting language, she began to use collage in a series of small-format works and installations (“Messages”, 1998 ; “Person”, 1998-99; “Roleplays”, 2000). The juxtaposition of the latest works and those created decades ago induces ideas regarding the differences in the expression of the artist’s social opinions and the applications of the collage principle in turbulent times, both in Mari Roosvalt’s work and in a more general sense.

Mai Levin

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

Mari Roosvalt has graduated from the department of painting at Estonian State Art Insitute in 1969 and she has worked as an art teacher in Tallinn Secondary School No. 7, Tallinn Secondary School No. 46, Tallinn Art School and Tallinn Pedagogical University. Since 1992, Mari Roosvalt has been working in various positions at Tallinn Academy of Arts. Since 1970, the artist has been actively participating in exhibitions. Roosvalt has been recognized with several reputable art awards, including the Konrad Mägi Award. While in 1980 she mainly practised abstract painting and moved towards abstract expressionism in 1990s, at her current exhibition Mari Roosvalt has followed her author's technique that she acquired in late 1990s when she started adding photographic means into her artwork.

2022

14.12.- 08.01.

MARTIN BUSCHMANN

Doc. Photo 2020

14.12.- 08.01.

MARTIN BUSCHMANN

Doc. Photo 2020

Martin Buschmann‘s personal exhibition Doc. Photo 2020 will be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, December 14, 2021. Exhibition will be open until January 8, 2022.

Since the objective of documentary photography is to record events on the spot then in case of virtual events and environments we are bound to think about how to be present and how to reflect the events of virtual environment through photography? What are the common characteristics of the real and the virtual world? What are the possibilities and restrictions; how does contemporary photography theory function and survive in virtual environment?

The artist presents photographs of concerts that have taken place in various virtual (game) environments. Buschmann manipulates with contemporary concert photography in virtual environments while observing the ways of forwarding the dynamics of the visual (including mood, flow of events, characteristics).

Martin Buschmann directs his “camera” to concert environments and related events while reflecting the virtual action in the light of international events and political situation. The Target supermarket in flames, in the event of virtual club Elsewither (that is the virtual copy of Club Elsewhere located in Brooklyn, NYC), was synchronized with the rioting in New York in June 2020, the same can be said about the performance by Pussy Riot at Block by Blockwest Festival. Both events took place in Minecraft environment that was the fastest, most convenient and perhaps the cheapest solution for creating a virtual concert in conditions of Covid-19 restrictions.

All this is counterbalanced by images about the so-called commercial environments: a photograph about the audience at the concert by Lil Nas X held in Roblox environment and the Lost Horizon festival in Sansar. Whereas in other environments, the avatars representing men remain rather similar to human beings then in Sansar environment also characters with a carrot appearance are allowed to the dance floor.

Also, the question of personal data and personal protection becomes increasingly important – how can a person be characterized when existing in a virtual environment? In real (optics-based) photography, we know and distinguish persons according to their facial features and posture, but how one should do it in photography of virtual world where avatars have been created by the game developer?

Artwork of the current exhibition has been completed with the support of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The artist forwards his gratitude to: Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Kristel Schwede, Veigo Kuzmenko, Tiiu Buschmann, photography department of the Estonian Academy of Arts, photography magazine “Positiiv”, Cultural Endowment of Estonia. Also, the environments of Roblox, Minecraft and Sansar and everyone who have been involved in the concerts taken place in these environments.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Martin Buschmann (1980) is an artist and photographer living in Tallinn. He has obtained MA degree in contemporary art (2021) and BA degree in photography (2019) at the Estonian Academy of Arts. He mainly uses photography and installation in his artistic practice while focusing con the critical analysis of gender representation, game theories and simulacra. Buschmann has worked as the photographer of ERKI Fashion Show for more than ten years. For several years, he has reviewed art exhibitions in local culture publications (Sirp, Positiiv).

12.01.- 05.02.

LAURA CEMIN

a slash is a dash is a splash

12.01.- 05.02.

LAURA CEMIN

a slash is a dash is a splash

Laura Cemin‘s personal exhibition a slash is a dash is a splash will be open in Draakon gallery from Wednesday, January 12, 2021. Exhibition will be open until February 5, 2022.

a slash is a dash is a splash is a scenography for a play, a training room, or perhaps a leaky text that escaped the 2 dimensions of the page.

Playing with different degrees of abstraction, Laura Cemin literally translates puns and idiomatic expressions into material objects, while simultaneously creating a new abstract language. A sequence of bodily traces, exhaled sounds and physical impressions to allow slippages away from the straight, the vertical, the controlled.

The exhibition is the latest iteration of the artist’s research on the connection between movement and language and the connotations that language attributes to simple motions. Here falling and slipping, usually associated with failure and defeat, are no longer feared or despised, but seen as possibilities to release control, embrace vulnerability and yield to the support of the earth.

The biggest thank you to Jessie Bullivant, Mika Helin, Essi Kausalainen, Sille Kima, Kaisa Kruuse, Michael McCrea, Maarit Mustonen, Marie Raffn, Eva Volmerson, Helsingin Kiipeilykeskus, Maa-tila and Septaria Kerasil.

The exhibition is supported by supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Liviko Ltd. and Arts Promotion Center Finland.

Laura Cemin (1992) is an Italian performer and visual artist currently based in Helsinki, FI. She is interested in performative gestures, which can appear in different forms such as live performances, installations and writings. She holds a degree in Ballet and contemporary dance and has obtained a MFA from Umeå Art Academy (SE) in 2019. Her work as a visual artist has been presented internationally in galleries, theatres and museums, such as Norrlandsoperan (SE), Tallinn Art Hall (EE) and Kiasma (FI).

08.02.- 05.03.

KADRI TOOM

Ways of Seeing the Periphery

08.02.- 05.03.

KADRI TOOM

Ways of Seeing the Periphery

Kadri Toom‘s personal exhibition Ways of Seeing the Periphery will be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, February 8, 2022. Exhibition will be open until March 5, 2022.

Empty landscapes exist in their non-existence, pulsating and undulating in yearning.

The idea of Ways of Seeing the Periphery has born out of a landscape experience. The artist has exhibited graphic prints that can be conceptually divided into three:

The focus in the pieces completed in tondo format lies on peripheral, marginal landscapes that bear no visible trace of human activity. One can visualize a fallow ground – an open field, covered with dry and thin layer of soil. Empty planes have been repeatedly surveyed, photographed, drawn, explored, digitalized and marked. Such peripheries, planes and brushy hillocks are potential spaces. Periphery has potential for spatial change, an empty space has potential for metamorphosis. While creating digital strata, intensive and highlighted tones are involved. The luminous screens mediating information emphasize the glow of landscapes. These are cryptical, intensive, enchanting and organized. Out of this concurrence, new and uncanny visions will arise to the brown fields.

There are outlines of bog pools and reflections of clouds on the gallery walls, talking about the bodily experience of landscape. The unique opportunity to physically enter the landscape gives a privileged status. To glide into a soft, dark and slippery bottomless bog lake. To be surrounded by dark water and to observe the sky reflecting back from the surface of the water. To float between the sky and the ground, to surround oneself entirely by the landscape.

The printmaking series “Where did the globeflowers go? Homage to Lore Kutschera (1917–2008)” reveals the roots of nine plants. The botanical drawings by Austrian botanist, phytosociologist and researcher of plant root systems have been used in the series where Toom has transferred these into cyanotypes. The layers of paint have been printed while using the monotyping and screenprinting techniques. The choice of vibrant colours emphasizes the decrease of the biodiversity in soil and refers to the overall mentality that agitates to produce more, faster and with less costs.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Kadri Toom (1984) Kadri Toom focuses on experimental contemporary printmaking in her artistic practice. Kadri Toom inspired by themes related to space, silence, emptiness and ephemerality. In her artwork, Toom combines various techniques and materials; and besides connecting painting and printmaking, the artist applies installative tools while exhibiting her pieces. Toom is a member of the Estonian Artists' Association and Association of Estonian Printmakers. She teaches printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Pallas University of Applied Sciences in Tartu. Kadri Toom has graduated from the department of painting at Tartu Art College in 2006 and obtained MA degree in printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2009. During her studies, Toom has had an exchange student grant at Saimaa University of Applied Sciences in Finland. She has been in artist residencies and taken part in several international art projects and workshops. Toom has held personal exhibitions in Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and Czech Republic.

08.03.- 02.04.

JAAN ELKEN

ON_OFF

08.03.- 02.04.

JAAN ELKEN

ON_OFF

Jaan Elken‘s personal exhibition ON_OFF will be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, March 8, 2022. Exhibition will be open until April 2, 2022.

Jaan Elken: “As an artist, I create worlds that claim to be a visual whole and which intellectually charged coordinates have influenced me in one or another way.

The architectonics of metaphorical landscapes has been inspired both by collapsing glaciers and rocky deserts (“Snow Line of the Atlas Mountains”, “Turquoise and Ice”), also by the ruin ensembles of exotic cultures as well as sign systems (“Northern Africa, revisited”, “Morocco”). Aesthetics that poeticizes degradation as well as observes the intersection between the inside and the outside has become less important now; I rather see a million opportunities next to the territories engaged by mass tourism and kitsch industry to map the reality according to my own rules.

In 2020–2022 there were no travels to be accumulated into my artwork; however, it lies in the power of a painter to create strong simulations. It is a true physical feeling how the power of the art of painting can be found in emotional high-voltage – I seem to be in trance while sketching the unknown and/or something that lies ahead.”

Jaan Elken (1954) is a painter, art critic (published more than a few hundred articles on art criticism and art policy), curator and art teacher. In 1997-2018 he has been working as a professor of Chair of Painting at the University of Tartu Institute Cultural Research and Fine Art, until its closing, since 2018 he is a Professor Emeritus at the University Tartu Faculty of Arts and Humanities. He has been a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association since 1981. He started his artist career with hyper-realistic paintings in 1970s and has since become one of the most significant abstract painters in Estonian art. Acknowledgements: 2020 AkzoNobel Art Prize; 2011 Ado Vabbe Art Award; 2007 Order of the White Star 4th Class; 2006 Kristjan Raud Art Award; 2002 Sadolin Art Award; 2000 Konrad Mägi Art Award; 1979 Young Artists' Triennale of the Baltic States, Grand Prix by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. Elken has held more than 70 personal exhibitions, including in the Museum of New Art in Pärnu (2009, 2014), Tallinn Art Hall (2005), Tartu Art Museum (2005), Adamson-Eric Museum (2000), in addition to exhibitions in Berlin, Kiev, Helsinki, Riga etc. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including: 2018 “The X-Files [Registry of the Nineties]”, Kumu Art Museum; 2016 “Cold Look. Variation of Hyperrealism in Estonian Art”, Kumu Art Museum; 2009, 2013, 2015 Nord Art, Kunstwerk Carlshütte, Rendsburg/Büdelsdorf (Germany); 2014 “Tallinn S`Invite À Carcassonne”, Chapelle des Jesuites, Carcassonne (France); 2013 “In between zwischen Energie und Materie”, Alte Oberpostdirektion, Hamburg; 2012 “In Between New Abstraction & New Concretion”, Klaipeda Culture Communication Center; 2012 Art Vilnius’12 International contemporary art fair, Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre (Litexpo); 2011 “Mystics and Moderns: Painting in Estonia before Glasnost”, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA etc. Jaan Elken's artwork has been acquired by numerous art collections, including Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, The Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union), CAM_Casoria Contemporary Art Museum (Naples, Italy), the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia), Matthew Bown Gallery (London, UK), European Parliament (Brussels, Belgium), Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, Viinistu Art Museum, Pärnu Museum of New Art and other collections all over the world.

06.04.- 30.04.

TAAVI TALVE

(re)constructed points of view

06.04.- 30.04.

TAAVI TALVE

(re)constructed points of view

04.05.- 28.05.

HANNO SOANS & SILVIA SOSAAR

Reformation

04.05.- 28.05.

HANNO SOANS & SILVIA SOSAAR

Reformation

Hanno Soans and Silvia Sosaar open their co-exhibition Reformation in Draakon gallery at 6PM on Wednesday, May 4th, 2022. Exhibition will be open until May 28, 2022.

But where is the final destination of the roots of an event? Where are the last cells of an event-organism? These are nowhere. These exist only if agreed upon. This is especially obvious when observing the retroactivity of the specific event comparatively, let’s say in the context of Criminal Code and the possible feeling of guilt.

Jaan Kross, „Kajalood“, 1980

Present exhibition is a result of a several years long process – yet, it has the fixed beginning and the end point. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day 2018 when we planned to go the Papal Mass, carrying the slogan borrowed from Henry of Latvia “Laula, laula pappi!”*. Exhibition involves gestures that stay experimental and veiled gestures that add extra charge to the exhibited objects. Silvia Sosaar’s powerful installation memento mori brackets Hanno Soans’s more fragile artwork while addressing the public space in front of the Russian Embassy in Tallinn. The geographical locations presented at the exhibition refer to the island of Saaremaa, Kaliningrad, Münster and Tallinn as well as the timescale of the exhibition material extends back to 13th century of the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia throughout the year of 1997 up to the present day.

Every Reformation is initially an action. Reformation is born as a spontaneous reaction to the environment that is structured by traditions. Reformation flirts with personal space charged with public rites, whether these be finally represented in an exhibition hall, an icon or iconoclasm. At least for a few stimulated moments, Reformation serves as a symbolic counter-attack to the historical past or present or at least as a disquieting unrealized potential of this gesture. Reformation is a hygiene procedure and they say you have to wash yourself regularly.

The artists express their gratitude to: Andres Gailan, Madis Kaasik, Jaak Soans, the Sosaar family, Uku Toomet, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

* “Sing, sing Priest!” (translation from Estonian), taken from “The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia”

Hanno Soans (1974) is an art critic with the background in art history, a curator and artist who is currently studying in the doctoral school of art history and visual culture at the Estonian Academy of Arts. As an artist, Hanno Soans has participated in exhibitions 1997 while focusing on performance art, text-based artwork and video. He lives and works in Tallinn. Soans has obtained MA degree from the department of art history in 2003. In 1999–2008 Hanno Soans worked as a curator at the Art Museum of Estonia. Soans has been a member of artist grouping Stiilne Viisnurk (together with Andres Härm, Kiwa, Andres Lõo, Martin Pedanik and Jasper Zoova). Soans is a founding member of skaala publishing.

Silvia Sosaar (1979) works in Tallinn. In 2017, Sosaar graduated from the photography department of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EAA). In 2021, he obtained a master's degree in contemporary art at EAA and was nominated for the EAA Young Artist Award with her graduation piece "The Sandbox We Were Given". With her first solo exhibition “Shiny Shoes Salon” (2018) at the EAA Gallery, Sosaar turned the art gallery into a shoe cleaning salon. The exhibition consisted of a series of performances taking place before and during the exhibition, photographs, a video and a space installation. In 2019, Sosaar held an exhibition “Academy Sports Club” together with Hanno Soans at Hobusepea Gallery. The artist is a member of the Estonian Union of Photography Artists (FOKU) and has exhibited with the collective Umbrella Group. Sosaar is a founding member of ;paranoia and skaala publishing. The artist has participated in exhibitions in Estonia, Latvia, the United Kingdom, France and Pakistan.

31.05.- 25.06.

SIRJA-LIISA EELMA & TIINA SARAPU

Black Mirror

31.05.- 25.06.

SIRJA-LIISA EELMA & TIINA SARAPU

Black Mirror

Sirja-Liisa Eelma and Tiina Sarapu will open their co-exhibition Black Mirror in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday, May 31st 2022. Exhibition will be open until June 25, 2022.

Black surface absorbs light and colours; while looking at black surface, one can see info infinity, unknowing, solitude and protective tenderness. Mirror gives you the honest truth. The danger to get stuck in reflections and in the reflections of reflections is as big as the temptation to touch the snoozing screen of a smartphone in order to open completely different kind of worlds.

Landscape painter of 17th century Claude Lorrain made use of black mirror as an optical aid. Compared to a clear mirror, the details are more subtle and the reflection of black mirror is more simplified. The black reflection brings forth the tonal range as well as reduces the intensity of tones.

The encounter of the reflecting and painted worlds refers to the multilayeredness of existence. The layer of glass in front of the painting is protecting the artwork but also creating the distance between the painting and the viewer. This way, the viewer misses the opportunity of directly experiencing the materiality, fragrance and smell of the paint. The reflections, flickers of light and shadows of the glass function either as disturbance or as an unstable and captivating finesse on the surface of painting.

Photos: Anna Mari Liivrand and Stanislav Stepaško

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Sirja-Liisa Eelma (1973) is a conceptual painter whose visual language is characterized by visually minimalistic structures. Her painting series, based on the slow transformation of a repetitive image, focus on the themes of emptiness, ambivalence of meanings as well as defining the visible and the invisible. Sirja-Liisa Eelma has graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts (MA, 1996). Since 2018, she has been studying in the doctoral school of the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2016, her artistic practice was recognized with Konrad Mägi Award. Eelma's artworks belong both to private collections as well as the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia. She has held numerous personal exhibitions as well as participated in group and curatorial exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad.

Tiina Sarapu (1971) artistic practice can be characterized by minimalistic approach towards form. The perfectly composed form is almost always extremely simple and well interpreted. While having been exhibiting her artwork mainly as an installation artist during the past few years, Sarapu has often transferred the meanings of an initial idea to various contexts (several installations with music stands and mirrors), created illusory spaces, visualized sounds, extended the borders of perception. As a conceptual artist, Tiina Sarapu is using glass in order to express the idea of the multilayeredness of life while working with the oppositions present in glass as a material. (Reeli Kõiv) Tiina Sarapu has obtained MA degree in the department of glass art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1996. In 1996–2017, she was teaching in the same department and in 2003-2017 worked there as an associate professor. Sarapu has participated in numerous exhibitions, symposiums and workshops both in Estonia and abroad. She has received acknowledgement in international competitions of glass art. Sarapu's artwork belongs to the collections of several museums and private collectors. She received the honorary title of Acknowledged Glass Artist 2005–2005 and Acknowledged Glass Artist 2018–2019; in 2007, Sarapu received Kristjan Raud Art Award, in 2019 she deserved the Annual Award of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and was awarded the Artist Laureate Salary in 2021–2023.

27.06.- 23.07.

KELLI VALK

Walk-through Rooms

27.06.- 23.07.

KELLI VALK

Walk-through Rooms

Kelli Valk will open her personal exhibition Walk-through Rooms in Draakon gallery on Monday at 6pm on June 27th, 2022. Exhibition will be open until July 23rd, 2022.

Look through my eyes how time is bending backwards. These are the patterns of a life, won back from oblivion. To observe the rooms walked through during the years. A meeting with a secret spot where inner monologue can be held and everything that has happened can be explained to oneself. To be honest, to breathe together with a unique landscape of patterns. A pleasant view offers comfort; and tender feelings can be openly felt towards domestic objects. The sequence of repetitions is unspeakably enchanting. The wall patterns of the rooms are waking up, humming, yearning, crying, ranting, dreaming, falling asleep. Every room provides a stop on the journey towards oneself. Everything that is on this side of the walls remains in the view. Blending the dream and the reality sheds light to the bottomless depths of inner space. What happens is a sensuous tour from one room into another while making the real mental home for sadness. Stories can be told also without words, sometimes the important things are hidden in the untold. I feel that I am a gardener taking care of plants. Sometimes feeling joy, and then again, being sad. There are times of sleepless nights, just like frost at the night time. Life is just like weather – always changing. There is a huge difference between the summer heat and the winter chill. A ray of light is enough in order to lit up complete darkness.

Kelli Valk

The artist expresses her gratitude to: Karoliina Kagovere, Ott Kagovere, Anni Kagovere.
Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Kelli Valk (1952) graduated from the department of graphic art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1978; she is a member of the Association of Estonian Printmakers and Estonian Artists' Association. She was awarded the Graphic Artist of the Year by the Association of Estonian Prinmakers in 2012. Valk has been participating in exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad since 1978.

27.06.- 19.08.

SIRJE PETERSEN

Flow of Light

27.06.- 19.08.

SIRJE PETERSEN

Flow of Light

Sirje Petersen will open her personal exhibition Flow of Light in Draakon gallery at 18:00 on Monday, July 25, 2022. Exhibition will be open until August 19, 2022.

Light shows us colours.
What’s out comes in and what’s in gets out.
Openness and closeness.
Light helps us to see details
and light makes darkness go away.

Everyone has a place and a space in this world,
sometimes it is warm and cosy, sometimes cold and bleak.
Sometimes it is noisy, sometimes it is too silent.
Always changing – in light and in shadow.

No-one can grow in darkness.
It becomes possible in light.
Darkness may seem endless but a ray of light can always lit it up
and make everything alive.

There is no absolute reference system. Everything is relative, even the flow of time.”

Sirje Petersen

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Sirje Petersen is a painter and lecturer. In her artistic practice, Petersen focuses on the subject of human being and humanity. When meeting the artist's paintings, the spectator encounters the reflections of man's inner world where the important part is played by colour as a means of expression. While removing all unnecessary details in her paintings and adding perceptible nuances of her personal experience, Petersen achieves the dimension in her work that is close to abstraction. At her current exposition, we as spectators enter the lit-up corners of human soul in order to get the vague idea of its hidden layers. This is the artist's cognitive journey in time. Sirje Petersen has actively participated in exhibitions since 1981. She has held more than 60 solo exhibitions and her artworks have been exhibited both in Estonia and abroad, from the Nordic countries to the Philippines and Port Louis, Mauritius in Africa. Sirje Petersen's artwork belongs to several art collections: Tartu Art Museum, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Library of the University of Tartu, Observatory of the University of Tartu, Supreme Court of the Republic of Estonia, Pärnu Museum of New Art, Lüneburg Art Collection in Germany and numerous private collections around the world. Petersen was nominated for Kristjan Raud Art Award in 2021, for Konrad Mägi Art Award in 2019 and 2021 as well as received the Audience Award of the 19th Annual Exhibition of the Estonian Artists' Association in 2019. Since 2000 she has been working as an associate professor of painting in Pallas University of Applied Sciences in Tartu.

22.08.- 17.09.

JüRI KASS

Black-and-White

22.08.- 17.09.

JüRI KASS

Black-and-White

19.09.- 17.10.

MARI MäNNA

Let’s live in friendship!

19.09.- 17.10.

MARI MäNNA

Let’s live in friendship!

21.10.- 12.11.

MIHKEL MARIPUU

Fata Morgana

21.10.- 12.11.

MIHKEL MARIPUU

Fata Morgana

Mihkel Maripuu will open his solo exhibition Fata Morgana in Draakon gallery at 18:00 on Friday, October 21st, 2022. Exhibition will be open until November 12, 2022.

Fata Morgana is a phenomenon presenting a complex mirage that stages reality and then will unexpectedly disappear. It usually happens in early morning following a cold night when frozen temperatures will be replaced by the desert heat at dawn of day. A deceptive apparition is created at a far distance – a mystical vision, reality full of illusions, chowing down its own content, is appearing beyond reach on the horizon. Figuratively speaking, fata morgana creates, both as a concept and a phenomenon, parallels between daily news and contemporary post-truth society. What we are dealing here is a manipulation charged with symbols and narrative ambiguity, leading to either short-term or long-term consequences.

Manifestations of amorphous (formless, shapeless) truths are staged in the virtual flow of information. Information is mutually absorbed, every act is performatively charged, every path that is taken is analyzed. Therefore, an artificially unique reality is being designed, created by an individual based on his or her personal interests. And yet, it is still an experience mirrored by a warped and shifted virtual space – a simulation of reality that is often far more real than reality itself. An entropic implosion (that is an inwardly explosion of unsystematic chaos) takes place, an act of macroscopical broadening of microscopical meanings – an infinite speed where everything will disappear immediately after being born. This is not the past but the virtual eternity that is the sum of all possible possibilities, emerging and disappearing at the same moment.

To believe or not to believe?!

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Mihkel Maripuu (1987) is an artist whose multidisciplinary practice is characterized by the use of visual, spatial and sound platforms. The artist mainly observes the essence of post-internet in contemporary art, neo-materialism and other subcultural phenomena as well as peculiarities of digital era that have influenced the development of contemporary visual language. Maripuu is analyzing differences between technology and organics as well as the overlapping principles of the potential common grounds. Recent studies have focused on achieving the spatial hybrid experience in real time while applying various media for mutual benefit. As a simulacrum, it would stimulate the experience of those visiting the space and therefore the space itself.

14.11.- 10.12.

LILIAN MOSOLAINEN

Memento Vivere

14.11.- 10.12.

LILIAN MOSOLAINEN

Memento Vivere

Lilian Mosolainen will open her personal exhibition Memento Vivere in Draakon gallery at 17:00 on Friday, November 18th, 2022. Exhibition will be open until December 10, 2022.

Lilian Mosolainen: “My exhibition is titled Memento vivere which means “remember to live”. The Latin sentence is often accompanied by another sentence Memento mori, meaning “don’t forget death” that is also the title of the last painting I have completed. In this artwork, I have perceived human life as a part of the full circle in nature, but death is also part of it and the painting has been also influenced by the atmosphere of the war in Ukraine, referred also by the crosses in the painting. As for the painting technique, my recent works have a strong influence by drawings and bear a deeply existential and symbolistic subtone, for instance the painting The Death of Jesus Christ. At the current exposition, I am exhibiting works that I have completed during the years 1980s–2022. There is a certain similarity between the oldest painting Luncheon on the Grass and the newest one Memento Mori, especially when concerning realistic drawing. The painting Shipwreck also dates back to the early years of my artist’s career – the artwork that has been painted in a surprisingly abstract way, yet the subject matter can be related to the dramatic mood of my latest paintings.

The paintings completed between the early years and today can be described according to Jaan Elken’s statement: “In the context of contemporary painting, Mosolainen uses technique that is unprecedentedly unique – she applies multicolored, at times even a drawing-like brushwork, therefore referring to the technical interconnection between figural painting and traditions. The flowingly dynamic overpaintings allow the artist to create powerful figural archetypes about the connectedness of individuals while reaching grand, even biblical themes with the power of generalization.”

There are eleven paintings exhibited at the current exhibition, this being a cross section of my creative practice of the last 36 years. At the same time, the exhibition serves as a follow-up to my extensive retrospective exhibition that took place at Kadriorg gallery in 2021.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Lilian Mosolainen (1961) has graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1991. She has worked as a lecturer at Tallinn University, Tartu Art College and at Estonian Academy of Art. Currently she is teaching at Tallinn Art School. Mosolainen has participated in exhibitions since 1986 and since 1992 she is the member of the Estonian Artists' Association. Lilian Mosolainen emerged in the art life of Estonia within the wave of new expressionism, being a member of the initial core team of Rühm T in early 1980s. She reintroduced powerful animism and androgynous eroticism in Estonian art, whereas the earlier manifestations had an important part during the era of the Young Estonian (Noor-Eesti) neo-romantic movement in early 20th century. Mirjam Peil: "Whereas for Mosolainen's co-fighters expressionism remained only a phase then Lillian Mosolainen has always contributed to intense expressiveness and emotionality in her creative practice. Several art historians have pointed out the split structure of her paintings as well as the dialogues between the seemingly independent line and colour that complement and unveil each other. In her artistic practice, Lilian Mosolainen studies powerfully charged existential themes while perceiving human life as a part of the full circle of life and death as a part of life."

2021

15.12.- 30.01.

ERKI KASEMETS

Karl Marx in the Animal Kingdom

15.12.- 30.01.

ERKI KASEMETS

Karl Marx in the Animal Kingdom

Erki Kasemets’s personal exhibition Karl Marx in the Animal Kingdom will be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, December 15th, 2020. The most lightweight painting in Estonia can be seen at the exhibition and 37 years later, Erki Kasemets is collaborating with Reet Ohna, the artist of the board game that Kasemets invented in his childhood.

“When I was in the seventh grade, I took part in the competition of designing a board game inspired by the natural world. My invention was awarded the 2nd prize, and the 1st prize was not given out. They decided to place my game into production – before that, the rules were adjusted and simplified; the artist designed the board and the packaging that were depicting animals. The product was titled “Journey in the Animal Kingdom” and tens of thousands of copies of the game were printed. Even the reprints of the product were made later.

Current exhibition Karl Marx in the Animal Kingdom is like a journey back to my childhood. I was inspired by handy materials while I was creating the animal game – mostly the heaps of books with animal photos that were in my home. As a child, I had often been browsing through these books and several images had been etched into my deepest memory. At the same time I was even more interested in the political map of the world, numerical data and short descriptions of various countries that I could find in a guide titled „Countries in the World“. I have also been trying to assemble the images of the animals and political geography in a mechanical way. Creating “real” animal kingdoms started in an alphabetical order – countries for antelopes, monkeys etc. Every “kingdom” was naturally provided with a special flag and coat of arms. Yet, the most important thing was to find the most accurate social and economical solutions for the animal species. Democracy for monkeys and kingdom for antelopes? Is capitalism suitable for wolves, the national animal of today’s Estonia? What is the most popular religion in the country of hares? Well, I never reached these last questions since I could not cover more that the species beginning with H and J while compiling the alphabetical review of animal kingdoms.

Anthropomorphism – the attribution of human traits, emotions etc. to non-human entities, such as (toy) animals – is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology and is a phenomenon that develops in early childhood. Attaching the functioning of human society to animals could be one of the extended forms of expression of this phenomenon. A game where the existing elements are the basis for creating new combinations based on form and where all game pieces are equal. On the contrary to equality, one of the philosophical belief expressing the relationship between men and animals is based on the statement that human beings stand apart from the rest of the natural world. Humans are just like detached from nature and is only functioning due to the continuous state of opposition.

Hasso Krull has described similar concept of human nature as follows: „… a human being is an animal to another human being – however, instead of being friendly they are hostile, immediately becoming aggressive when they are being approached too close and without warning. The animal inside of a man is a predator, and natural society is predatory. Such confession of faith provides a good foundation for the ideology of liberal capitalism according to which altruistic impulses must be suppressed. Such ideology continuously emphasizes that true wellness will be achieved only through the contradiction of egoistic interests.”

Confrontations, either black-and-white and colourful ones, can be found in the artwork exhibited at the current exposition. Therewith, one of these pieces, a painting bearing a black-and-white confrontation, is one of the most lightweight painting in Estonian – one square meter of the painting weighs less than 30 grams. The guest artist of current exhibition is Reet Ohna from Otepää. She is the artist who designed the board game “Journey in the Animal Kingdom” that went into production. We did not know each other before the exhibition.

Erki Kasemets

Exhibition will be open until January 9, 2021.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Erki Kasemets (1969) is an artist living and working in Tallinn. He has studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Kasemets's artwork can be characterized by bricoleur style and sustainable thinking based on materials at hand and by biographical subject matter. Among his creative means of expression are object painting and panel painting, trash art, polygon theatre, games and other performing arts, collecting, documenting, grouping „Vedelik“, environmental and stage design etc. The interwovenness of Kasemets's life and creative practice throughout several decades is best expressed by his artwork „Life-File“ – collection that includes thousands of milk and juice cartons that have been painted over. Presently the artist is creating a forest path marked by art in Harju county, Estonia.

01.02.- 20.02.

LAURENTSIUS

The Group of One

01.02.- 20.02.

LAURENTSIUS

The Group of One

22.02.- 15.05.

RAUL KELLER

Perfect Wordls

22.02.- 15.05.

RAUL KELLER

Perfect Wordls

Raul Keller‘s personal exhibition Perfect Wordls will be open in Draakon gallery since Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021. Exhibition will be open until March 13, 2021.

Keller’s installation in Draakon gallery presents a travelling exhibition consisting of three related expositions toured in people’s homes during four months from October 2020 to January 2021. The exhibition set has been produced with the method of contact printing (as it is known in analogue photography) using the medium and large format negatives. These have been glued to magnet mountings and the results serve as fridge magnets. People participating in the travelling exhibition project could exhibit a selected compilation of pictures in their homes and listen to the soundtrack, specially composed for the exhibition, from the small portable speaker. The participants had also the opportunity to take one photo relating to the exhibition while using the disposable photo camera loaded with black and white film. Raul Keller is exhibiting all three exhibition sets in Draakon gallery, including the soundtrack and the photo series consisting pictures that were taken by the participants of the travelling exhibition.

The basis of the three photographic series is a set of glass negatives that should have been exhibited as contact prints on fridges in Draakon gallery in April 2020. The glass negatives probably date back to 1920-1930s, depicting reproductions of art, philosophy, theology and geometry photographed from books on a copy board. When the monumental events in spring 2020 postponed the current exhibition by one year, the artist decided to re-photograph his pieces. He worked with the found images during the past year while the photographic series Perfect Wordls was born.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia. The artist expresses his gratitude towards everyone who has participated in the travelling exhibition.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Raul Keller has been involved in various interdisciplinary art practices such as sound installation, performance, photography, DIY-culture, text, video and radiophonic art with the emphasis on improvisation, site-specific art and analogue processes. Keller has organized Raadiokunst concert performances with LokaalRaadio (with Katrin Essenson, Hello Upan) and performed as an Anglo-American artist Paul Cole presenting burlesque americana. Keller is also a member of free improvisation noise duo Post Horn (with Hello Upan); founding member and head of the Dynamic Union of Music and Art (Muusika ja Kunsti Dünaamiline Koondis MKDK); he participates in art group MIMproject and is a founder of radio art festival Radiaator (with Katrin Essenson). Keller has created commissioned works that have been performed in Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Iceland, India, Brazil, Russia and the Baltic states. Keller's artworks belong to the collections of the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum and several private collections. In 2014–2019, Raul Keller worked as a head and professor of the faculty of new media at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

18.05.- 05.06.

VEIKO KLEMMER

What You Can’t Get for Money

18.05.- 05.06.

VEIKO KLEMMER

What You Can’t Get for Money

Veiko Klemmer‘s personal exhibition What You Can’t Get for Money will be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, May 18th, 2021. Exhibition will be open until June 5th, 2021.

Artworks of this exhibition serve to continue the series of abstractions that Klemmer started working with in 2011. Presently exhibited pieces have been completed during the autumn and winter of 2019. The exposition was initially planned to be exhibited in 2020, but due to the conditions of pandemic the exhibition takes place a year later.

Veiko Klemmer comments on his exhibition: „On one hand, the purpose of creating artwork has been mainly the process itself, particularly the experiments with adding tension to space and stimulating a sharpened state of mind where an artwork hovers between an image and imagination. On the other hand, there are definitely some motifs and ideas floating in zeitgeist recorded in the exhibited works. And yet, I guess there is no point in translating the pictures into words for the audience, since all sorts of meanings can be attributed to abstraction. This is a part of the liberating game of art – in order to take part in it, one needs something more than traditions, a cow or money. The artworks are presented without titles. If you wish you can touch them gently.“

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Veiko Klemmer says that the function of art is to explore, perceive, experiment, connect, amplify and express. To create something new, important and wholesome. In Klemmer's artwork there is a considerably large amount of socio-critical satire – the artist says that even if this is quite an ineffective way to improve the world, it at least „scratches a certain nerve of metaphorical relevance“. Next to satire there are also abstract games of form where the artist searches for „more material impressions of expanse and distance“. He states that urban environment and screen cult have become oppressive, so there is the increasing need for real textures and the exotism of nuances.

07.06.- 03.07.

ANNA ŠKODENKO

Stranger at Home

07.06.- 03.07.

ANNA ŠKODENKO

Stranger at Home

Anna Škodenko will open her personal exhibition Stranger at Home in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, June 9th, 2021. The exhibition will be open until July 3rd, 2021.

The artist comments on her current exposition: “You are looking through the large gallery window and make the decision to step inside of a home that is unknown for you – the space of my exhibition.
The phrase “stranger at home” can refer to a stranger in somebody else’s home. It can also mean an alteration in the perception of the external world, transforming close things to something distant. It can allude to a poetic sensation of crossing the borders and facing the unknown. Or it can just happen that at home one feels stranger than in foreign countries. I would like to leave you enough space here to wander towards whatever direction that feels accurate.

However, one of the artworks you see needs an introduction:
While daydreaming I always return to an old house of my family. For me both dreaming and that house are embodied in one painting from my childhood. It is a small touristic painting depicting mountain landscape on one side and hiding an image of a forest on the reverse side of it. Apparently, the author of the painting discarded it, and painted the scene over with black. There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house. But if to look at something intimately, every error has its beauty. As a child I was thrilled to discover that semi-erased landscape. I have spent days looking at it and restoring the painting in my imagination with the most marvelous colours and details. Eventually, I painted a building crane on top of the mountain landscape in order to fit the painting into my new home and level the two sides of it.

Now, please proceed to the exhibition space. I will try to keep the volume of construction work down.”

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Anna Škodenko (1986) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is characterized by a lyrical and analytical approach to her medium and visual image. The format of the work depends on the conceptual frame which she creates through textual writing and which is conditioned by a specific place, context and theme. Škodenko graduated from the painting department at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2009), complementing her studies at Chelsea College of Art in England and later in the Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow. Škodenko graduated the one-year Master’s programme at Glasgow School of Arts (2017). She has been awarded with the Eduard Wiiralt Prize (2016) and Köler Prize Grand Prix (2018).

05.07.- 31.07.

NELE TIIDELEPP

words can’t describe but are good enough

05.07.- 31.07.

NELE TIIDELEPP

words can’t describe but are good enough

Nele Tiidelepp will open her personal exhibition words can’t describe but are good enough in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Tuesday, July 6th, 2021. Exhibition will be open until July 31st, 2021.

Nele Tiidelepp: “Current exhibition will show (corporeal) forms, movements and actions fading to the abstraction. I’ll concentrate on the body released from its corporeality and rules. The body is abstracted and lies or is stretched out. It is hanging, leaning, reclining, protruding, freezing, flowing. It has freed itself from its initial finiteness, but taken a new direction into an unnatural position, denying preliminary movement, bodily essence. A living physical object strangled by desires, fears, horror. It has forsaken its corporeality which is limited in parallel by furniture, garments and space.

Installation represents drawings, round objects (bodies), textile surfaces/covers and positions. The movements of the character spread out in the exhibition space repeat themselves and the initial meaningful trajectory in the air will lose its functionary associations while obtaining new, visual and choreographic qualities. Blurring and transformation of meanings. Moving from one aspect to another. Conciliation with multiplicity of pasts and studying different layers, illuminating the layers.”

Editor: Kristel Rebane
Designer: Siim Hiis
Photos: Joosep Kivimäe

Thanks to: Martin Tiidelepp, Villem Säre, Sidney Lepp
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
The exhibitions in Draakon Gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Nele Tiidelepp (b. 1998) has graduated from the department of installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2020). In her artistic practice, Tiidelepp is inspired by spontaneous reactions to the environment and (sculpture) materials. Her background in literature and theatre has allowed the artist to make use of poetic and literary elements and narrative structures in her artwork. The present subject turns into a character in a narrative of spatial composition. Tiidelepp works in different media such as text, video, sculpture and installation. Conceptual analysis of the materials from the point of view of sculpture and the cultural context are essential. Tiidelepp is interested in the literariness of the mundane, transformation of memories in time, designing and applying living space. In her later installations she deals studies crystallization of the objects and materials in memory. Her artworks often include original text, expressing spontaneous and chaotic flow of thought.

02.08.- 28.08.

SVEN PARKER

Walls, panels, fragments

02.08.- 28.08.

SVEN PARKER

Walls, panels, fragments

Sven Parker will open his personal exhibition Walls, panels, fragments in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021. Exhibition will be open until August 28th, 2021.

This exhibition is inspired by one of the first „westernized “comic book series published in Estonia in the 1990s. Western narratives and characters entered Estonian storytelling soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, marking the beginning of a paradigmatic shift. As the cold war ended, the capitalist ideology reached Eastern Europe and brought about expansive commodification and transition to a new liberal-democratic mode of governance.

American political scientist Francis Fukuyama has described this time period as “the end of history”, the disappearance of great historical narratives based on the tension and ideological opposition between East and West. Yet recent events have created new grand narratives, such as the fight against terrorism, the climate crisis and most recently, the sometimes long bouts of social isolation, to name a few.

Indeed, one can argue that history has not ended, instead becoming fragmented and a commodity on itself, as suggested by the cultural theorist Fredric Jameson. The desire for capitalism has been given a physicality, which addresses its own temporality and the space surrounding it. Following this framework, the works on display are mapping out past collective experiences, with fragments as starting points for historical narratives to emerge.

The panels on display are intended as markers of the period when western and eastern narratives and imagery meet. They draw a parallel between fictional stories and historical events from the past, presenting these realities as still frames in the midst of a transformative change. The comic strips are applied onto the panels as a collage, mimicking layers of wallpaper added and removed, portraying ideological fragments to be built or demolished.

The artist’s gratitude goes to: Merilin Paart, Mait Luhasoo, Aivar Paart, Roman-Sten Tõnissoo, Mihai Nica

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.The exhibitions in Draakon Gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Sven Parker is an artist whose art practice can be described through installation, staging and the use of different collage techniques. His current topics of interest include the relations between butaphory and its surroundings as they appear through relational aesthetics. In 2011 he received his bachelor’s degree in painting from the Estonian Academy of Arts and has pursued further studies in the department of sculpture and installation.

20.09.- 09.10.

TIIU PALLO-VAIK

Virg. Ridges

20.09.- 09.10.

TIIU PALLO-VAIK

Virg. Ridges

Tiiu Pallo-Vaik will open her personal exhibition VIRG. RIDGES in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Monday, August 30^th, 2021. Exhibition will be open until September 18^th. The artist is exhibiting her paintings completed in 2016–2021.

Mai Levin: “RIDGES-it’s difficult to find the right equivalent to the Estonian word VIRG, which refers to a dense, regular and varying pattern drawn either by the wind to the sand or by the water to the seabed. VIRG can be also described as a grid consisting of fine lines, applied orderly by Tiiu Pallo-Vaik on canvases covered with various red shades. Underneath the grids there are vague shadows reminding of various images according to every viewer’s fantasy.

One of the earlier paintings following the similar pattern was titled “Vibrations” by the artist. This and also other titles of Pallo-Vaik’s artwork – such as “Ebb and Flood”, “Movement” – emphasize the kinetic effect of the pattern of lines. In order to define this kind of magical influence, the concept of VIRG seems to be the most appropriate one to create associations with the play of shadow and light on the sand washed by the wind and water. For the past six years, VIRG has offered Tiiu Pallo-Vaik opportunities for various looking paintings; however, it is unlikely that her restless, curious nature will stick to this method for too long. A certain new expressiveness has emerged in Pallo-Vaik’s new painting “Towards the Light” (2021).”

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Tiiu Pallo-Vaik (1941) studied in Tartu School for Fine Arts (now Pallas University of Applied Sciences) in 1955–1961 and in the department of painting in the Estonian State Art Institute in 1961–1967. Pallo-Vaik has been participating in exhibitions since 1964. Since 1970, she is a member of the Estonian Artists' Assocation and Estonian Painters' Association; she is also a member of the Estonian Watercolorists' Union. Tiiu Pallo-Vaik belongs to the artists' generation that considerably changed the beliefs about the essence of fine art. She was a member of artists' collective ANK 64 that created the art of painting with the influences from abstract, surrealistic and pop art. In late 1960s, Pallo-Vaik was intrigued by abstraction and surrealism, in 1970s by photorealistic painting and since 1980s by scenic visions with collage and artist's technique that were added by watercolour techniques in 1990s. Tiiu Pallo-Vaik has received several watercolour and painting awards; in 2017, she was given Kristjan Raud Art Award for her personal exhibitions held in Vabaduse gallery and Vaal gallery.

21.09.- 09.10.

SIGRID VIIR

False Vacationers Workcation Travels

21.09.- 09.10.

SIGRID VIIR

False Vacationers Workcation Travels

Sigrid Viir will open her personal exhibition False Vacationers Workcation Travels in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Tuesday, September 21st, 2021. Exhibition will be open until October 9, 2021.

Sigrid Viir’s current exhibition False Vacationers Workcation Travels serves as a conceptual continuation of the artist’s personal exhibition recently held in the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) where the artist focused on the subject of blurring the borders between work and vacation in contemporary society.

The border between work and leisure time seems to become increasingly vague – this is also clearly proved by the use of the following neologisms such as workcation (also written as workation; work+vacation), bleisure (business+leisure), or bizcation (business+vacation) in English-speaking environments. According to George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (“Metaphors We Live By”, translated into Estonian and published by Tallinn University Press, 2011), the metaphors of the resources of work and time change the way we understood the concept of leisure time – and thus, leisure time is becoming something very similar to work.

Work isn’t a rabbit that will run away!
An unemployed rabbit doesn’t need to turn tail!
Mountain of work
Hours for what we will
Mountains of work
An hour for what we will
A mountain for what we will
Hours of work
Mountains of will
An hour of work
What we will of work
Mountain of hours
Hours of work for mountains we will
We will work for mountains of will
We will hours of work
We will hours for what we will

The artist expresses her gratitude to: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Villem Säre, Kristiina Hansen.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia,
Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Sigrid Viir

sigridviir@gmail.com
sigridviir.com
visiblesolutions.eu

Sigrid Viir (1979) is a photo and installation artist living and working in Tallinn. Viir has studied cultural theory in the Estonian Institute of Humanities and graduated from the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In her artistic practice, Sigrid Viir is interested in the daily aspects of human existence and the related maze of social agreements, the borderland between the totality of work and personal leisure time as well as the questions of visual language. Viir is one of the three members of artists' collective Visible Solutions LLC. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in Estonia and abroad. Viir has received the Young Artist Prize (2009); she was the nominee of art award Köler Prize 2011 and taken part in the international exhibition project Manifesta 9 with Visible Solutions LLC (2012). Viir has received twice the annual award for contributions in visual and applied arts (2013, 2019).

16.10.- 30.10.

MARI-LEEN KIIPLI

Nanshe Gone Fishing

16.10.- 30.10.

MARI-LEEN KIIPLI

Nanshe Gone Fishing

Mari-Leen Kiipli‘s personal exhibition Nanshe Gone Fishing has been open in Draakon gallery since October 16, 2021. You are welcome to the finissage of the exhibition at 4pm on Friday, October 29, 2021.

“I have the feeling that now is the right time to flounder about by the river, struggle in brushwood, lay one’s body into the riverbed, swim by cattails, water lilies, pondweed, on one’s back with ears under water, to listen to the thundering of mud. While fishing in the depths of a quiet river, I am pulling out endless tufts of grass, old boots, shinbones, hollow thoughts, confusing emotions. Uncontrollable proliferation takes place on the riverbanks – the blood-colored Himalayan balsam, bindweed and hops have turned the riverbanks of the River Jägala into a dense brushwood. The toxic substances coming from Kehra paper mill are drifting downstream, changing the river, its life and flora. Why do I have the feeling that some kind of a whole is expressing itself through this damn brushwood – something that is much more than just alkaline residue? That something or somebody is also defining and characterising the new environment. An active character that is manifesting itself through me, while surrounding me and blurring my boundaries. A nightshade, a henbane, an Atropa Belladonna are budding from my chest.”

Writer Daisy Hildyard has said that we have another body that is as personal and material as the physical body we are aware of. This other body is also a version of ourselves – it extends outside from us, accompanies us on our flights, floats above the factory, enters someone’s lung, flows in the riverbed and rides in a cargo. It is understandably difficult to keep this in mind that we are always connected to this other body, since we are daily present in our primary body; but the fact is that we actually host both bodies. Why are we not touched enough when they speak about global effect? Why does it seem so nonpersonal? Compared to the smallness of our private lives, this scale is unfathomable and our second body is limitless. A closer look at our body shows that it is also conditional in nature – there is always oxygen and atmosphere in our body, and our body moves in atmosphere, similarly we are connected to water and nutrients. While being permeated by matter that is surrounding us everywhere, we form a certain whole with the toxic substances in natural environment, flourishing grass, our body and everyday commodities.

Exhibition will be open until October 30, 2021.
Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Mari-Leen Kiipli (1988) creates photographs, videos and installations that mainly focus on the undefinable, cognitive qualities of different spaces and situations. As an attentive observer, wanderer and researcher, Mari-Leen Kiipli has created her own intuitive version of various genres such as nature documentary, sports programme or nature photograph, while opposing to the narration-based imagery. At the same time, Kiipli is intrigued by old myths and stories in contemporary context – for instance, apocalyptic myths or the use and effects of various plants. Through these stories, the artist investigates the relationship between men and nature. Mari-Leen Kiipli has studied photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Pallas University of Applied Sciences, she has taken additional courses in Vienna. The artist currently lives and works in Tallinn.

02.11.- 20.11.

MALL NUKKE

Earthly Borders

02.11.- 20.11.

MALL NUKKE

Earthly Borders

Mall Nukke will open her personal exhibition Earthly Borders in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Tuesday, November 2^nd, 2021. Exhibition will be open until November 20, 2021.

Mall Nukke: “We love to watch the horizon – that liberates our senses and lets us feel ourselves as a part of the universe. A beautiful sunset on a summer evening is an experience that helps us to overcome the winter darkness when the foggy, grey sky and bluish white fields of snow become one with the horizon. What will become of this enchanting, even romantic view when there is something totally haunting appearing on the earthly border? Paintings at the current exhibition depict a vision of the state where the mankind has led itself to, while actively rearranging nature.

What we see while observing the horizon depends on where we are at the moment. The two largest paintings at the exhibition – “Horizon I” and “Horizon II” – interpret the idea that according to our position in a landscape one and the same view can have a totally different effect. When you have taken a seat too low, then the horizon will seemingly appear somewhere far away, out of reach. And the future the horizon could forecast is also vague and looks foggy. This makes us feel insecure since our mind’s eye is veiled. When you have climbed too high, yearning for partaking in a transcendental experience; and then you are suddenly hit by despair because there is no beautiful border between the earth and the sky behind the concrete landscape polluted by artificial environment.

The symbiosis of previous paintings has been depicted on the painting “The Earthly Border 2” where two opposing worlds meet – the pure, pristine sky on one hand and the human carpet covering the ground that has been devastated by aggression on the other. The artificial god of war is standing in the middle of the horrendous creation, amids human remains, while stretching wings and getting ready for conquering the sky that is still intact.

The painting series “Below the Horizon” is in a way a continuation to the painting “The Earthly Border 2” but the series follow the form of the watercourse of the world’s largest rivers – Amazonas, Mississippi and Volga. Nukke’s paintings depict human rivers streaming all over the world, at times flooding and then again receding. Human rivers carrying greed, ignorance, hunger for power and indifference flow through the devastated landscape. However, one should not fall into deep depression while viewing the exhibition since my paintings are never unambiguously dead serious – there is always a tiny drop of irony included in my work. Instead of forwarding the message about the imminent apocalypse, paintings at the current exhibition simply confirm the state of things. So the mankind can be also viewed as flourishing mould, as a so-called carpet people whose horizon is set low, in the middle of dust bunnies. Among other things, I was also inspired by the possibility to return to my older artwork in order to re-use the collage technique, but this time to interweave it with oil painting.”

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Mall Nukke (1964) is a graphic artist and painter. In 1992 she obtained MA degree in printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Afterwards the artist became known for her collage pieces, but her artworks include also oil and acrylic paintings, coal drawings as well as graphic art. Nukke has emphasized that the conceptual side of her artwork is very simple and the artist approaches her work with “a clear head and open heart”. She can be considered more of an idealist than a rational thinker with her attempt to make the world a better place. She began exhibiting her work in 1991 and has held more than 40 personal exhibitions in Estonia and abroad, including Finland and Australia. Nukke's artworks belong to the art collections of Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum and several private collections.

24.11.- 11.12.

GLORIA HAO & MADLEN HIRTENTREU

Lost Future Figure. oh whistle, and I’ll come to you, my friend

24.11.- 11.12.

GLORIA HAO & MADLEN HIRTENTREU

Lost Future Figure. oh whistle, and I’ll come to you, my friend

Gloria Hao’s and Madlen Hirtentreu’s exhibition Lost Future Figure. oh whistle, and i’ll come to you, my friend in Draakon gallery will be open from November 24, 2021.

l

An old nun steps out of the abbey after years of isolation. Perhaps she is on a
mission. She meets two strangers. What does one see and think of the world
outside the walls of the abbey after years of living in one religious utopia?
What doubts does she meet in herself and what can she share with those two strangers?

In nowadays society the Nun stands out as a representation of several
alternative values, whereas centuries ago she might have been the role model of
values. Today the Nun, who lives in celibacy and without materialistic needs,
becomes a sort of alien Other in contrast with western market-driven society.

In this show we will inhabit the role of the Nun, to see what aspects
of ourselves we can discover and merge with. By getting closer and contorting
the image of the Nun, we aim to create a figure in-between the Nun and
ourselves, between the stranger and ourselves.

We approach the Nun as a metaphor for ‘isolation’ in the pandemic and at the same time we approach the process of becoming a stranger to oneself.

In our investigation we ended up in a garden. An Archival Garden of thoughts and figures.

I went to walk on the ice that day. 843 steps.

A wide-spread garden.

Where ants were dreaming.

I let myself indulge in my obsession with digging.

A metallic moving pipe. One eye and a body of a swan. One feather acid green.

It invited me to look through its huge big eye.

I stepped inside that head that day. Soft and rather warm.

A distant swirl and gurgle of water.

Grandma would go out to the backyard with bottles and bury them halfway, with the whole neck underground.

How I liked that bond that had never been broken.

The water gave a hiss, covering the ground in a wet mud carpet.

An oval-shaped stone, apple-green, the size of a small baby.

There it was, the spirit of a volcano and its body.

An ant acting like a propeller, repeatedly, teaching language and building techniques to a group of girls.

The rain stopped. I filled up puddles into small lakes.

Boy, did I dig. And boy, did I whistle.

Madlen Hirtentreu and Gloria Hao both address the duality between inner other self and outside other, primal zone, and recurringly dwell in peripheral zones of society, through which they hope to unveil a possibly lost utopia or simply, find stages between subject and object, between the stranger as a outside continuation and the one inside, in order to open up for estranged natures and alternative readings of futures.

Exhibition will be open until December 11, 2021.
Thank you: Cultural Endowment of Estionia, Taadu Jaan, Alissa Šnaider, Jaan August Viirand
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Gloria Hao works with sculpture and installation, and deals with the relationship between the human and the Other body, and the nature of the Other itself, as in: the stranger, the animal, the primitive being. The work dedicates itself to this liminal, unstable space and body of boundaries, where gestures of violence, lust and desire are residing and being re-drawn. Aesthetically, she employ a maximalistic approach, a rich register of contrasts and negotiates given terms of beauty and ugliness. The outcome is often ambiguous, lush and distorting concepts.

Madlen Hirtentreu (1993) works mainly with sculpture, installations and performances. Primal horizon, brutality, repetition and clinical conditions intrigue her, a tiny dose of each might be the recipe. The eeriness of the unknown which in close up reveals signs of fragility by opening up new readings and meanings in untied time. Her technique can be described as a Frankenstein-like combination of technology and body horror, where the abject and the mechanical system function as a unified tandem. The absurd, seemingly messy and eclectic choice of material serves as a document and carrier of emotions.

2020

17.12.- 11.01.

JASS KASELAAN

Grandmother’s Birthday

17.12.- 11.01.

JASS KASELAAN

Grandmother’s Birthday

Jass Kaselaan will open his personal exhibition Grandmother’s Birthday in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday, December 17th, 2019.

“When I was a child then my grandmother taught me never to stroke a rat backwards – it can get frightened and become angry. We lived in a small house full of rats. On cold winter nights some of the rats climbed to grandmother’s bed to look for warmth. I cannot remember grandmother’s last birthday; I know that she got flowers as a present.”

This is Jass Kaselaan’s short introduction full of imagery to his new exhibition where the artist presents a large-scale installation applied to both the walls and the floor of Draakon gallery. The staged installation is filling up the whole gallery space as it is typical to Kaselaan’s artwork, characterized by precision of details and powerful, robust form next to the paradoxically apparent lyricism.

Exhibition will be open until January 11, 2020.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

13.01.- 01.02.

REIN MäGAR

Facial Recognition

13.01.- 01.02.

REIN MäGAR

Facial Recognition

Rein Mägar will open his personal exhibition Facial Recognition in Draakon gallery at 5.30pm on Monday, January 13th, 2020.

„Facial recognition is a special purpose computer program or function used for identification or automatic verification or examination of a person.“ (Wikipedia)

Current exhibition mainly consists of portraits while offering an amusing opportunity to search for common features between computer-based work and portrait painting, as also the title of the exhibition – „Facial Recognition“ – is referring to. A computer program is able to spot a human face in a frame in a fraction of a second while comparing the face to thousands of other faces. Therewith the program uses 68 points for defining a face whereas the tip of the nose is always the point No. 31 – the coordinates of all points together will provide the line of numbers characteristic to the person’s face.

Teaching portrait drawing and painting involves similar basic knowledge – one has to find the connecting points and if carefully sticking to the coordinates between the points, it will be possible to achieve resemblance to the model. This forms the beginning, yet today’s computer algorithms can also read the mood on human face – anger, sadness, joy, surprise and probably other expressions. Rein Mägar uses photography in his artistic practice – but unlike the photographer a century ago who made his model freeze in pose, Mägar attempts to record the model’s mood and movements with the help of the means of contemporary photographic technology. He has often succeeded in catching the model’s cheerfulness and smiles.

The common feature in all Mägar’s portraits, and perhaps in his artistic style in general, is depicting the model’s bust only. According to the artist, this method allows him to depict hands and the related activities in order to give a better overview of the characteristics of the one portrayed – for instance, a metal artist holding an axe. He has added motifs from his artwork, such as flying female figures. This approach gives a chance to compare the pieces with ex libris. Besides the portraits painted on watercolour paper the present exhibition also shows compositions where Mägar has used a technique that is quite the opposite to the one of the classic watercolour painting, using a dry brush on an undercoated canvas.

Exhibition will be open until February 1st, 2020.
Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Rein Mägar (1944) has studied in Tartu Art College, Estonian State Art Institute and Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst). He has worked in publishing houses „Valgus“, „Eesti Raamat“ and „Bit“ in 1972-1992; in Estonian Privatization Agency in 1992-1996 and in Maves LLC in 1997-2000. Besides working as an artistic editor in publishing houses Mägar has designed numerous posters and books. Mägar is a member of the Estonian Artists' Association since 1977 and member of the Estonian Watercolorists' Union since 1998. During the past few decades, the artist has been focused on watercolour painting and taken part in numerous exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. Most frequent topics in Mägar's artwork are landscapes and motifs of the sea; in his recent work, the artist concentrates on figures and portraits. As a member of the Estonian Watercolorists' Union, Mägar has actively participated in all exhibitions of the union and other related events outside Estonia.

04.02.- 22.02.

STEN ELTERMAA

Transparency Register

04.02.- 22.02.

STEN ELTERMAA

Transparency Register

Sten Eltermaa‘s personal exhibition Transparency Register wil be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, February 4th, 2020.

„Transparency Register“ is a project based on image and language, making the windows and facades of governmental authorities visible to the audience. The project involves various layers: reflective window transparencies, photographs on the wall and on the showcase table, and publication of the artist’s research.

The title of the work, Transparency Register, also refers to the US-inspired database introduced in 2011 to shine public light on the communication between lobbyists and the representatives of EU institutions. The database’s main objective is to create trust in regard to institutions and the policies the institutions or their representatives are pursuing, but also oversight to make it impossible to do the bidding of murky and corrupt interests.

In general, parallels can be drawn in the context of this work with the architecture used in modern and postmodern institutions of power and governance, and the rhetoric that liberals have used or currently use – specific, technical, rational, inaccessible and often conducive to apathy and mistrust: a “cold” selection of material (concrete and stone, glass and steel) and intricate engineered load-bearing structures. The buildings are often homogenous and based on repetition and their facades are made up of regular vertical and horizontal lines – so that they are reminiscent of a crossword or Sudoku. There is the sense that the interiors might be the same way – a monotonous, Kafkaesque world that is easy to get lost in. I would argue that architecture of this type is of a rational type and also reflects the rational rhetoric characteristic of liberal force.

Present exhibition displays photographic series taken in Brussels and Tallinn in 2016-2019, depicting institutions of power and governance, whereas the focus being on the windows of these buildings. Many landmark buildings should be recognizable to the viewer on these photographs, for example, the seats of the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, Eurojust, Europol, the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. In addition, the sites include several local institutions in The Hague, such as the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, the Hoftoren, the headquarters of the Dutch national police force, The Hague City Hall and a number of ministry and embassy buildings. The buildings photographed in Brussels also include several EU buildings in the European Quarter as well as embassies and local government institutions.
The selection in Tallinn includes the “Superministry” building, the IT Agency, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Harju County Court and the Tallinn City Government.

The artist’s gratitude goes to: Marge Monko, Sven Parker, Olesja Semenkova, Arvi Anderson, Digifoto, Estonian Academy of Arts

Exhibition will be open until February 22nd, 2020.
Finissage of the exhibition will be on February 22nd at 18.00

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Sten Eltermaa (1986) is an artist-writer who is intrigued by the environment, power and borderline conditions. Eltermaa has studied philosophy in Tallinn University, photography in Pallas University of Applied Sciences and at the Estonian Art Academy, having complemented his education at Escola Superior Artistica do Porto, Royal College of Art The Hague and LUCA School of Arts.

25.02.- 14.03.

JUSS PIHO

Punctum

25.02.- 14.03.

JUSS PIHO

Punctum

Juss Piho‘s personal exhibition Punctum will be opened in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday, February 25th, 2020.

Juss Piho: “My paintings are largely made of events experienced in life and fragments that are hard to verbalize; of the associations between both positive and negative emotions; of situations that cannot be fully explained; of sensations and moments between human beings; of combinations of the recollections of seemingly unimportant details. I am toying with various compositions of memory while documenting the most influential for myself. The role of colour temperatures and tension as well as compositional structure play far more important role than the abundance of colour in my work.“

Reet Varblane has stated that „Juss Piho’s paintings can be called metaphysical due to the theatrical space with some culturally charged details in the art of painting, but also surrealistic while thinking about weird features. And yet, when quoting Toomas Raudam then these weird details can be as familiar and cosy as a dust cloth or a chandelier or the broom with a red handle in front of a stove. Because it is immediately clear what has been depicted. Majority of Piho’s paintings are figurative, depicting either men or animals. His paintings can be characterized as staged narratives where the characters are interconnected but it remains unclear what kind of relationships they are having. There are usually several small, seemingly occasional stories and mises en scène inside of a big narrative. When thinking of Roland Barthes’ vocabulary related to photography, the charm and also the intrigue in Juss Piho’s paintings won’t lie in studium or the composition but in punctum, or in other words in details, gestures, facial expressions, gazes that may be first disregarded. This is specially the case when the expression or gaze is imaginary, since the figure lacks either a face, eyes or a mouth. The artist doesn’t use a brush when painting – among this tools there are palette knives and scrapers of various sizes. He won’t start painting on white canvas but using a dark ground coat in order to achieve mysteriously bright colour. Yet, similarly to a theatrical performance, Juss Piho’s paintings act in a completely different way in an every new composition and exhibition space. Instead of existential anguish, there is rather a hope of freedom in his work. Similar tendency can be perceived also with his other compilations. But as it is a common fact with Piho’s paintings, everything remains ambivalent.“

Exhibition will be open until March 14, 2020.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Juss Piho (1963) is a freelance illustrator and painter. Piho is a member of Estonian Painters' Association, Estonian Artists' Association, Estonian Graphic Designers' Association and an honorary member of the International Board on Books for Young People. During his artist's career, Piho has participated in numerous group exhibitions as well as held several personal exhibitions. His artwork has been acknowledged with several awards, including the special prize Gold Book by the National Library of Estonia (given to Juss Piho and Tiit Jürna in 2007).

18.05.- 06.06.

AKSEL HAAGENSEN

At Sea

18.05.- 06.06.

AKSEL HAAGENSEN

At Sea

08.06.- 04.07.

VALERI VINOGRADOV

Vinogradov Without Dubossarski

08.06.- 04.07.

VALERI VINOGRADOV

Vinogradov Without Dubossarski

Valeri Vinogradov‘s personal exhibition Vinogradov Without Dubossarski will be open in Draakon gallery since Tuesday, June 9th, 2020. The exhibition will be open until July 4th.

Painter Valeri Vinogradov (b. 1952 in Moscow) has studied in Moscow State Academic Art School 1905 and in former Estonian State Art Institute (now Estonian Academy of Arts). Vinogradov has participated in exhibitions since 1984 – besides holding numerous personal exhibitions, the artist has taken part in more than three hundred group exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. Vinogradov’s artwork has been acknowledged with Konrad Mägi Award (1992) and Kristan Raud Art Award (2010).

Valeri Vinogradov’s artwork can be characterized by the balanced combination of aesthetics and intricacy. Art historian Ants Juske has interpreted Valeri Vinogradov’s professional genesis as follows: „In the spirit of strict Russian realism, Vinogradov acquired a strong basis for academic painting in the Moscow art school. His painting style changed considerably in more liberal conditions in Estonia where he gradually reached pure abstractionism.“ As the result of his strong basic education in painting and refined perception of the world, Vinogradov has gained recognition with his conceptual works of painting and sociocritical collages since 1990s.

The central piece of his current exhibition – portrait „Exorcism“ – depicts a Yakut shaman Aleksandr Gabyshev who embarked on a 5000-kilometre-long journey to Moscow in order to drive President Vladimir Putin from power as Gabyshev called him demonically possessed. Gabyshev became widely known in 2019 when he called Putin „evil“ and started to walk more than 2000 km from Siberia to Moscow while collecting many supporters and disciples on his way. However, he was arrested in Buryatia in December 2019 and taken to a psychiatric hospital in Yakutia.

Current exhibition also presents Vinogradov’s series of portraits „Sobutõlniki“ that depicts the artist’s friends with whom they have discussed more or less important subjects throughout the past decades. Another series „Other persons“ depicts various individuals who have reached Vinogradov’s paintings during various times, covering the empty walls. The artist comments on his work: „Throughout the times and moments of history, people have deserved to be recorded, although for very different reasons, purposes or places. A portrait can serve either as a glorification, recollection, memory or research – since the concept itself can be interpreted in several ways and places in a contemporary context.“

Special gratitude to: Anne Parmasto.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

07.07.- 01.08.

IVAR KAASIK

Breaking Lights

07.07.- 01.08.

IVAR KAASIK

Breaking Lights

Ivar Kaasik‘s painting exhibition Breaking Lights in Draakon gallery will be open from Tuesday, July 7th, 2020. The abstract paintings have been completed during the period of 2018-2020. Exhibition design has been completed by Andro Kööp. Exhibition will be open until August 1st.

Light seems to be white or transparent for our eyes. Physically, light is mostly perceived as warmth. In the process of diffraction either on the edge of glass or in the mirror, light becomes rainbow-coloured. In Kaasik’s artwork, these diffractions have acquired fixed borders and specific form. Abstraction and hyperrealism can serve the same purpose – to
direct the viewer to forgotten roads as well as open them up for new experiences. Minimalistic, simple spots of paint on the canvas remind of reflections of touch on the screen or the diffracted rays on the surface of various matters. With the brush and paint, Kaasik has created dynamics, lines and vibrations that will obtain special meaning only in the eyes of the viewer.

Ivar Kaasik will held an artist talk in Draakon gallery on Saturday, July 18th at 12.00. With advance notice it is also possible to visit the artist in his studio on Kreutzwaldi Street, Tallinn. In order to make an appointment, please write to: ivarkaasik@gmail.com.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Ivar Kaasik (1965) was born in Kuressaare. He studied in the department of architecture and later in the department of metal art at the Estonian Academy of Arts (former Estonian State Art Institute) in 1983–1992; afterwards he has held various professions, including working as a goldsmith in Germany in 1992–1998. Since 1999, Ivar Kaasik has been a freelance artist and participating in exhibitions since 1988. Known both as a painter and a jewellery artist, Kaasik has been awarded the prestigious Diamond International Award (1996) in Paris. As a writer, Ivar Kaasik has expressed himself in his book “Beware of Art! What to do. How and how much” („Ettevaatust, kunst! Mida teha. Kuidas ja kui palju“, 2011) where the author disregards pathos and traditional approaches towards art. Kaasik himself has called the genre of his book “a minimum and maximum programme”.

03.08.- 29.08.

GUDRUN KOPPEL

She hoped that Angels see and understand – She hoped that someone sees and understands

03.08.- 29.08.

GUDRUN KOPPEL

She hoped that Angels see and understand – She hoped that someone sees and understands

Gudrun Koppel’s exhibition She hoped that Angels see and understand – She hoped that someone sees and understands in Draakon gallery will be opened on Monday, 3rd of August at 18.00. The exhibition remains open until August 29.

Just as a mythical snake that devours itself from its tail continues to eat its tail in a total endless eternal circle, so everything is the same and has already happened here under the Sun. In retrospect, arbitrary generalizations are made, about which there is no complete truth, because narratives have been interpreted as reflective in the world behind the mirror.
The way angels are portrayed, as we understand them in the Western Christian world, comes from Persia, the oldest monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism.

The island of Antirhodos sank to the seabed due to a tsunami caused by an earthquake in the 4th century. According to sources, the sea retreated from the port on August 21, 365: ships sank sideways, sand was filled with gobbling fish, people wandered aimlessly along empty streets. The city was then invaded by a body of water, throwing water and ships over houses – a disaster that killed 50,000 people in Alexandria alone. She hoped that Angels would see and understand. Based on historical sources, the city ruins were found intact in 1996 in the port of Alexandria at a depth of 6 meters.

It is known that one of the first female mathematicians worked in the same city. The astronomer and philosopher Hypatia (355 – 415) lived and taught in Alexandria during this stormy time. In March 415, she was attacked by a group of Christians led by the then patriarch. They tore Hypatia’s clothes, cut out her eyes – she was torn to pieces, her limbs were carried in a cart through the city and finally set on fire. She hoped that someone would see and understand. This event is seen as the beginning of the end of the educational and cultural center of the then empire in Alexandria.

St. Catherine the Great (287-305) did not want to renounce her faith in the city of Alexandria, and as punishment she was so brutally and so long punished by the pagan authorities that her whole body was covered with wounds from which blood gushed out. During her captivity, angels wounded her wounds, she was fed by a heavenly dove. When the wheel of torture, which was meant to end her life, broke, her head was finally taken off. She knew that Angels see and understand. According to tradition, the angels took Catherine’s body to Mount Sinai, where St. Catherine’s Monastery still operates today.

And when little Estike had given rat poison to her cat with milk, grabbing the dead cat and taking a firm step into the ruins of Weinkheim Castle to do the same, she felt peace within herself and smiled at how things were connected; she felt that these events were no longer connected by chance and coincidence, but that an indescribably beautiful meaning curved as a bridge over the emptiness between them… She knew full well that the angels were already on their way. (László Krasznahorkai “Satantango ”)

The graphic compositions depict an arbitrary reference to kummastused (Kummastus is a manner used in art through which the object is taken out of the perception routine. Things are disconnected from the habitual connections, resulting in a special perception of the object, not recognition) And everything can be given meaning, because the background is historical, but the approach is arbitrary. The ready-made graphics (old anatomical drawings, photographs) used in the visually saturated world are snakes that devour themselves. The eternal subconscious story of capturing something has created an obscure narrative. An approach that is ephemeral and vanishing and eternally repetitive: She hoped that Angels see and understand, she hoped that someone sees and understands.

The Artist’s gratitude goes to: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, UBUNOIR, Lauri Koppel

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Gudrun Koppel is a visual artist who mostly uses printmaking and photography in her work. Her work can be described as poetic and narrative oriented. She has obtained MA degree in the department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2013. In 2010, Koppel took additional courses in Aalto University, Finland. The artist is a member of Ubu Noir lithography workshop since 2011.

02.09.- 19.09.

KATRIN ENNI

Shivers

02.09.- 19.09.

KATRIN ENNI

Shivers

Katrin Enni’s exhibition Shivers in Draakon gallery will be opened on Wedenesday, 2nd of September at 18.00. The exhibition remains open until September 19.

Katrin Enni’s solo show “Shivers” is a sound environment made of copper – one of the first metals that humans learned to use. In the gallery, each instrument has a voice of its own, producing different rhythms and frequencies. Together these create a sound environment that can be experienced in a way similar to natural sounds – existing and developing on its own with visitors invited to step in, observe and listen. The structure of the sound piece is not fixed but based on combinations that emerge from endless repetitions. The vibration speakers placed under copper objects add physical dimension to the sound. The speakers act as mechanical filters and while making the objects shiver these produce unexpected echos, reverbs and overtones.

The objects can be seen as pseudo-historical artefacts – a reference to different eras in the history of copper. The manually hammered copper vessels and forms are made using ancient metalworking techniques. Primitive analogue synthesizers, wired with copper, refer to the post-industrial period when copper usage increased due to its electrical conductivity. Mass-produced cables, speakers and amplifiers are more contemporary, but still contain various components made of copper.

Katrin Enni says: “While creating an ecosystem of sounds, I am driven by the human desire to play God, to create artificial nature. But when I rely on a material that is being extensively mined on this earth, I am simultaneously contributing to the destruction of an already existing ecosystem.” By giving voice to copper, she detaches the metal from the functions that human need places upon it, re-interpreting the story of technological progress and proposing an alternative symbiosis of nature and technology.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Special thanks: Kleer Keret Tali, Aksel Haagensen, Holger Loodus, James Prevett, Vesa Rahikainen, Frank Brümmel, Tuomo Rainio, Alejandro Olarte, Ekke Västrik, Toomas Savi, Mart and Mari Tudre, EKA wood workshop, Baltic Steel Center OÜ.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Katrin Enni ( 1976) lives and works in Tallinn. She has studied installation and sculpture (BA, 2018) at the Estonian Academy of Arts and economics at the University of Tartu (MA, 1999). She is currently studying contemporary art (MA programme) at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2020, she was an exchange student for a semester at the sculpture department of Kuvatadeakatemia, Helsinki. Her artistic practice revolves around the topics of environment, technology and economics. She sees her work occupying the areas between sound art and sculpture/installation.

29.09.- 10.10.

KRISTINA ÕLLEK

Filter Feeders, Double Binds & Other Silicones

29.09.- 10.10.

KRISTINA ÕLLEK

Filter Feeders, Double Binds & Other Silicones

Kristina Õllek’s exhibition Filter Feeders, Double Binds & Other Silicones in Draakon gallery will be opened from Tuesday, 29th of September. The exhibition remains open until October 10.

By breathing in and out of the water,
being with others, livings and non-livings.
Sand, silica, silicon, and other silicones.
Blending in and becoming
Hydra.
Hydrate me,
with a soft squishy feeling.
And yet,
it’s no spa, but urgency.

Kristina Õllek

Filter Feeders, Double Binds & Other Silicones is an installative exhibition based on Kristina Õllek’s research and personal observations of anthropocentric influences on marine ecology, focusing on the North Sea coastal area and its filter feeders – blue mussels, oysters and the expanding jellyfish population. In the past 2 years, Õllek was living in The Hague, on the coast of the North Sea, and became interested in filter feeder organisms, such as mussels and oysters. They are called filter feeders because they purify water and act as filters for polluted water; hence, they are considered ecosystem engineers. On the Dutch coastline there are many oyster and blue mussel farms (aquaculture), most of these are based in Zeeland, an area that is largely below sea level and one of the most human-engineered regions in the Netherlands. In 1953 the most devastating flooding in the Dutch history took place there, and the Deltaworks Neeljte Jans dike was built after this, which changed some of its landscape into a dystopic and alienated surface. With the on-going work she’s thinking with the North Sea, and its speculative assumptions and changes in marine ecology.

In 2019 Kristina Õllek received the Artproof production grant for her project Filter Feeders, Double Binds & Other Silicones at Foto Tallinn Art Fair. The photography-based works presented in this exhibition are sponsored by Artproof 5000€ production grant, with the support of TruLife Acrylic by Tru Vu Inc.

Artist thanks: Kert Viiart, perekond Õllek, Angeliki Tzortzakaki, Taavi Rekkaro, Siim Vahur, Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk, Kulla Laas, Rundum, Het Wilde Weten, 1646, Billytown.
Exhibition is supported by: Artproof, Estonian Cultural Endowment, L-Disain OÜ (Lauri Lenk)

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Kristina Õllek (1989) is a visual artist based in Tallinn, Estonia. She works with photography, video and installation, focusing on representational processes, geological and ecological matter, and the human-made environment. In her practice she frequently uses situations when fact and fiction, synthetic and natural, copy and original intertwine with each other becoming a hybrid object/matter to obtain new and reconsidered meaning. Within her recent projects she’s been interested in the notion of new technologies and geophysics, the connectivity of the spatial and ecological circumstances, as well the components and resources that enable such technologies to create today’s environment. Her work is often site-sensitive and analyses the location and the format of exhibition-making, questioning the display and the politics of installation in the perspective of a historical museum to an online space. Õllek has obtained a MA and BA degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts (Fine Arts, Photography), has studied at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam (2016) and Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee (2012). From 2013 to 2018, Õllek was actively engaged with co-running the nomadic artist-run space Rundum. She has been twice the laureate of the Estonian Academy of Arts – Young Artist Prize 2013 (BA) and 2016 (MA).

13.10.- 31.10.

LAURI KOPPEL

Demiurge’s Tupperware

13.10.- 31.10.

LAURI KOPPEL

Demiurge’s Tupperware

Lauri Koppel‘s personal exhibition Demiurge’s Tupperware will be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, September 13th, 2020. Exhibition will stay open until October 31st, 2020.

The idea of the world being an abnormal state is emphasized by Gnosticism, a collection of religious ideas and systems originating from early Christian and Jewish sects. Demiurge, a fallen divine but evil being has created a world of negative matter. A global direct seller company Tupperware produces plastic containers for food storage and preparation – the hermetic and waterproof containers of various shapes have become a part of today’s household culture.

There is a pressurized social utopia present in the neglected summer cottages, built during the Soviet era. The Modernist way of thinking was applied in construction process, with the aim of humanising the functionalist architecture. Summer cottages were meant to provide the ultimate rational space for recreation – such fashionable keywords as ‘organic architecture’ and ‘cornice architecture’ were expressed in the cottages dating back to the times of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Estonia. However, instead of neatness and cleanliness, something else has intruded into the cottages – something that should not have been there. Illnesses and death.

Empty spaces without people living inside will go on living on their own. While observing some forsaken hedonistic temple of the sun on a cold day, condensed water can be seen on the window panes. The Northern coast of Estonia has numerous similar deserted summer houses without owners, buildings that lie between the outer and inner temperatures. On my long walks, I started to notice the mental and physical pollution on Modernist form of expression caused by time. Summer cottages do not fit into the model of market economy. Lots of buildings of a refined architectural taste have been torn down. Some of these have been renovated or conservated with cheap building materials. Many of these cottages have been replaced by residential houses that have been constructed in conditions of negotiable building acts.

Exhibition Demiurge’s Tupperware is a paranoid view to our collapsing architectural heritage with the examples of summer cottages. Time is merciless and Demiurge is its devilish governer. If there is no one left in the space, then who will be there? It is Demiurge, in the Demiurge’s personal airtight storage box. While speaking about the failure of architecture, then it is the easiest way to start with the Soviet-time summer cottage. With its strict geometry it is an organized space with clear borders to be observed. And Demiurge is grinning. Now and forever.

Supporters: Rein Muuluka, Ingvar Toomas Heamägi, Mario Ansip, Gennadi Baranov, Gudrun Koppel and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Lauri Koppel is a visual artist who mostly uses the means of printmaking and photography in his artwork. He has obtained MA degree in the department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2012. The arist is a member of Ubu Noir printmaking studio.

02.11.- 21.11.

KEIU MAASIK (EAA YOUNG ARTIST’S AWARD 2019) & MADIS KURSS

100 Ghz to Midnight

02.11.- 21.11.

KEIU MAASIK (EAA YOUNG ARTIST’S AWARD 2019) & MADIS KURSS

100 Ghz to Midnight

Co-exhibition by Keiu Maasik and Madis Kurss 100 Ghz to Midnight will be open in Draakon gallery from Wednesday, November 4th, 2020. Exhibition will be open until November 21st, 2020.

The authors of current exhibition 100 GHz to Midnight study the simulation of post-apocalyptic world through contemporary computer games. In standard online shooting games the player contests in a team against other teams. During the past ten years, first-person shooting games have increasingly gained popularity – in these gaming platforms, everyone stands for himself and the playground is much more expanded.

Battle Royal is a term used to describe a battle with multiple participants until the last man standing. At the beginning of the game, the player has nothing, all equipment has to be found on the battleground. Finding good equipment will often decide the result of the conflict. Although the diminishing battleground forces players to be in constant moving, it is possible to avoid the enemies and wait until the danger is over. In reality it could turn out to be the cleverest tactics. Simulating the crisis situations could be taken as a preventive measure for black scenarios outside the game.

In competition level such games require quite powerful computers for playing. In order to be highly visible on the market, the hardware for playing solutions comes with complicated light solutions, called RGB (red-green-blue). Lucent computer cases have become distinct showpieces where besides the computer’s power various RGB solutions can be observed. Preapocalyptic beauty of life curtains the events on the horizon.

Graphic design: Henri Kutsar
The artists express their gratitude to: Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Hans-Gunter Lock, Heiki Maasik, Henri Kutsar, Karel Koplimets, Kristiina Kams, Laivi Suurväli, Liina Siib, Risto Vaidla, Tondi Firing Range.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Keiu Maasik (EAA YOUNG ARTIST’S AWARD 2019) (1992) is video and photography artist residing in Tallinn. Maasik has obtained MA degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2019. Keiu Maasik gained EKA Young Artist’s Award in 2019 and Eduard Wiiralt Scholarship in 2018. She has studied several topics in his artwork such as the influence of documentation to the memory, identity and human relations. Maasik often takes a very intimate and subjective approach to the above mention themes, including her personal memories and experiences.

Madis Kurss (1985) is an artist living and working in Tallinn. He has obtained MA in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2019. In his artist's practice, Kurss focuses on photography, sound and video. He has studied computers and computer networking in Tallinn Polytechnic School (2006) and has a working experience in the field of information technology for more than 10 years. The central element in Kurss's creative journeys lies in the digital world with its power and strictness that seems to function perfectly and without losses. Currently he is studying the graphically and mechanically realistic war simulators.

23.11.- 12.12.

KATRIN PIILE

The Rabbit Who Fell into the Pool Full of Balloons

23.11.- 12.12.

KATRIN PIILE

The Rabbit Who Fell into the Pool Full of Balloons

Katrin Piile‘s personal exhibition The Rabbit Who Fell into the Pool Full of Balloons will be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, November 24, 2020. Exhibition will be open until December 12, 2020.

„I am sitting in my studio, the leaking boiler counts the time like a clock. Emergency situation has lasted for years. Self-isolation has become a daily routine. Repetitions, repetitions, repetitions. For a long time, I have been thinking how such closed life has influenced me. The new reality has lasted for so long that I cannot remember the old reality any more. My self-isolation and the new reality have hyperrealistic dimensions where the contact with the world is set up through various channels of internet. I got the answer to my question what the isolation has done to me from other people who were forced to stay home this spring. According to Facebook posts, I realized that there was certain ironic attitude towards the emergency situation influencing our mental well-being. Our environment and the surrounding objects obtained a new dimension – people identified with things against all odds. What was considered absurd earlier became a new normality. Some of these people never planned to return to their earlier lifestyles.
I used to think that perhaps it would be better not to talk about it at all. Perhaps I’ll leave a strange impression. These people, however, keep posting their oddities in Facebook day by day. Therefore I confess: for years, I have considered myself to be a saggy stuffed toy rabbit lying around the window sill of my studio (Fuck! Now I suddenly remembered that I was a rabbit at the carneval that took place when I was in the 2nd grade. Perhaps I started to relate myself to a rabbit already back then.) So that’s how I keep encapsulating and shrinking.
The world is existing somewhere else. The algorithm throws me the world through glamorous colour photos in the internet flow: it is perfect, glossy, bright and acrylic. Which reminds me of the fact that I have run out of black paint, exactly having completed half of the work. The shop is too far and going there would break the routine. At the same time, the rest of the world seems to be just like Candyland – pretty, colourful, with glossy latex and film and yet somehow indecent and hardly holding together. It is fragile just like a balloon filled with water, waiting for being destroyed. Actually everything is good, since my brother promised to come and fix the boiler and perhaps we’ll also go and shop some paint. The rabbit thing was more of a joke. See you at the exhibition!“

Like Piile’s earlier artwork, current exhibition continues the search for formal abstractness through realistic objects. Oil paintings and ball-point pen drawings repeat and transform two objects until these lose their formal identity, finally heading towards emptiness or formlessness. The artist’s hyperrealistic pieces can be characterized by high technical quality. Her artwork plays with form as in the field of sculpture as well as contains the qualities of seriality and documentation related to photography and video. The volume of work with hyperrealistic painting and drawing technique leaves an absurd impression when expressing the idea; but sometimes art supposedly becomes art when rationally unjustifyable choices are made.

Supporters: Martin Piile, Art Allmägi, Enriko Mäsak and Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

Katrin Piile is a freelance painter and drawing artist who lives and works in Tallinn. She graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2010. Piile has participated in exhibitions since 2006. She is a member of the Estonian Painters' Association since 2019.

2019

17.12.- 12.01.

KARL-KRISTJAN NAGEL

Posterity. One parallel closing time

17.12.- 12.01.

KARL-KRISTJAN NAGEL

Posterity. One parallel closing time

14.01.- 02.02.

KAISA MAASIK

Your Love Hurts

14.01.- 02.02.

KAISA MAASIK

Your Love Hurts

Kaisa Maasik (1994) will open her personal exhibition Your Love Hurts in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Monday, January 14th, 2019.

The artist views the subject of family and domestic violence through the stories of Estonian people. The gallery becomes an installational space of perception where the visitors have the opportunity to ponder on other people’s (and their own) experiences. The visitors can also add their own stories to form a part of the installation.

Kaisa Maasik: „Present exhibition exposes what is happening in many homes. The installation includes personal stories that hundreds of people have anonymously written down. It is hard to admit that someone whom you love and who loves you has hurt you. Major part of recollections come from people’s childhood: the child does not know what is right but senses that something is wrong.“

Current exhibition includes the educational programme for schoolchildren, compiled by Helen Silde and Laura Berta Vahtra, MA students of art teachers’ programme of Tallinn University and Estonian Academy of Arts. The purpose of the programme is to direct schoolchildrens’ attention to incidents of violence as well as provide guidelines for accurate behaviour. Those who are interested in participating in the programme, please contact kaisa.maasik@artun.ee on January 21st at the latest.

Exhibition will be open until February 2nd, 2019.

Many thanks to: Karel Koplimets, the Maasik family, Anni Nöps, Ats Parve, Hanna Samoson, Helen Silde and Laura Berta Vahtra.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Eventech LLC, Center for Contemporary Arts Estonia and Laserstuudio LLC.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Kaisa Maasik has obtained BA degree in the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and continues her studies in MA programme of contemporary arts also at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She is currently an exchange student at the University of the Arts Helsinki's Academy of Fine Arts. Kaisa Maasik's first personal exhibition took place in 2015; she has participated in group exhibitions in Estonia, Finland and Germany. Since 2017 Kaisa Maasik has curated several exhibitions in Estonia, in 2018 she curated together with Kulla Laas in Glasgow Tramway, Great Britain. Your Love Hurts has been previously exhibited in the Monumental Gallery of Tartu Art House in 2018.

04.02.- 23.02.

TIIU REBANE

Atlas

04.02.- 23.02.

TIIU REBANE

Atlas

25.02.- 16.03.

SIIRI JüRIS

Touch

25.02.- 16.03.

SIIRI JüRIS

Touch

Siiri Jüris will open her personal exhibition Touch in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Monday, February 25th, 2019.

The artist comments on her present painting series as follows: “My recent painting series looks into the relationship between a patient (with limited mobility) and a caregiver. Faceless bodies have become anonymous. The abstract flesh-like skin and the interwoven figures emphasise anonymity. Human physicality depicted on the paintings has an almost tangible quality. Touch as a physical contact, reminding us of the presence and the inevitability of the material. It is through touch that a person feels their body, their being and receives direct and immediate contact with the surrounding world. However, sometimes our body might turn into a prison, which cannot even feel the most immediate humane contact.

The compassionate and caring touch of a caregiver could accelerate the healing process, whilst helping the patient restore connection with their own body and the one of others. The paintings are based on the ergonomic principles taught to caretakers, which have been purposefully taken out of their medical context. The paintings show the ambivalence of the physical. The portrayed touch is not only intimate but also almost intrusive, overstepping the autonomy of the person and might be carried out without consent. Therefore, something warm and intimate can simultaneously feel cold and calculated.

Paintings highlight the insubordination of the living and the organic. Fleshliness is laid out in front of us to painfully remind of its variability and brevity. Materiality is unavoidable – at some point we are all helpless and depend on others. One moment matter snaps and gives in. Despite all that has been stated above, we are still searching for physical closeness, each other’s touch.”

Exhibition will be open until March 16, 2019.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Siiri Jüris has obtained BFA degree in painting, faculty of philosophy, at the University of Tartu in 2015 and MFA degree in painting, faculty of arts and humanities, at the University of Tartu in 2017. She has formerly acquired the profession of set designer and stylist at Tartu Art School. She has been participating in exhibitions since 2012. Current exposition is her second personal exhibition; her first personal exhibition „Dissolving“ took place in Võru Town Gallery in summer 2017. Siiri Jüris's artwork centers around the human body and its independence. Whereas in her earlier works Jüris has been studying the various states of an individual mainly through the possibilities of portrait painting then during the past few years the artist has preferred working with the monumental half-abstract figural compositions.

18.03.- 06.04.

INGA HEAMäGI

PS. The Psalms and Prophet Jonah in the Belly of the Whale

18.03.- 06.04.

INGA HEAMäGI

PS. The Psalms and Prophet Jonah in the Belly of the Whale

Inga Heamägi will open her personal exhibition PS. The Psalms and Prophet Jonah in the Belly of the Whale in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Monday, March 18th, 2019.

The artist explains: „The meaning of PS includes ambivalence – first, PS as post sciptum means a thought occurring after the letter has been written. Secondly, PS refers to psalms or sacred songs. Today, PS also denotes a powerful programming language. And finally, PS is an official abbreviation for „põhiseadus” (meaning „constitution” in Estonian). The second part of the exhibition title – „Prophet Johan in the Belly of the Whale” – has been inspired by the universal migration crisis and its consequences. More specifically, this exhibition serves as a backlash to a sad event that shook the world – the story of the death of 3-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi in Turkey in September 2015.
There have always been both great calamities as well as events of intoxicating joy in the world despite our religious belonging. At best, we have been taught to feel gratitude for everything given by God (or Life).
At the current exhibition I am observing the intersection of two very different religions – Christianity and Islam – through the Old Testament, the Christian gospel and the Quran. My purpose is not to practise wild guessing nor to make simple-minded generalizations. Thousands of years of history of humankind is at our disposal as there have been thousands of mistakes and reasons why wars have been made and people have been killed. We have the possibility to learn from these past events. The most important thing on this Earth is Life and this has been given to us as a valuable gift that we should protect and hold dear.
Visually, the exhibition has been founded on Prophet Jonah and the prayer as the universal redemption for the humankind. My genuine faith for kindness has been directed to the future while being based on the documentary sources of the present day as well as the old teachings.” – Inga Heamägi

Exhibition will be open until April 6, 2019.

The artist is grateful to: her family, Vahur Poolak and Lingalaid LLC, Ubu Noir, Lauri and Gudrun Koppel, Ingvar Heamägi for his future film, Graafikakoda and Uku Kann, Joonstuudio and Ülar Linnuste, Digifoto and Tarmo Rämmi, Father Mattias Palli, Pereraadio, The Holy Monastery of the Honorable Forrunner at Mt. Kissova (Ossa) in Greece, Kohila Training Center, Mari Prekup, Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Artists’ Association.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Inga Heamägi has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts (former Estonian State Art Institute) in 1988 and has been an active graphic artist (both printmaking and applied graphic art) since then. During her professional career she has held a couple of dozens personal exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad; she has taken part in numerous international printmaking exhibitions in Europe, USA and Asia. Inga Heamägi has been awarded several prizes, the Incentive Prize of Wiiralt Award (2019) being the most recent ones. Inga Heamägi is the chairwoman of the Association of Estonian Printmakers. Her artworks belong to several collections, such as Art Museum of Estonia, The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus in Minsk, Kaliningrad State Art Gallery and Krasnoyarsk Museum in Russia, Mark Rothko Art Center in Daugavpils (Latvia).

10.04.- 27.04.

KULLA LAAS

Anchor of Air

10.04.- 27.04.

KULLA LAAS

Anchor of Air

Kulla Laas will open her personal exhibition “Anchor of Air” in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, April 10th, 2019.

Kunstnik käsitleb näitusel kohalolu ja puudumise paralleelsust. Mõjutustega fotograafiale omasest kaadri valikulisusest, teatri- ja filmiruumist ning teadvustades vaataja kohalolu, luuakse alus mitmekihiliseks ruumikogemuseks, milles on samaaegselt tulekut ja minekut, lähedust ja kaugust, esikülge ja tagatuba, pealispinda ja sisikonda.

Kulla Laas: “Jätkan näitusega koha- ja vaatepunktispetsiifiliste installatsioonide seeriat, mille keskmes on argine füüsiline keskkond – asjade seis ning selle psühholoogiline mõõde. Mind huvitab kuidas saab igapäevase mateeria kaudu avada sellesse justkui salvestunud inimlikke otsinguid ja emotsionaalseid seisundeid. Sel korral mängib esitamisele tuleva olukorra fragmentaarsus end välja aga natuke teisiti kui varasemate teostega. Esiplaani illusioon ei taotle mitte terviklikkust, vaid esmajoones asetatakse vaataja silmitsi tühja nurgaga, mis järgmisel sammul paljastub puuduva kohana ühest teisest ruumist.”

The artist approaches the parallel of presence and absence. With influences in the selective quality of the photographic frame, theatre and film sets and taking into account the presence of the viewer, Laas creates a basis for multi-layered space of experience which simultaneously involves the notions of arrival and departure, closeness and distance, front and back, surface and innards.

According to the artist the exhibition continues with her series of site and view specific installations that take as its focus the everyday physical environment – the state of things and its psychological dimension. She is interested in how human aspirations and emotional states can be opened up as if stored in the everyday matter. Compared to her previous works the fragmentation of the situations plays itself out a bit differently this time. At first the illusion on the foreground does not seek for a wholeness but the viewer is faced with an empty corner, which on the next move reveals itself as a missing spot from another space”.

The artist would like to thank:
Sandra Mirka, Matis ja Meinar Mäesalu (Random Solutions), Katarina Klett, Eve Laas, Doris Tääker, Ott Kartau, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Tõnis Jürgens, Cloe Jancis, Veiko Iliste (Deviis OÜ), Holger Orek (Säästva Renoveerimise Infokeskus)

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Kulla Laas (1991) studied photography and fine arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA 2013, MA 2017) and has completed her studies at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, Canada. Laas is one of the co-founders and members of Rundum artist-run space. At the moment she works as a technician in the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and also gives lectures in the latter, coordinates the education and public programming for the Tallinn Photomonth contemporary art biennial and assists with organising the annual Kohila Symposium. Her most recent personal projects include a solo show “The Place I Was Looking to Find” at gallery Harbinger in Reykjavík (april 2018) and an Estonian artists’ moving image programme “Trial and Error” co-curated with Kaisa Maasik at Tramway, Glasgow (november 2018).

30.04.- 18.05.

CLOE JANCIS

Waiting for Eternity

30.04.- 18.05.

CLOE JANCIS

Waiting for Eternity

21.05.- 08.06.

HEDI JAANSOO - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2018

Everything’s instantly a memory and tiny golden things on the floor

21.05.- 08.06.

HEDI JAANSOO - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2018

Everything’s instantly a memory and tiny golden things on the floor

Hedi Jaansoo will open her personal exhibition Everything’s instantly a memory and tiny golden things on the floor in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Tuesday, May 21st 2019.

In spring 2018, Hedi Jaansoo’s was given the Young Artist Award of the Estonian Academy of Arts for her master’s thesis „Fears, Frailties, Beauties, Knots and Almost Nothing“. The Young Artist Award for MA graduates of the faculty of fine arts is given by the Estonian Academy of Arts and Estonian Artists’ Association since 2011 and for MA graduates of applied arts since 2016. The laureate is given an opportunity to hold a personal exhibition either in Hobusepea or Draakon gallery (students of fine arts) and in Hop gallery (students of applied arts).

At the present exhibition, the artist displays a space-sensitive installation composed by fragile details; with minimal means a whole is being constructed that has a strong emotional charge. The artist herself describes her practice and relationship with her artwork as follows: “I do the things that I’m strong enough for, mostly. This time perhaps in a more radical way. Actually, it would be more exact to say that I do the things that are feasible for my weaknesses. For instance, my present weakness finds it feasible to deal with tiny golden things and small stones, with pearls and plastic hearts. With fragile objects leaning on each other while trying to remain intact. And they do, more or less, yet they might also fall apart. They might get nudged, or stepped on. No one might notice. Sensitivity might fail.“

Current exhibition belongs to the programme of TASE – the annual spring graduation show of Estonian Academy of Arts. The main TASE exhibition includes all MA graduation projects and selected BA graduation projects in the new academy building on Põhja pst. 7 from May 31st to June 16th, 2019. The Young Artist Award and the Young Applied Artist Award will be announced at the opening of TASE’19 in collaboration with the Estonian Artists’ Association. The extensive satellite programme of the festival presents students films in TASE FILM, offers presentations of selected graduation works in TASE Elevator Talks, provides feedback to your artwork from international experts in Portfolio Cafe and opens several diverse personal and group exhibitions by students. Additional info: artun.ee/tase

Exhibition will be open until June 8th, 2019.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Hedi Jaansoo - EAA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD 2018 has obtained BA degree in the department of photography, faculty of fine arts (2014) and MA degree in contemporary art (2018) at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has taken additional courses in Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Norway. Current exhibition is Hedi Jaansoo's second personal exhibition; the first one was held (together with Pire Sova) in ARS Project Room in 2016, titled „Slow hunch: pink satin.“ Besides the Young Artist Award Jaansoo's artwork has been recognized with the Silver Badge of Adamson-Eric Scholarship (2017).

10.06.- 06.07.

JAAN ELKEN

Heaven and Earth

10.06.- 06.07.

JAAN ELKEN

Heaven and Earth

According to the artist, current exhibition forms a vigorous sketch about the entire universe while shifting the viewpoint back in time, to the beginning of times.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

08.07.- 03.08.

MARILIIS KENKMAA AND TõNIS KENKMAA

Concrete Mess

08.07.- 03.08.

MARILIIS KENKMAA AND TõNIS KENKMAA

Concrete Mess

05.08.- 31.08.

MARGUS TõNNOV

Flavours of Life

05.08.- 31.08.

MARGUS TõNNOV

Flavours of Life

Margus Tõnnov will open his personal exhibition Flavours of Life in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, August 5th, 2019.

Current exhibition includes a set of acrylic and mixed media paintings that represent the various perceptual and cognitive experience of the artist. Tõnnov’s artwork, described by abstract style and rich texture, can be compared to materializations of the pieces of diversity of life open for senses. Tõnnov’s paintings can be characterized by their contradiction between the strong materiality expressed through thick, sporadically brutal layer of paint and intentionally delicate yet precise sensuousness. The latter is conveyed mostly through the meticulously chosen colour study by the artist – as a result, the colours in Tõnnov’s paintings have the appetizing effect, but can also create curiousity, surprise or distance.

Margus Tõnnov comments on his present exhibition: „Life offers us all kinds of flavours and some of them cannot be either described nor tasted. That is why I have attempted to express various experiences of flavour in my paintings. The taste of every painting will be for every viewer to decide by themselves as everyone senses various nuances of taste in a unique way. For me also clouds, cushions, rain, sadness or love have their specific flavour. I suggest to dedicate our full attention to a particular experience or event – then we can notice the unique flavour of coffee, music, or even love. And the sensation will be different every time.“

Exhibition will be open until August 31st, 2019.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Margus Tõnnov (1966) has studied painting and monumental art in Tallinn Art University (now Estonian Academy of Arts) in 1987-1995. He has additionally studied monumental art in the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (Kungliga Konsthögskolan) in Stockholm as well as graphic design. Tõnnov has worked for years as a designer and art director (1993-1996 in Tallinn Kaubamaja; 2012-2014 in advertisement agency IDEA). While being away from art scene for years, Tõnnov has been a freelance painter since 2014. Among other exhibitions, he has participated in the 2nd Annual Exhibition by Soros Center of Contemporary Art „Nonexistent Art“ (1994); during the past few years he has mainly held personal exhibitions for instance in Haapsalu City Gallery (2017), Karjamaa gallery (2017, 2018) and taken part in the 18th Annual Exhibition of the Estonian Artists' Association „The Jubilee Spring“ (2018).

05.09.- 21.09.

ANNA MARI LIIVRAND

Beds and Ripples

05.09.- 21.09.

ANNA MARI LIIVRAND

Beds and Ripples

Anna Mari Liivrand will open her solo exhibition Beds and Ripples in Draakon gallery at 6pm on September 5, 2019. Exhibition will be open until September 21, 2019.

At the current exhibition the artist presents her drawings and installations based on unusual and disappearing materials, issues of preservation as well as daily rituals. There are fluids of various colour, texture and density installed at the centre of the gallery that keep transforming every second. On one hand, this installation can be viewed as a collection of decorative elements nested in a concrete form; on the other hand, the pieces represent autonomously moving sculptures. Threaded feathers, flakes of skin and other collected objects hanging from the ceiling remind of personal talismans and form an interrelated, fragile spatial network. The exhibition is framed by landscapes on silk drawings that study the themes of collecting and preserving while following the techniques of scientific illustration, the result creating an ephemeral atmosphere. There is a sensitive and fragile milieu between the artwork whereas the installative solutions and unexpected materials contribute to the extraordinary site-specific spatial experience.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Anna Mari Liivrand (1993) is a Tallinn based interdisciplinary artist. She has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2016 having also studied in the Iceland University of Arts as well as taken part in various workshops. She has participated in numerous group shows and held her own solo exhibitions. In 2014, Liivrand was awarded the Young Sculptor Prize Grand Prix. Liivrand’s work is focused on exploring sensitivity and ephemerality through the use of unstable materials ranging from pieces of skin to scent combining them into fragile space installations, sculptures and drawings.

24.09.- 12.10.

ART ALLMäGI

Come and Kiss the Hand of the Future President

24.09.- 12.10.

ART ALLMäGI

Come and Kiss the Hand of the Future President

Art Allmägi‘s personal exhibition Come and Kiss the Hand of the Future President will be open in Draakon gallery since Tuesday, September 24, 2019. Finnisage of the exhibition together with the artist talk will take place at 6pm on October 10, moderated by Kadri Veermäe. Exhibition will be open until October 12, 2019.

The recurring elements in Allmägi’s exhibitions have been: fear (of the unknown, the inevitable and failure), mixing of reality and subjective interpretation, controlling the narrative and visual/conceptual irritants. Allmägi’s artwork can be characterized by the combination of operosity and excellent technical skills as well as making use of the elements of classical art of sculpture in the field of contemporary installation art. Current exhibition is the third and the last one expressing the themes of danger, fear and Russia. His earlier exhibitions in the same series – Cold war (2014) and Paint it Black I (2017) were also held in Draakon gallery.

Art Allmägi explains his present exposition as follows: „The government here is bad, the state being led by men wearing hats. Human rights are being ignored. Xenophobia as an everyman’s right. Massively proliferating sexism, chauvinism. Women’s rights cannot be even mentioned in this country. Those harassing outnumber those being harassed. Minorities are not considered to be human beings here. Children and elderly people are deprived. Middle-aged heterosexual white men are popular. It is difficult to distinguish problems from pseudoproblems. Expressing one’s opinion is widely common. One can feel extremely offended even if there is no reason for that. Journalism can treat anyone with contempt. Being a victim increases the fellow feeling. Every day, the annoyers are being blamed. Feminism has established itself. There are fucking hipsters at every corner of Kalamaja district. Russians in Estonia have become closer. Soft values, representatives of the Snowflake Generation and the pink slobber are procreating like mushrooms after the rain. And the president is a woman here.

Fortunately, a messiah will soon arrive, saving all of us from the below-mentioned.“

Thanks to: Aap Allmägi, Andres Allmägi, Enrico Mäsak, Katrin Piile.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Art Allmägi (1983) is a sculptor and installation artist. He has studied sculpture at the Pallas University of Applied Sciences (BA, 2008) and the Estonian Academy of Arts (MA, 2011). Allmägi's exhibition projects are characterised by a thematic seriality. In this exhibition series, the author explores creation based on collaboration. Previous exhibition series have been Russia-themed and narrative-centric.

14.10.- 02.11.

TõNIS SAADOJA

Paper Town. Enveloped Sky

14.10.- 02.11.

TõNIS SAADOJA

Paper Town. Enveloped Sky

Tõnis Saadoja will open his personal exhibition Paper Town. Enveloped Sky in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Monday, October 14, 2019. Exhibition will be open until November 2, 2019.

With his present exhibition, Tõnis Saadoja continues studying the space between the painting and the photographic image within a specific pictorial territory. Saadoja has been inspired by hyperrealism in his work while using classical painting techniques; with his recent exhibitions, he has moved towards increasing generalization and abstractness. Saadoja’s effortless elegance shows his artistry in the medium of painting.

According to the artist the exhibition follows on from „Arrival in a Paper Town“, displayed in Hobusepea gallery last year. Driven by the same motif, it represents the continuation of pictorial explorations seeking to discover in an image something that wasn’t there prior to painting it. The starting point – a double exposure photographic image of architectural elements in a glowing sunset – serves as a kind of super image piled with both contradictions and harmonies. Its deconstruction by the means of painting leads to new notions and figures. A paper town is an open painting process. An enveloped sky, however, is something dead birds may be able to tell us about.

Tõnis Saadoja powerfully entered the local painting scene in early 2000s and since then he has held around twenty personal exhibitions that have influenced Estonian art of painting as well as intervened the art scene also in a broader way. His first significant personal exhibition Mainstream was held in Hobusepea gallery in 2006. His ceiling painting completed for Theatre NO99 in 2012 is considered to be of crucial importance; followed by expansive personal exhibitions Architectural Photography with a Little Boy in Kreenholm villa, Narva (2014), Etudes for Piano and Canvas in Tartu Art Museum (2015) and in Hobusepea gallery (2016). Tõnis Saadoja’s artwork has been recognized with the Konrad Mägi Painting Award (2015), Kristjan Raud Art Award (2013) and three times with the annual award of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2012, 2008, 2006). In 2011, Saadoja was one of the artists nominated for Köler Prize. Last year, the artist was selected to participate in the reputable Wiels Residency Programme in Brussels, Belgium.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

04.11.- 23.11.

KAREL KOPLIMETS & MAIDO JUSS

Flat Circle

04.11.- 23.11.

KAREL KOPLIMETS & MAIDO JUSS

Flat Circle

Karel Koplimets and Maido Juss will open their co-exhibition Flat Circle in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Monday, November 4, 2019. With their video installation of the same title, the artists explore the issues spreading out from the overload of information in today’s media, human consciousness and beliefs.

Overload of information is associated to an individual’s difficulty to receive large quantities of data as well as to distinguish relevant info from the irrelevent. In 2016, the mankind generated about 44 exabytes of information in Internet every day, whereby 90% of all information existing in the world was produced during the past few years. It is estimated that by the year 2025 the amount increases tenfold. Everyone having the access to (free) Internet seems to have an access to endless amount of data. We are living in times where various kind of information (and also the truth) should be more accessible than ever before; yet, the reality is paradoxically different.

Deepfake, fake news, troll factories, clickbait media – these are only a few ways how to manipulate information. Today’s propaganda and information wars mostly find invisible output forms, as it is increasingly complicated to distinguish real news from fake ones or politically motivated information from facts. More and more people are using social media as the main source of news. News appealing to emotions than to checked facts sell better. Checking the truth and facts has in a way become secondary or at worst totally insignificant. We have reached the point where on our way to find truth one has to do extremely hard work, or risk and use one’s intuition while trusting selected sources. When adding to all this AI that generates fake information, the whole situation seems to become progressively hopeless.

Installation by Maido Juss and Karel Koplimets presents 0,000000136 exabytes of information in the form of video.

Thank you: Aare Juss, Helen Koplimets, HN Steel Ltd., Kaisa Maasik, Madis Kurss.
Photos: Karel Koplimets

Exhibition will be open until November 23, 2019.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

25.11.- 14.12.

MARI ROOSVALT

Beyond the Sea

25.11.- 14.12.

MARI ROOSVALT

Beyond the Sea

Mari Roosvalt will open her personal exhibition Beyond the Sea in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, November 25, 2019.

The artist presents newly completed paintings that are accompanied by the sound installation by Örnólfur Eldon Þórsson and Krõõt-Kärt Kaev.

Mari Roosvalt contemplates on her current exposition as follows: While living by the sea and observing its constantly changing force of nature day by day, I find myself asking: What does „beyond the sea” really mean? Is it about its depth or anything else? The climate change, a global or local catastrophe? My attempt as a painter is to discuss these issues through minimalistic yet extremely colourful and biomorphic images full of vitality. The picked photographs that resonate to the present day have become increasingly important in my artwork. While turning the surfaces of canvases into immense stagings, I am moving towards the format of free painting where nature and art are densely correlated. Current exhibition of painting and music forms a whole and has been inspired by for forces of nature.

Mari Roosvalt has graduated from the department of painting at Estonian State Art Insitute in 1969 and she has worked as an art teacher in Tallinn Secondary School No. 7, Tallinn Secondary School No. 46, Tallinn Art School and Tallinn Pedagogical University. Since 1992, Mari Roosvalt has been working in various positions at Tallinn Academy of Arts. Since 1970, the artist has been actively participating in exhibitions. Roosvalt has been recognized with several reputable art awards, including the Konrad Mägi Award. While in 1980 she mainly practised abstract painting and moved towards abstract expressionism in 1990s, at her current exhibition Mari Roosvalt has followed her author’s technique that she acquired in late 1990s when she started adding photographic means into her artwork.

Art historian Juta Kivimäe has written about Mari Roosvalt’s artwork:
The primeval force of nature alternates with the urban strata of ancient high culture without excluding each other. Roosvalt has been enchanted by the fragments representing the general and the global, by the signs or symbols characteristic to environment, but also by the comparison to a natural environment. Something that we are used to consider as an European viewpoint to culture today emerges in Roosvalt’s artwork. From abstract impressions of texture and colour specific fragments come forward that document presence in time and space, recorded and mediated by the artist in her unique way. The viewer receives the experience of a somewhat fragile symbiosis of both contemporary and ancient culture of mankind – which perspectives in the new millennium will be unpredictable. This is all extremely pictoresque and permanent.

Exhibition will be open until December 14, 2019.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Artists’ Association.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.

2018

17.01.- 03.02.

URMAS VIIK & SOHVI VIIK

The Unusual Case of Ruve Rääsk

17.01.- 03.02.

URMAS VIIK & SOHVI VIIK

The Unusual Case of Ruve Rääsk

Urmas Viik (1961) and Sohvi Viik (1991) will open their co-exhibition The Unusual Case of Ruve Rääsk in Draakon gallery at 5pm on January 17, 2018.

The artists have given quite a straightforward position towards themselves and their current exhibition: „To generate art without elation – art that won’t analyze, conceptualize nor create meta layers – art that most people would understand. Art that would be more or less banal. The unusual case of Ruve Rääst is a simple story that could be summarized with a few sentences. It is a graphic fairy tale, a short story of magic realism where the protagonist combines Easy Rider and Mad Max in one person. The exhibition includes a twenty-five-meter long comic strip, surrounded by a video frame and by all means, a motorbike. Yet, Ruve Rääsk is an existing person and his case is almost real as well, demonstrated with the help of the comics and video. This is confirmed by the fact that Ruve has given his motorbike to be exhibited. Yes, indeed!“

Exhibition will be open until February 3rd, 2018.

Thanks to: Ruve Rääsk, Mari Viik, Tiit Kalluste, Elina Kask, Katriin Tralla, Kaspar Kalluste, Erik Pauklin, Viljar Seeblum, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Urmas Viik is mainly known as a graphic artist and a book illustrator; he has also created several installation works. Urmas Viik has graduated from the Estonian Art University (former Estonian State Art Institute and presently the Estonian Academy of Arts) in 1991. The artist has actively participated in local art life during the last few decades. Besides his personal artist career Urmas Viik has worked as a professor in the department of fine arts at Tallinn University and as a long-term head of printmaking department at the Estonian Academy of Arts. His previous personal exhibitions „Muhu Angels“ were held in Tampere House, Tartu; in Kondas Centre, Viljandi and in Kuresaare Raegalerii in 2017. During the past ten years, Urmas Viik has participated in more than thirty illustration exhibitions abroad, including Italy, Israel, United States of America, Latvia, Japan, France and elsewhere. The artist has been awarded with several art prizes, including Kristjan Raud Art Award, Sadolin Art Prize, he has also received diplomas from various illustration triennials. Books with his designs and illustrations have been frequently awarded at the 25+5 Best Designed Books in Estonia contest.

Sohvi Viik has obtained BA degree in the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2014 and MA degree in the department of installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2016. She has also taken additional courses in Bergen Academy of Art and Design in Norway. She held her personal exhibition What is Real is Imagined in Draakon gallery in 2016. Sohvi Viik has taken part in several group exhibitions, including Folkpsühhedeelia (together with Urmas Viik and Anna Viik) in Tallinn Art Hall gallery in 2015 and Rituals on Conditions of Clarity (curated by Tarvo Hanno Varres) in ISFAG gallery in 2014.

07.02.- 23.02.

REIMO VõSA-TANGSOO

Immediate Gratification

07.02.- 23.02.

REIMO VõSA-TANGSOO

Immediate Gratification

Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo‘s (1976) personal exhibition Immediate Gratification will be open in Draakon gallery from February 7, 2018.

Finissage of the exhibition in the form of the artist talk will take place in the gallery at 1.30pm on Friday, February 23rd, 2018.

„We are used to talking about the exhausting effect that overproduction has on the natural environment, but we don’t pay as much attention on how we pollute our own human environment.
It is said that an image is worth a thousand words. In the world after the digital visual turn this means that we are producing meaning at an increasing rate, probably already exceeding the production of “real things”. Therefore words, that in and of themselves are less explanatory than images, can facilitate visual economy or visual ecology.
In “Immediate Gratification”, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo exhibits ekphrastic and mechanically accurate descriptions of photos from the news media of the previous year. He counts on our shared experiences for an identical understanding of not merely the description “sunset on the seashore” but also of somewhat more complex everyday images.“

Indrek Grigor

Exhibition in Draakon gallery will be open until February 23rd, 2018.

Thanks to: my wife, Anneli Porri, Sulo Kallas, department of photoraphy of the Estonian Academy of Arts, Indrek Grigor, Peeter Talvistu, Tõnu Karjatse, Maris Karjatse, Mari Armei, Andre Joosep Arming, Annike Laigo, Mistra-Autex Ltc., Eventech LLC.

Exhibition is supported by the Estonian Artists’ Association.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (1976) received his Master’s degree from the department of photography of the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2011. The artist has combined interactive elements in his work and the viewer has always had an important role in creating meaning and interpreting his pieces. Iconic imagery, language, politics and innovative technologies are interwoven in Võsa-Tangsoo's work. Present exhibition has been previously held in the Monumental Gallery of Tartu Art House in November 2017.

27.02.- 17.03.

LINNAR UUM

Balanced in Zero Tolerance

27.02.- 17.03.

LINNAR UUM

Balanced in Zero Tolerance

Linnar Uum (1987) will open his personal exhibition Balanced in Zero Tolerance in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday, February 27th, 2018. Exhibition will be open until March 17th, 2018.

Linnar Uum’s personal exhibition studies the artist’s experience in graffiti and street art. According to the artist he gets most inspired by the city and its synergy, its residents and visitors and everything that the immence organism with its numerous lights is hiding in itself. As long as the city keeps breathing it will keep one inspired.
The artist has been mainly creating artwork in the streets of Tallinn – on its houses and walls. In general, however, there is a zero tolerance policy to street art in Tallinn. In fact, Linnar Uum considers this one of the most praiseworthy act that the city authorities have implemented towards this form of art. This helps to preserve the nature of the urbanistic-organic parasite that has been born together with the cities.
In the wider context the artist focuses not only on the final result but also on the working process while choosing a suitable image, language and location where his work would address people the way the artist has imagined. In order to get to his creative space Uum has been compelled to use forceps instead of keys and climbed walls instead of taking the elevator.
When orienting between the prohibited areas, written and unwritten rules Linnar Uum wishes to take a moment in a gallery. Yet, the artist states that graffiti looks inappropriate both on a church wall and in a gallery space. Art museums (including KUMU Art Museum) and galleries have expressed interest towards exhibiting graffiti despite its reputation. How should graffiti be exhibited in order to maintain the essence and spirit of the art movement? If the phenomenon of illegal graffiti brings along disapproval, panic and the question of erasing the trace as quickly as possible, then it is probably less painful to keep in mind the fact that in order to talk about fire one has not necessarily to see real fire. Gallery space provides a safe environment for artists to share their stories about something that may be difficult to delineate due to its nature.

Thanks to: Aarne Mesikäpp, Marko Nautras, Villu Jaanisoo, Asmo Villak, Jaan Kompus, Elin Kard, Hans-Otto Ojaste, Sidney Lepp, Paula Johanna Rõuk, Johannes Luik, Jürgen Paavel, Kuido Parkonen, Silver Korjus, Sten-Erik Remmel, mother, father, Spekter, Estonian Academy of Arts, Draakon gallery.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

20.03.- 07.04.

MARIS KARJATSE

Mother’s not Home

20.03.- 07.04.

MARIS KARJATSE

Mother’s not Home

March 20th – April 7th 2018

The essence of anxiety lies in the presence of an object, not in the absence of it.
Jacques Lacan

Mother cannot always be there to serve her child – this is an intensive and somewhat painful knowledge that as a result may have a constructing effect on a child. How to continue being a „good-enough mother“ when a child is becoming more independent? Staying home alone induces ambivalent emotions both in a child and in a mother – including worrying, anxiety, liberation and excitement. The possibility of absence gives presence the feeling of safety. For a child, the most anxious thing could be the lack of the child’s relation to absence. British pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott has emphasized the importance of the ability to be alone and with that he does not mean that one has to keep away from each other nor be lonely but what counts the most is the non-interventional nearness of mother.

Current exhibition is the expansion of Maris Karjatse’s earlier works Good-Enough Mother (2016) and Fort-da (2017). Whereas in the former works the main emphasis lay on the traumatic experience related to the absence of mother then Mother’s not Home studies absence as a positive and liberating phenomenon. The artist is inspired by personal illusions and memories; she collects her study material from daily life. Karjatse contemplates the dynamics of the relationship between mother and child as well as analyzes the ambivalent emotions related to closeness, separation and becoming independent.

Finissage of the exhibition will take place at 5pm on Friday, April 6th in the gallery.

The artist’s gratitude to: Marie and Tõnu Karjatse, Elin Kard, Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Carl-Robert Kagge, Cloe Jancis, department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Marco Laimre.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Maris Karjatse lives and works in Tallinn. She has graduated from the department of English philology at Tallinn University (2002) and obtained BA degree in the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2017) where she is currently continuing with Master's studies. As a member of Umbrella Group Maris Karjatse has participated in the group exhibition Confusion in the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (2016) and in Not Really in ARS Project Room (2017). Present exhibition is Maris Karjatse's first solo exhibition.

09.04.- 28.04.

PEETER LAURITS

Outing

09.04.- 28.04.

PEETER LAURITS

Outing

Peeter Laurits will open his personal exhibition Outing in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, April 9th, 2018. Exhibition will be open until April 28, 2018.

Peeter Laurits comments on his current exhibition as follows: „Outing looks at the human being who has acquired an unexpected role and got into a strange place. To be more exact, Outing looks through the human being, with the human gaze. It looks at the strange surroundings, the virtuality consisting of haunting bio webs growing on the ruins of its civilization. It looks at the intellectual something that is still pondering at which extent it should give human beings the freedom to act.

People lost their footing and the coordinate axis in this memorable spring when solar winds disturbed the World Wide Web and Wood Wide Web. The forest and the data clouds, on the contrary, grew together with apparent enjoyment. New landscapes and dimensions opened up in the hyperspaces intertwined and layering up onto each other; however, there was no right place left for a human being. There was no one left afraid of people any more. There was no direct hostilty, but some random digital mosquito might have landed on your back just for fun and crushed you. Or maybe you found out that something that you thought was a mushroom or tufts of moss was performing the Turing test on you.
One had to learn from the beginning, just like during the ice age, how to sit and where to step. To be polite and grateful.”

Exhibition is supported by of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Peeter Laurits (1962) has studied in state universities in Tartu and Leningrad, in Estonian Institute of Humanities and in International Center of Photography, New York. In that has been intensive since then. Laurits has collaborated with Roy Boyd Gallery (Chicago, USA), The Living Art Museum (Reykjavik, Iceland), Museu dÁgua (Lisbon, Portugal), Ragged School Gallery (London, Great Britain), Giedre Bartelt Gallery (Berlin, Germany), Pavlov Media Lab (Groningen, Netherlands) and many others. Peeter Laurits is one of the founders of the creative groups "Forever Yours", "DeStudio" and "Kütioru Open Studio". Among his most prominent solo exhibitions are "Diseases and Metamorphoses" (with DeStudio, 1993), "Birthday of Eternity" (2001), "The Flood" (2002), "Dining with Worms" (2003), "The Fifth Season" (2007), "Logos & Mythos" (2013), "Codex Naturalis" (2015). Peeter Laurits's works belong to numerous public and private collections, such as the Art Museum of Estonia; Tartu Art Museum; Norton Dodge Collection New York; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago; KIASMA Helsinki, Museu D'Agua in Lisbon; Siddharta Art Foundation Kathmandu etc. Several pieces of Laurits's monumental art have been commissioned for public space. In 2017/2018 he was invited as the visiting professor to the faculty of fine arts, University of Tartu.

29.05.- 09.06.

Lasnamäe. City Unfinished

29.05.- 09.06.

Lasnamäe. City Unfinished

What is the future of Lasnamäe? Students of EKA and Harvard Graduate School of Design offer solutions

On Tuesday, May 29, at 6 pm, the annual spring exhibition of the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Architecture titled “Lasnamäe. City Unfinished” will be opened at the Draakon Gallery in Tallinn. The exhibition focuses on the future of Lasnamäe, the largest district of Tallinn. What are the central problems of a mass-housing estate such as Lasnamäe, and how could architects and urban planners improve Lasnamäe and similar areas in other cities? The exhibition combines the work of EKA and Harvard Graduate School of Design architecture students and academic staff, focussing on envisioning the future of Tallinn’s largest city district. The exhibition remains open until June 9.

During the current academic year, students from the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Estonian Academy of Arts and its faculty staff focused on Lasnamäe, looking into its past as well as possible future. In cooperation with real estate company Kapitel and the City of Tallinn, the department’s research group for research project “Unfinished City” also participated in the process, leading to cooperation with Harvard Graduate School of Design, where Andres Sevtšuk, an Estonian urban planner, lead an urban construction studio by the same name. The aim of the exhibition is to show the results of this co-operation and try to engage people to think more about urban space surrounding them. On Saturday, June 2, at 11 am, a curatorial tour of the exhibition will take place at the Draakon Gallery.

For fast-growing cities, mass housing estates seemed an efficient and inexpensive construction process that would provide healthy, well-lit living conditions for large numbers of inhabitants, and this is the reason why today, these estates cover large areas of our cities. But – conceptually, spatially and architecturally speaking, these places are often either becoming out-of-date fast, or remain unfinished. Today, Tallinn’s “hills” are in dire need of a new perspective and meaning in the substantially changed economic, cultural and technological conditions. Exhibition “Lasnamäe. An unfinished city” explores the values of modernist urban space in present day and its outlook for the future, how the development of the area is affected by changes in everyday transport and mobility and what kind of city we actually expect and want as users.

The work of the three parties involved in the exhibition – architecture students of EKA, the research group for “Unfinished City” research project, and the participants of the studio at Harvard – has been integrated into a comprehensive collection that describes the problems and issues of the city district as well as possible solutions and development trends.

“Unfinished City” is a three-year large-scale research project conducted by the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Architecture in cooperation with the City of Tallinn. The research project asks what could be a good and livable city in the 21st century and how this could be reflected in the urban development of Tallinn. The project focuses on exploring Tallinn’s urban design visions and spatial future scenarios. The research will be carried out thanks to the support from the real estate company Kapitel, which contributes almost half a million euros to the project over three years.

Exhibition concept and design: architect and EKA lecturer Johan Tali in cooperation with 2nd year architecture students
Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Kapitel

11.06.- 07.07.

KELLI VALK

Helene’s Legacy

11.06.- 07.07.

KELLI VALK

Helene’s Legacy

09.07.- 01.08.

LEMBE RUBEN

Code of Spontaneity

09.07.- 01.08.

LEMBE RUBEN

Code of Spontaneity

Lembe Ruben Code of Spontaneity July 9 – August 1, 2018

More sensitive people are searching for the code of existence that has the tendency to disappear these days.

The exhibition compares human functioning in man-made systems and nature’s own structures.

We are restrained by all kinds of things – social norms; trends; fashions; rules; other people’s opinions; obsessions; the ideas how things should be (but most of the times are not); standards; control over one’s own and other people’s lives; life in the world run by machines; and stress that we finally are led to because all of this.

Where does a human being begin – the free, creative, spontaneous and original Me?

Nature has its own patters of life. The journey of moss on a tree trunk is led by a certain order yet the whole structure remains free and spontaneous. The patterns are never repeated though.

All great ideas, artwork and inventions arise from spontaneity, at the moment when people are not concentrated and not thinking in determined categories. This is the moment when inner truth, wisdom and intuition are being manifested.

Spontaneity heals! According to the American psychiatrist J. Morena practicing spontaneity and creativity one could reduce anxiety and treat neurotic symptoms. In order to function as a better human being one needs a manual-free life. The necessary condition for expressing creativity and healthy mind is to be free and uncontrolled. One has to develop creativity and intuition.
The right sense of existence should be learned from nature, including the structured spontaneity; the most comfortable possibility of life according to the surrounding conditions; the use of resources as much as needed and not as much as possible; moderateness and originality. The flow of nature has the order that is good for organisms, yet it is free from the self-destructive mentality dependent on standards and free of logic.

Printmaking series „Alignments“ have been printed with some wires once used by someone for some reason, the form of the wires offering quite a lot of freedom compared to nature – all the necessary knots, diverging, free and spontaneous journeys. These are contrasted by moss prints – the order and spontaneity of nature.

Photo animation „Birches should be white” expresses the intervention to the order/disorder of nature with the rules made by humans – birches should be white.

Psychiatrist Jacob L. Moreno: „The God is spontaneity, therefore there is the order: be spontaneous!“

Letter of gratitude: „The world is grateful to You for this beautiful pattern that arises along the roads that Your feet have been touched!“

Lembe Ruben

Lembe Ruben has graduated from the department of printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts and defended her MA thesis „Subconscious methods and imagery of creating artwork“ in 2002. In 2011 Ruben was awarded Eduard Wiiralt Young Artist Prize. Lembe Ruben's artworks belong to the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, Hjørring Art Museum (Denmark) and Mark Rothko Art Center (Latvia). She is a member of the Association of Estonian Printmakers and Estonian Artists' Association. Besides participating in numerous personal and group exhibitions Lembe Ruben has actively practiced teaching (for instance in the Education Centre in Kumu Art Museum and Estonian Academy of Arts). Ruben is also one of the organizers of the annual international summer camp of printmaking „Muhu Print“.

06.08.- 01.09.

MARE MIKOF

The 34-year-old image of J.V.J.

06.08.- 01.09.

MARE MIKOF

The 34-year-old image of J.V.J.

Mare Mikof‘s (1941) personal exhibition The 34-year-old image of J.V.J. will be open in Draakon gallery from Monday, August 6, 2018.

The opening of the exhibition will take place at 5pm on Wednesday, August 8th, 2018.

Present exhibition in Draakon gallery is centered around the sculpture of Johann Voldemar Jannsen – the piece serves as a partial expansion to the monument of Lydia Koidula and Johann Voldemar Jannsen and the memorial square (one of the authors being also Mare Mikof), both of which were opened on August 3rd, 2018 In Ülejõe Park near the Arch Bridge in Tartu, Estonia. This exhibition can be viewed as a satellite to the monument in urban environment and vice versa.

Mare Mikof: “The theme of the present exhibition changed since I had acquired new important ideas and issues in relation with the erected monument – ideas that were unfortunately uncompleted there but which are unquestionably essential in the field of sculpture. Present exhibition with the sculpture is rather a free approach towards the expansion of Johann Voldemar Jannsen’s monument. The authors have taken into consideration the fact that in 1853 J. V. Jannsen was a 34-year-old man (and Lydia Koidula was 10). That was also the starting motif and one of the ideas for our twin monument in Tartu.
In the case of an exhibition it is easier to search for the solutions of form, including those that may seem abnormal and sometimes totally unthinkable for public sculptures, yet necessary in order to form a whole. I find it enjoyable to create something without having to worry if it will appropriate; in other words, it is good to have a bigger creative freedom.

The whole structure of form is purely external, a secondary issue in fact, however through form our attitude towards the task is being expressed. For instance, form can be simple-minded that we all try to avoid of course, since despite everything form is the reflection of its contents.
We have the necessity to be liked by people who are dear to us. We are expecting an honest evaluation from those whom we appreciate while disregarding general opinion. Therefore, the source of criticism is important, namely the members of the so-called „art council“. This text is for justification. I wouldn’t have written it this way if my piece were something else than J.V.J. No. 2. In order to connect the historical to the contemporary with the help of Neo-brutality I have complemented the sculpture with the catchy stand“.

Exhibition in Draakon gallery will be open until September 1st, 2018.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

04.09.- 22.09.

UNO ROOSVALT

Hedge

04.09.- 22.09.

UNO ROOSVALT

Hedge

Uno Roosvalt‘s (1941) personal exhibition Hedge will be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, September 4, 2018. The finissage of the exhibition will take place at 5pm on Friday, September 21st, 2018. Exhibition will be open until September 22nd, 2018.

Current exposition introduces Roosvalt’s work falling into two different themes: photos from the series „My Garden“ and drawings from the series „Examples. Eduard Wiiralt I-X“ and „Evergreens and Friends“. Photography series „The Hedge“ has been transformed into a mural with the help of artist Inga Heamägi. Both the artist and the designer have found a common ground related to these two themes.

Uno Roosvalt: “For more than forty years, I have been busy with growing, trimming, designing and propagating evergreen trees and bushes in my garden. Today, the plants have reached full vitality and measurements. I have paid great respect to the work of Estonian art classics and been intrigued for instance by Eduard Wiiralt whose work has mesmerized me for a year – that, in turn, has resulted in a series of drawings consisting of 10 pages. I tried to decompose Wiiralt’s work and create my own compositions based on those details.“

Inga Heamägi: „All live plants require care: some of them grow fast and require trimming; others grow slow and one has to take care of the weed, fertilizing, protecting from wild animals and the lawn mower. If a plant dies inside the hedge it will look like a toothless mouth. The two-metre-high green wooden fence is the most convenient and carefree solution. Uno Roosvalt selects the appropriate plants to the „garden“ of this artwork very carefully. He designs the hedge while using artists (=plants) such as Eduard Wiiralt, Kristjan Raud and others. Some „Wiiralts“ are easier to adjust to than another ones. Roosvalt is composing his exhibition as a „free-form mixed hedge“ where he has planted different bushes in various small groups. During every season these offer the gardener diverse splendour as well as beguile the birds and butterflies with the fascinating smell of the blossoms and fruit.

The hedge is planted to serve for many years. One has to prepare the soil for planting carefully in order to make the plants feel good and grow well until a proper thick hedge will be formed. It is the same thing with Uno Roosvalt’s work – the artist is fastidious while preparing for his exhibition with care and for a long period of time. The process starts from making sketches, searching for the exhibition space, working on the idea at a scale of 1:1, slight hesitation, confirming the exhibition space, choosing the title for the exhibition, selecting the final images, the exhibition. One has to be an artist before holding an exhibition; before becoming an artist one has to study for a long time. And before studying one has to apply and compete. But first, before doing all that one has to find an inner little plant that requires lots of care, worry, work and love.“

Supported by the Estonian Artists’ Association and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

24.09.- 13.10.

AUGUST SAI

Twenty Cases

24.09.- 13.10.

AUGUST SAI

Twenty Cases

August Sai (1983) will open his personal exhibition Twenty Cases in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, September 24th, 2018. Exhibition will be open until October 13, 2018.

The artist introduces his current exhibition with the story called „Parody“:
„Start. A child witnesses a boat competition from the shore. He is jogging along with the boat. The child holds a string that is attached to a toy boat sliding behind him. The contestants are gearing up. The child won’t stay behind. The toy boat is twirling and circling around just like fish on a fish hook. The crowd is applauding. The child is looking on the right, towards the stands. Then he is looking on the left, two boats won’t give vantage ground to the other contestant. One boat is black, the other one is white. The child clenches his fist around the string. And is gearing up. His boat called „Don Quijote!“ comes smoothly along. Everyone is ready to put on a final spurt. Oars versus the fleet-footed child. Everything else seems to be disappearing at that moment. Only the noise from heart can be heard and burning pain in feet can be felt. The eyes cannot see. The body is racing on its own at full speed. The child is abuptly pulling the string. The boats are rushing by. He lets go of the string and stops. Finish.“

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

August Sai Born in 1983. Lives and works in Tallinn. Education 2010 FLACC Workplace for visual artists, residency, Genk, Belgium 2010 - .... Estonian Academy of Arts, faculty of fine arts, painting, MA – not completed 2007 - 2010 Estonian Academy of Arts, faculty of fine arts, painting, BA Solo exhibitions 2018 „Twenty Cases“, Draakon gallery, Tallinn 2014 „Behind the Backgrounds (there are Premises of Language and the Bare Image), Hobusepea gallery, Tallinn 2011 „1+2+3+4=10“, Draakon gallery, Tallinn Group exhibitions 2016 „Bad Habits“, curators Madli Ehasalu and Sven Parker, apartment exhibition in Tehnika Street, Tallinn 2014 „ATM“ (together with Manfred Dubov and Tambet Mullari), Monumental Gallery of Tartu Art House 2012 „Taandumine“ / „Falling“ (together with Manfred Dubov), Haapsalu City Gallery 2011 Art Festival „Pigskin III“, curators Jaan Toomik and Johannes Deimling, Haapsalu 2011 „My Eroticism“, curator Teet Veispak, Rakvere Exhibition House 2011 „Videoformes“, Video and New Media Festival, Clermont - Ferrand, France 2010 „Welcome to the Machine“, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn 2010 „193x282“, curators Kaido Ole and Tõnis Saadoja, Vaal Gallery, Tallinn 2010 „Feisbuk“, curator Erki Kasemets, Rakvere Theatre Bibliography Andri Ksenofontov. „What has happened to the meaning of art?” published in Sirp, September 2nd, 2011 2011 Annual Book of FLACC Workplace for visual artists 2011 Annual Book of Transit European Young Talent Forum

15.10.- 03.11.

SASKIA JäRVE

Invisibles

15.10.- 03.11.

SASKIA JäRVE

Invisibles

Saskia Järve (1979) will open his personal exhibition Invisibles in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Monday, October 15th, 2018. Exhibition will be open until November 3, 2018.

With the project Invisibles artist explores our relations with other people, and the way their expectations and reactions force us to react.

The focus is on deindividuation, a concept in social psychology, which is generally thought of as the loss of self-awareness in groups. It is a process when a person among others loses part of his/hers individuality and becomes this way anonymous. The feeling of belonging in the group is so strong that the individual is no longer visible. Deindividuation is often associated with antinormative behavior. Philip George Zimbardo (1933), a psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University, tried to prove with his experiments, that when people feel themselves as anonymous it is easier for them to behave against their moral norms.

The paintings exhibited on the current show depict people in groups performing different roles. We can see here behavior which is mostly assigned to the younger generation. A role is a set of expectations or behavioral patterns, which is connected with the position in social structure.

Thanks to: Villu Villmann

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Saskia Järve received her MA in Painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2009. As a figurative painter she depicts everyday events focusing on the complexity and psychology of human nature. Her practice combines frames from her personal archive with figures and stories that originate in folklore and popular culture. Recent exhibitions: Memory Fades II, Tallinn City Gallery, Tallinn (2017); Memory Fades, Exhibition Hall of Estonian Parliament, Tallinn (2016); ERROR, Leyden Gallery, London (2015).

09.11.- 23.11.

MARI VOLENS

Slowly Revolving

09.11.- 23.11.

MARI VOLENS

Slowly Revolving

26.11.- 15.12.

ANN PAJUVäLI

Surfaces of Impact and Soft Landings

26.11.- 15.12.

ANN PAJUVäLI

Surfaces of Impact and Soft Landings

Ann Pajuväli (1990) will open her personal exhibition Surfaces of Impact and Soft Landings in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, November 26th, 2018.

In spring 2017 Ann Paljuväli was awarded the Young Artist Award for her MA graduation work „Pick One Thing, Anything“. The award is given to MA students of fine arts by the Estonian Academy of Arts in collaboration with Estonian Artists’ Association since 2011; since 2016 the award is also given to MA students of applied arts. The award includes exhibition opportunity for the selected student either in Hobusepea or Draakon gallery (for students of fine arts) and in HOP gallery (for students of applied arts).

Ann Pajuväli’s artwork mainly focuses on spatial images, whether drawn or printed, that are discreetly manipulating with the rules of perspective. Her works often depict unfamiliar playgrounds or other models alike ruled by certain situation. The artist often adds three-dimensional objects to planar images. The shifted spatiality on paper meets the three dimensions of real space, which in turn generates various perceptive perspectives in viewer’s head. Nonexistent rules are governing here – and breaking them creates as much challenge as following them. All of if can be contemplated either as a metaphor for life, a dadaistic game or something completely different.

Ann Pajuväli: „Surfaces of impact as different stubborn obstacles that despite all efforts to break them will bounce back their opponent. As trying to overcome such a thing, you experience that some rebounds will hurt and some will go wrong and change direction. But being in confrontation you’ll also learn to fend off those strikes and to soften your falls. This way it may happen that opposition will develop into practiced activity that is adaptable. Its familiarity is comfortable and comforting. It is even possible that the wish to take down the wall disappears because it is actually sometimes nice to lean against it or to let its surface bounce you off. That way you can at least be sure that the landing will be expectedly soft.“

The artist would like to give her gratitude to: Andi Pajuväli, Liis Pajuväli, Pärtel Eelmere

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture and Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Ann Pajuväli (1990) has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a MA degree in Graphic art. In her practice she combines drawing and three- dimensional objects that have grown out of the former, thus creating images and environments with different spatiality. By abstracting items of the real world, but maintaining the familiarity of universal forms, she plays on the boundary of recognition and the unknown.

2017

14.12.- 07.01.

KAREL KOPLIMETS

Case No. 12. Kalamaja

14.12.- 07.01.

KAREL KOPLIMETS

Case No. 12. Kalamaja

Posted in Facebook Kalamaja group

Exhibitions in Hobusepea and Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

09.01.- 28.01.

BRITTA BENNO

Trapped

09.01.- 28.01.

BRITTA BENNO

Trapped

BRITTA BENNO‘s (1984) personal exhibition Trapped will be opened in Draakon gallery at 5pm on January 9, 2017.

The artist describes her new work as follows: „The accords of the rhythms and sounds of the simultaneous presence in a physical body and in virtual space resonate at a dimly lit drawing exhibition. Next to the motionless charcoal drawings and intaglio prints there are animations, everything being accompanied by sound. The line exits the borders of drawings and extends to the wall and the exhibition space.
Breathing, mouse clicking, heartbeat, keyboard clicking. One rhythm, one pulse. I am a human being, therefore I breathe. I am a human being – always connected. Breath peacefully in. And out. Don’t hold your breath. Life is as light as a plastic bag.“

Exhibition will be open until January 28, 2017.

Thanks to: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Artists’ Association, Graafikakoda, Ragnar Neljandi, Heigo Eeriksoo, Mari Prekup, Berit Kaschan.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Britta Benno is a printmaker and drawing artist living and working in Tallinn. She has obtained MA degree in the department of graphic art, the faculty of fine arts, at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She currently holds courses of printing techniques and drawing as well as works as an art teacher in the Art School of Old Town Educational College, Tallinn. As an artist, Britta Benno presents autobiographical narratives in her personal graphic language while using various techniques – drawing, printmaking, animation and installation. She has participated in several art groups, curated group exhibitions and art events as well as founded printmaking studio Grafodroom. Britta Benno is a member of Estonian Artists' Association and the Association of Estonian Printmakers. Her latest personal exhibition Multitasking was held in Hobusepea gallery in 2015.

30.01.- 18.02.

DANEL KAHAR

Chasing society

30.01.- 18.02.

DANEL KAHAR

Chasing society

21.02.- 11.03.

KAJA KANN

Ups and Downs

21.02.- 11.03.

KAJA KANN

Ups and Downs

KAJA KANN will open her personal exhibitions Ups and Downs in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday on February 21st, 2017.

Kann’s work in progress commented by Madis Kolk:
„The artist herself states that for her it is the working process that counts the most – during which she thoroughly studies her subject, pours herself out and finally backs away from her work. Creating tapestries started from anger; videos were triggered from fear; and soap excited her.
What is rising and what is falling?
Where is the sky and where is the earth?
Are these creatures from this world or the otherwordly ones; do they portray anything or are they created? And by whom?
Something has fallen out from the soap – whether it is birth or death the artist would not say.
I believe that she doesn’t know. No one knows, including myself.

All this tells about nature, love and being active; however, the state of activity here seems to be on the verge of dreaming and being awake.
The creatures are both here and there, both earlier and later.
It seemes that in the beginning there was an image of a man, followed by visualization that made the hand look distortedly long or did not complete the head. The will of movement is always directed either upwards or downwards, on a vertical axis, it either creates or destroys.
It is simultaneously the ebb and the flow; the important aspect here is the dynamic motion of the creature moving between the two. Whether something will rise or fall depends on the creature – through the act of giving up it either lowers its weight or overburdens itself.
Perhaps thanks to the fact that Kaja Kann is a performance artist for whom body and movement are essential working tools she has managed to apply lots of dynamics in her static pieces. Kann is looking for the answers about the place that would include true dynamism and powerful performativity – whether this lies in the hectic fragments of the top floor and in the perception of aloofness carried to the urban space by a curious flaneur or in the ground floor that is hidden from daylight and yearns for eternity. Does a conservative stumble downwards or from the underworld towards eternity? And will one be a conservative then after all?”

Exhibition will be open until March 11, 2017.

Exhibition team: Kalle Tikas, Madis Kolk, Maike Lond Malmborg, Ly Terasmees, Pavo Kann, Merike Lond.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Pardimäe Lokaal.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Kaja Kann was born in Vändra, in the family of five children. After graduating from secondary school in Tallinn Kann went to study in the department of food preservation and technology in Räpina School of Horticulture. She is currently studying philosophy in Tallinn University. Kann has performed in Võru, Iisaku, Pala, island of Vormsi, Narva, Utrecht, Zagreb, Hamburg, Berlin, Riga, Helsinki, Stockholm, Malmö, San Diego, New York City and elsewhere. Kaja Kann is an internationally acknowledged self-taught artist whose style is frank, often too monochrome yet sharp. Her performance has been compared to the act of playing: Kann seems to play circus; she plays music; she pretends she dances or writes a book or makes art. She says that if her work is play then it is a damn serious play – a matter of life and death.

15.03.- 01.04.

7 Solo Exhibitions

15.03.- 01.04.

7 Solo Exhibitions

03.04.- 22.04.

ART ALLMäGI

Paint it Black I

03.04.- 22.04.

ART ALLMäGI

Paint it Black I

ART ALLMÄGI (1983) will open his personal exhibition Paint it Black I in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, April 3, 2017.

Art Allmägi belongs to the generation of young sculptors who masters classical modelling and using the possibilities it offers. He has graduated from the department of sculpture at Tartu Art College in 2008 and obtained MA degree in the department of sculpture and installation at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2011. Art Allmägi held his previous exhibition Cold war / Холодная война in Draakon gallery in 2014 and continued to develop his installation to be exhibited at the Köler Prize nominent exhibitions at EKKM (Contemporary Museum of Art, Estonia) in 2016 where he got People’s Choice Award.

Art Allmägi comments on his present exhibition as follows: „Covering up death of an individual is rather complicated, even if it is possible to classify the reasons and facts of death. If a bigger fact needs to be hidden, it can be maintained as a state secret. Soldiers killed in a foreign state are officially declared as being „on a vacation“, that is often a surprising fact for the soldier’s family. Despite of gunshot wounds the post mortem documents state: heart attack. For disclosing of a state secret (including death of an individual) one will be criminally punished.
Documents with public access have black columns covering the paragraphs related to state secrets. Readers can see only the spaces „painted black“ that hides the secret text. Such „painting black“ practice is internationally used in order to protect state interests. Darker facts remain hidden under the black paint. Classification creates paranoias and paranoias generate conspiracy theories. One fact becomes a whole drama.“

Exhibition will be open until April 22, 2017.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

24.04.- 13.05.

MAXIM MJöDOV

Self Defence

24.04.- 13.05.

MAXIM MJöDOV

Self Defence

MAXIM MJÖDOV (1983) will open his personal exhibition Self Defence in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, April 24, 2017.

“Often, the landscape of childhood – the omphalos (the Greek word for navel, symbolises the centre of the world), the “first place” – is associated strongly with identity.”

My connection with the “first place” is still persistent. In 1989 I was one of the first kids to run between the newly finished panel houses of the 7th microrayon of Lasnamäe. Ninestorey buildings grew before my eyes, idols among endless wastelands and burnt grass – it fascinated my 6-year-old consciousness. Reflecting from the gravel-covered walls, the sun filled this vast space with a warm, yellow light. This is my first vivid memory of the place I grew up with and together with whom I began to grow old. The amount of historical materials from different periods of Lasnamäe (archival documents, photographs, memories) is contrastingly small compared to other areas, although its history appears to be one of the most complex and controversial in Tallinn. It stands out with its unusually high number of population, large area, and also for the fact that its environment was changed beyond recognition during the Soviet government.

In 1991, after Estonia gained independence, this district became a national ghetto for over 100,000 Russian-speaking residents. A town within a town where the rhythm was substantially different from the “outside”, in some aspects more tribal. The borders of Lasnamäe became division lines in our society, they also became the limits of my homeland.

In the first part of this project, I decided to focus on landscape and the particular fragments that still connect me to my youth. Upon entering these landscapes I am instantly able to go beyond the reach of time. Hiding behind the new facades, clean streets, shopping centers – this space – as if in an everlasting pause, it gives me a sense of safe and calm, evokes a piercing nostalgia and simultaneously pulls me into despair. Self Defence is the first part of Mäe project, a selection from over 1000 negatives taken between 2007-2017. The photos are hand-printed and toned by author.

Exhibition will be open until May 13, 2017.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Maxim Mjödov is a fine art photographer, born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1983. Fascinated with emulsion based photography, he entirely dedicated himself to studying it starting from 2003 and began to experiment in search of expressive forms and photographic possibilities as a tool for acquiring knowledge about and analysing his own and surrounding life. The main themes of his work: relationships in modern society, transformation and influence of landscape, perception of time, narrative and poetry in photography. www.kvanta.org

16.05.- 03.06.

ELERIIN ELLO

Emerging

16.05.- 03.06.

ELERIIN ELLO

Emerging

ELERIIN ELLO‘s (1984) personal exhibition Emerging will be opened in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday, May 16, 2017.

Something emerging from nothing will become visible from the depths of existence.

– Eleriin Ello

At her current exhibition, Eleriin Ello presents her newest painting series. The artist comments on her work as follows: „I painted moments where light played with the shadow emerging from dusk. I concentrated on a dialogue. One won’t exist without another. Always together, hand in hand, while creating each other through each other and forming a whole. I have depicted moments that have fascinated and bewitched me. Just like a finger snap, perceiving harmony and beauty in these moments makes one immediately aware. The moments turn to bridges or doors leading to another cognition and shaking off routine. I experience the feelings of opening up, connecting with the surrounding, co-existence. I feel relief and peace, the need for sharing what I see and experience. I wish this would bring peace to you as well. And that is all I’ve got to say.“

Exhibition will be open until June 3rd, 2017.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Eleriin Ello is a freelance painter who lives and works in Tallinn. She has obtained BA degree in the department of printmaking (2007) and MA degree in the department of painting (2010) at the Estonian Academy of Arts. During MA studies she took additional courses in the department of painting at the University of Porto, Portugal. Eleriin Ello has participated in exhibitions since 2008. Her work has been awarded with the Young Painter Prize of the Baltic States (3^rd place, 2012) and Sadolin Art Award in 2016. Ello's poetical style has a dream-like effect; the artist mainly focuses on depicting nature and its various manifestations. Her paintings can be characterized as realistic where the image and the detail have been partly generalized to abstraction.

07.06.- 01.07.

Tests

07.06.- 01.07.

Tests

Exhibition Tests will be opened in Draakon gallery at 5pm on June 7, 2016. Exhibition is curated by Margot Kask; among the participating artists are those who practise drawing, students of the Estonian Academy of Arts and of the Baltic Film and Media School of Tallinn University and the graduates of Old Town Educational College: Aleksander Erstu, Angela Soop, Anna Rinaldo, Annabel Janke, Anne-Liis Alman, Annika Tonts, Anu Purre, Berit-Bärbel Rebane, Bert Järvet, Britta Benno, Darja Rattik, Emma Pipi Penelope Visnap, Evelyn Grzinich, Hanna Lopato, Hanna Piksarv, Holger Rannus, Jelena Bõtškova, Kadri Kangilaski, Kai Kaljo, Kati Ots, Kristel Sergo, Liisa Kruusmägi, Maarja Gowley, Maarja Nurk, Maiu Mooses, Mari Poom, Mari-Liis Sõrg, Maria Muuk, Martina Gofman, Nele Kalf, Oliver Aunver, Renee Aua, Riina-Ingel Keskpaik, Solveig Lill, Tauno Ostra, Tiiu Lausmaa, Yyhely Hälvin.

The conceptual starting point of the exhibition was creative process as a whole, including observation, making notes, creating associations, playful reconstruction. There are various drawings and artwork based on drawing or consisting elements of drawing: sketchbooks, artist books, series of drawings, sketches, drafts and completed work. Most of the works have been created during 2013-2017, except the drawing series by Renee Aua that has been completed during 1983-1984. The curator of the exhibition describes the situation though the image of book while calling this a chaos between the covers: „Some artists have related themselves to the book format while including this as an initial source for their expression; other artists have related to it as inevitability or encumbrance. The same goes for the form of the series – these could be continuous searches towards slightly different directions or the processes of moving forward following an even course. When looking at this, we can follow the artists along their conceptual paths. A book is a multi-layered structure that keeps opening in time. This is happening in front of the reader, the viewer and the author. If you are lucky, the situation is different for everyone, every time. The book is opening itself, lets itself to be opened and discovered.

At the current exhibition I would like to unveil the book as a film or a space while letting the gathered ideas to pour out. The text flows almost by default, we are used to this. The flow of images takes normally place in a film. Memory images are gathered on the top of each other, later images can cast shadow on the earlier ones. However, it can also be the other way round – that the earliest prevail while making it difficult to notice the difference of the further images.

The process of collecting drawings or other works created by hand into a substantial series is normally time-consuming. Ideas have the tendency to get lost and turn to boredom; sticking to a subject and certain practice can become a challenge for the author. For that reason, several artworks presented at the current exposition deal with the subjects that are inspiring the artists today. This, in turn, can raise a question whether the works will also inspire the viewers. And yet, the authors reach from one point, state, or understanding to another one, and if not finding out the answers, they will at least come to the next questions. The viewer can follow the artists along their paths. Or crossing their paths.

The series can be described as meditative. Some of them consist only images, others depict pages and pages handwritten texts or spaces.“

Exhibition design: Kaili-Angela Konno

Exhibition will be open until July 1st, 2017.

Thanks to: Baltic Film and Media School of Tallinn University, Eve Kiiler.
Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

04.07.- 29.07.

MEIU MüNT

Intuition

04.07.- 29.07.

MEIU MüNT

Intuition

01.08.- 26.08.

EVI TIHEMETS

Works Undone, Now Complete

01.08.- 26.08.

EVI TIHEMETS

Works Undone, Now Complete

Evi Tihemets will open her personal exhibition Works Undone, Now Complete in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday, August 1st, 2017.

Grand Evergreen Lady Evi Tihemets is going to celebrate her 85th birthday this year. At the current exhibition the artist presents her recent work expressing the ideas that she has been pondering for a long time. She comments on her work as follows: „For nearly sixty years I have been practising something that can be defined as „kindness“ in my work; now I wanted to express my vision about the manifestations of evil.“
However, it must be stated that the subject of „Endangered world“ emerged in Tihemets’s work already in late 1960s. At the present exhibition, a newest large-format version is being exhibited (dry point, collage, 2017); another one was exhibited in Beijing International Art Biennale in spring, 2017. The centerpiece of the exhibition was her large-format work „Solar eclipse at 4 a.m. on July 22nd, 1990“ (soft enamel, collage, 2017). The natural event the artist witnessed in Tapurla has nothing to do with evil even if it might have had a territying effect as a spectacle about the imminent end of the world. Everything had lost colour in nature for a certain period of time except the faint luminosity surrounding the sun that was covered by darkness compared to a black veil. Next to the „Solar eclipse“ piece, another work by Tihemets can be emphasized, one of her most influential and expressive pieces called „Leviathan“ (coloured lithograph, 2016). This Biblical monster who destroys all is a rare character in Estonian art – only a few artists have decipted it, for instance Tõnis Grenzstein in late 19th century. This subject can be also associated with the Oscar-winning feature film „Leviathan“ directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev in 2014. Another version of „Leviathan“ by Evi Tihemets belongs to her offset lithography series including the pieces „The Grapes of Wrath“, „Flowers of Evil“, „Salome’s Dance“, „Betrayal. These works can be characterized by lyrical means of expression compared to the monumental and dramatical approaches in the artist’s earlier works. „A Story“ (colourful lithography, 2017) consists five parts and presents a lyrical tale about love that relates to the exhibition’s theme through the timeless scene of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Current exposition is not an expansive one, yet it provides an idea about the artist’s scope of technical skills – including colourful lithography that has been Tihemets’s favourite technique throughout the years; offset lithography that is relatively new technique for her; collage that the artist has been practising since 1990s; and intaglio printing techniques that she has always been using during her creative career. The square-shaped soft enamel miniatures „Solar Eclipse“ depicting coastal flora have all been printed this year.

Mai Levin

Exhibition will be open until August 26, 2017.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

28.08.- 16.09.

ANDRES KOORT

By the Way

28.08.- 16.09.

ANDRES KOORT

By the Way

Andres Koort (1969) will open his personal exhibition By the Way in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, August 28, 2017. Exhibition will be open until September 16, 2017.

It is difficult to classify Andres Koort’s artwork within the frames of traditional art movements. The artist uses recognisable images so that his landscapes seem realistic to certain extent while not following the elementary rules of perspective in his spatial treatment nor creating the effect of light and shadow. Perspective and shadows determine the moment and the place – lack of the abovementioned elements may refer to the artist’s wish to depict reality in general, independent of time and space. Andres Koort has developed a specific personal painting technique while for many years having been inspired by Chinese and Japanese traditional landscape painting. Koort rather studies the ways of thinking and visual form of Japanese and Chinese art instead of following their centuries-long traditional rules and techniques. The artist applies several layers of paintings on top of each other instead of transparent layers of paint, thus creating abstract landscapes with faint boundaries, reminding of mirages. In his newest work, Koort continues experimenting with various painting techniques.
Estonian philosopher Margus Ott writes about the present exhibition as follows: “Motion belongs to matter; matter is motion. The paths on which movement takes place show the character of materials; the character of materials open up the paths. Matter is articulated, with its veins. Matter has paths and the paths congeal into matter. The paths are temporal, moving along these paths creates time, and time always provides paths. Path maker is also the one creating time. Everything is still in the beginning, the times, the paths and those making and creating are starting to diverge.”

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

20.09.- 07.10.

TARVO VARRES

Memory-Sensitive

20.09.- 07.10.

TARVO VARRES

Memory-Sensitive

20.09.-07.10.2017
The exhibition Memory-Sensitive by Estonian artist Tarvo Varres brings together two recent works: Perfume Counter and Unavailable Memory (The Corners of Brussels).
Exhibition is a part of the gallery programme of Tallinn Photomonth’17 – the contemporary art biennale. Exhibition tour will take place at 5pm on October 4, 2017.

Unavailable Memory (The Corners of Brussels), 2015
Series of photographs, pigment prints, 70 x 98 cm each

The building corner motif itself is not particularly rare in conceptual and postconceptual photography. As the artist indicated to me, separate exhibitions have been dedicated to the subject. Yet Tarvo Hanno Varres visits the motif of corners already for the second time – his earlier series depicted the street corners of his native Tallinn, with a few indoor corners slipped in for some breathing room. The two series seemed to be linked by the existential question about people’s everyday choices, which on a broader level can be expanded into being human and being together in general. The twenty-two massive photos in the series have mostly been shot in twilight. Through the architecture unified by the camera’s perspective, the ‘breaking points’ of the empty night-time city obviously present us with questions about the history, trilingual identity, everyday usage of the city
and its status as a so-called European capital, embodied by the city’s physical substance. However, as Gaston Bachelard has written, a house that has been experienced is never an inert box, instead it takes on a psychology almost immediately, becoming one of the most important psychoanalytic constructions, one of the most primal models of the soul, where the attic corresponds to the superego, the living quarters to the ego and the cellar, of course, to the subconscious. The collection of corners shot by a flâneur wandering around aimlessly in the city at night is a mental landscape, an imagined crowd, which poses questions about the identity of not only itself but also the viewer, while retaining ambivalence, which Varres considers an essential part of any work of art. Dealing with the landscape of a city yet unknown to him, the artist uses the work’s title to introduce the motif of the return of memories, of impossible or hindered memory
work. It is possible that this distant or imagined memory is not the artist’s alone
but a part of a process that connects him to the viewers. – Hanno Soans

Perfume Counter, 2017
Series of photographs, pigment prints, 22 x 25,5 cm each

When looking for a new bottle of perfume, a smell to wear, we are encountering people whose work-identity is to consult us in the invisible detail of our own identity. The sales person has to have a heightened sensitivity to guide us in the making of this deeply personal choice. The series of portraits is taken of perfume sellers at their everyday positions, all of the four with their own personalities, in the process of guiding us in our own self-making.

Artist thanks: Mari-Leen Kiipli, Kristin Reiman, Kai Laidla and everyone at Crème de la Crème.

Tarvo Varres has mainly worked with photography and video installations. He has participated in exhibitions since 1991. Tarvo Varres has received the Young Photographer Prize of the Estonian Filmmakers' Union (1992), Annual Award of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (as a member of Rühm T, 1996) and has been nominated for Köler Prize 2018. Since 1996, Varres is a visiting lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts. His works belong to the collection of contemporary art of the Art Museum of Estonia.

10.10.- 28.10.

VARVARA & MAR

Knitted Experiments / Experimenting while Knitting

10.10.- 28.10.

VARVARA & MAR

Knitted Experiments / Experimenting while Knitting

The mini-retrospective exhibition Knitted Experiments / Experimenting while Knitting by artistsꞌ duo Varvara & Mar will be open in Draakon gallery since Tuesday, October 10, 2017.
Artist talk and meeting with the artists will be held in gallery at 5-7pm on October 17.

Between 2012 and 2014 Varvara & Mar have produced a number of art pieces that talk about and through knitting: SPAMpoetry, Connected, Knitic, Kombi, NeuroKnitting, and Circular Knitic. The artists have started with learning knitting as a production technique and proceeded with using this medium as craftivism and even developing their own open source knitting tools. Hence, the exhibition underlines the learning process of the artists: from on hand, starting from the simple shapes and gradually moving to the volumetric forms, and from another, hacking an existing obsolete knitting machine from the 1970s to developing their own knitting machine.

Exhibition will be open until October 28, 2017.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

30.10.- 18.11.

MALL PARIS

Elevator

30.10.- 18.11.

MALL PARIS

Elevator

24.11.- 30.12.

HANNAH HARKES & MARI PREKUP

The Ground Beneath The Tree Moved Like A Congregation

24.11.- 30.12.

HANNAH HARKES & MARI PREKUP

The Ground Beneath The Tree Moved Like A Congregation

Hannah Harkes and Mari Prekup will open their collaborative exhibition The Ground Beneath The Tree Moved Like A Congregation in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Friday, November 24, 2017.

The artists have shared a working space at Grafodroom printmaking studios in Tallinn since 2013 and have worked closely together on many projects, including the performative collaboration Graforotika (2014-2015) and now, through their new collaborative artistic platform Grafolkoor, they are focusing on folkloric culture, in particular hiipuud (holy trees). Since the spring of 2016 the artists have been making trips to sites across Estonia to visit ancient trees, collecting intriguing stories and legends, and then interpreting these narratives and experiences through the forms of printmaking and sculptural space. The exhibition The Ground Beneath The Tree Moved Like A Congregation in Draakon gallery presents the first fruits of this artistic research work. In conjunction with the exhibition the artists are creating an event programme which includes various talks, workshops, and happenings.

Old trees are beings with long, exciting stories, the understanding of which can be rewarding to people from all walks of life, from academics to storytellers, hikers to artists, nature worshippers to forestry businesspeople. Holy trees are strange and exciting places and as we continue to explore them, more and more fascinating aspects begin to peel out. Thematically, the Grafolkloor project addresses universal topics such as folklore, death, and the unknown. The creative process is grounded in psychogeo-graphy (defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as ‘the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals’*).

In old times, many important rites and religious practices in Estonia were centred on natural sacred places – whether a holy tree, stone, spring, or all three together. When honouring ancestors, a place of particular importance was their final resting place which was felt as sacred. Although these old burial grounds have largely disappeared over time, there has been instances found of this happening in the 17th and 18th centuries. In addition to burial sites, we find records of sacred groves being connected to mythological beings such as giants, fairies, ghost-dogs, tree-spirits and of course many personal tales and mythologies.

The installative exhibition is the result of a collaboration with architect Kaarel Künnap, thanks to whom we can see the connection between architecture and nature, where each orgamism is supported by nutrients and food from surrounding organisms, forming a fine infrastructure of multiple connections. Through the architectural mapping of folklore we can find that the relationships between places as well as narratives are connected to and supported by an interdependant structure; the installation refers to individual mytho-logies in fragmented forms, which reflect their cultural context and essence – one fragment from a large mosaic.
The collected parts – visual materials, narratives, mythologies, histories and sensations – are collated into a single whole.

The exhibition continues until the 30th of December.

Thank you: Graafikakoda and Uku Kann, Labora, Kaarel Künnap, Mihkel Lember, Tõnu Narro, Ahto Kaasik, Kristiina Paabus, Villem Jahu, Tuutu, Karin Link, Lauri Luud, Mall Paris, Johan Pajupuu, Aet, Margit and Aino Admann, Bill Harkes, Õie-Mari Aasmäe, Anu Sillaots, Mikk Sarv, Triin Pruul, Jarõna Ilo, Lianne Teder, Lauri Tankler, Eve Tisler, Lauri Tankler, Fiona Barnes, Olga Titova, Igor Prekup, Anto Liivat, Katrin Reimann, Lianne Teder and many others.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Artists’ Association.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.
_______________________________________________________________________
* …the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals. Guy Debord, Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography, in Les Lvres Nues # 6, September 1955

Kaarel Künnap is a city planner, an architect and a poet, who studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Currently practicing at Mudel Architects, his work is often focused on the interrelations between society, human psyche, environment and space.

Hannah Harkes is an interdisciplinary artist, working mostly with printmaking, installation and event. Her artistic practice is influenced by situations in which sincerity meets absurdity. Harkes graduated with a BA Hons in Fine Art Printmaking from Gray’s School of Art, in Scotland, in 2011, and has been based in Tallinn, Estonia since. As well as exhibiting internationally, she has worked in various roles within the cultural sector, including co-running Ptarmigan project space; teaching drawing and printmaking at the Estonian Academy of the Arts; and working as the letterpress master at Labora. Hannah Harkes is currently studying on the MA course ‘Death, Religion and Culture’ at the University of Winchester and her coursework naturally runs into this project. https://hannahharkes.com/

Mari Prekup graduated with an MA from the Estonian Academy of Arts, in the field of Fine Arts, in 2015. She finds her inspiration from heritage, her own experiences, from what’s irritating and from what surrounds her. She deals with old traditions of printmaking at Grafodroom studio, trying to find loopholes for connecting these to new media. Prekup is particularly interested in group dynamics, created by joint projects, installations, organisation of exhibitions and performing arts.

2016

11.01.- 30.01.

ELIS SAAREVäLI

Late for that

11.01.- 30.01.

ELIS SAAREVäLI

Late for that

02.02.- 20.02.

KAIRE RANNIK AND LIINA SIIB

The Chimera

02.02.- 20.02.

KAIRE RANNIK AND LIINA SIIB

The Chimera

The exhibition The Chimera by Kaire Rannik (1971) and Liina Siib (1963) will be open in Draakon gallery since Tuesday, 2 February, 2016.
The finissage of the exhibition with the presence of the artists will be held in the gallery at 3 pm on Saturday, 20 February.

„Current exhibition ponders over the borders between truth and lie, plausibility and implausibility. Our work has been inspired for instance by Walter Benjamin’s subjective topography and the genre of the Denkbild in order to examine the cognitive and haunting connections arising in human environment. We are intrigued by the fact how things imprison us and how society forces this process; how objects look like in reality and how they seem in a visualised world that we have created ourselves.

„My mother had an oval-shaped piece of jewelry. It was too large to be worn on the bodice, and so, whenever she chose to adorn herself with it, it appeared on her belt. /…/ Every time I saw it, this piece of jewelry delighted me. For in the thousand tiny flames that flashed from its edges, I clearly perceived dance music. The solemn moment when my mother took it out of the jewelry case sufficed to manifest its dual power. To me, it represented that society whose true emblem was my mother’s ceremonial sash.“ (Walter Benjamin, Berlin Childhood around 1900).

A seemingly decent and normal space is being occupied by objects that have attracted our attention and lead our thoughts to the stories that might have happened in that particular space. Daily life and the intimate uneasiness of its routine have reached the status where nothing seems real any more.“

Kaire Rannik & Liina Siib

Exhibition will be open until 20 February, 2016.

Special thanks to Tiit Rammul and Andres Ansper.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Kaire Rannik and Liina Siib have formerly collaborated in the field of installation: for instance the poster series Figurative Sense by Kaire Rannik exhibited in Budapest, 2014 and in visualization and completing the project Attacks and Migrations in the Museum of Occupations in 2014. Both artists share an interest for the relationship, illusions and spatial shifts between a photograph and an object.

23.02.- 12.03.

SOHVI VIIK

What is Real is Imagined

23.02.- 12.03.

SOHVI VIIK

What is Real is Imagined

Sohvi Viik (1991) will open her personal exhibition What is Real is Imagined in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2016.

At the current exhibition, Viik studies the interrelations between the photographic image and visual memory. The artist wonders: “Why do we have a continuous necessity to record our lives and how do we do it? Photo album is the baggage of our memories as well as the source of manipulation as it is possible to design one’s past with personal photographs. What is the purpose of taking photos? Do we want to record certain memories in order to enjoy the feeling of nostalgia associated with old photographs; or do we create a social image of ourselves for someone else? What kind of choices do we make when we take photos? What do we consider to be important for recording? The selected visual material is exactly what will more or less influence our memories. How will a photographic recording start affecting our memory processes; how will a photograph construct and influence our memories? To what extent will an image start to shape our fantasy?“ – Sohvi Viik

Exhibition will be open until March 12, 2016.

Special gratitude to: Taavi Talve, Jacob Jessen, Urmas Viik, Mari Viik, Tuuri Viik, Saara Nüganen, Kaspar Kalluste.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Sohvi Viik has graduated from the department of photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2014 and continues her MA studies in the department of installation and sculpture. Viik has taken additional courses in Bergen Academy of Art and Design in Norway. This is her second personal exhibition; the first one A Dialogue With Myself was held in Tallinn City Theatre gallery in 2012. Sohvi Viik has participated in several group and co-exhibitions (including Folk Psychedelics with Urmas Viik and Anna Viik, Tallinn Art Hall gallery, 2015 and Rituals on Conditions of Clarity, curated by Tarvo Hanno Varres, ISFAG gallery, 2014).

14.03.- 02.04.

KASPAR TAMSALU

Out of Sync

14.03.- 02.04.

KASPAR TAMSALU

Out of Sync

26.04.- 14.05.

SIGRID VIIR

Awful Pretty Pipe Neck

26.04.- 14.05.

SIGRID VIIR

Awful Pretty Pipe Neck

Sigrid Viir (1979) personal exhibition Awful Pretty Pipe Neck will be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, April 26th, 2016.

Turn on the light.
Theories are buildings and sometimes they fall apart,
ideas are plants and they come to fruition,
mountain is a person who you could conquer,
anger is heat and fear is cold,
understanding is seeing, and seeing is touching,
problems are constructed objects that you could take apart, piece by piece,
time is money
you make my blood boil
see what I mean.*

*based on „Metaphors We Live By“ by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

The focus of the current exhibition Awful Pretty Pipe Neck lies in applying the concept of catachresis to serve visual material. Catachresis is the clash of two metaphors, deliberate error for emphasizing something where contradictory notions are juxtaposed while ignoring the common use of the word. It is a strange, unusual, foreign comparison or association between two completely different things.
Metaphors play an important part in what is real for us. It is not only a rhetoric technique but a trope that influences reality and daily behavior.
The meaning of words is not related to their similarity with the world. A photograph should be rather viewed as an independent object than a representation. Awful Pretty Pipe Neck is a curious, arbitrary way to tell stories that are almost half-long, to change the direction of ready-made objects depending on the position between the objects and on whose eyes are looking at them.

Sigrid Viir

Sigrid Viir has graduated from the department of photography at Estonian Academy of Arts. Besides solo projects Viir is also an active member of the artist grouping Visible Solutions PLC that participated in Manifesta 9, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art held in Genk, Belgium. As an artist, Sigrid Viir is intrigued by social agreements, moral norms and rules that serve as implicit „tools of everyday life“, used for functioning in society; however, we often do not notice the tools since they are integrated too well. In her work, Viir combines the elements of photography, installation and video. She was nominated for Köler Art Prize in 2011; in 2013, Viir was awarded the annual art prize by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibition will be open until May 14, 2016.

Thanks to: Villem Säre, Kristiina Hansen, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Marco Laimre, Meelis Pääbo, Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Sigrid Viir Sigrid Viir has graduated from the department of photography at Estonian Academy of Arts. Besides solo projects Viir is also an active member of the artist grouping Visible Solutions PLC that participated in Manifesta 9, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art held in Genk, Belgium. As an artist, Sigrid Viir is intrigued by social agreements, moral norms and rules that serve as implicit „tools of everyday life“, used for functioning in society; however, we often do not notice the tools since they are integrated too well. In her work, Viir combines the elements of photography, installation and video. She was nominated for Köler Art Prize in 2011; in 2013, Viir was awarded the annual art prize by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

16.05.- 04.06.

GUDRUN HEAMäGI

All that is now land was once the sky

16.05.- 04.06.

GUDRUN HEAMäGI

All that is now land was once the sky

09.06.- 25.06.

ANU VAHTRA

A Fact in Sapace. After Exhibitions

09.06.- 25.06.

ANU VAHTRA

A Fact in Sapace. After Exhibitions

27.06.- 16.07.

JAAN ELKEN

Reply all

27.06.- 16.07.

JAAN ELKEN

Reply all

Jaan Elken (1954) will open his personal exhibition Reply all in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, June 27, 2016.

Jaan Elken: Abstract art has an unlimited potential for narratives – text fragments become inundated in a labyrinth of lines and brush strokes. One could view this as an attempt to articulate concept and imagery in their primal form or even a meditation process – proceeding from complexity towards increased simplicity. The connotations and emotions that are created in individual viewers are an unknown for me; at the same time, the temporal ambivalence of painting fascinates me, I know for sure that the effort does not disappear in a black hole, this tension is recorded some place. Reaching towards an undefined public, “reply to all” becomes a way of multiple responses and translations among the viewers, with their individual life stories as a premise.

Some aspects in my paintings are anyhow muted, others become accentuated to the extreme, sometimes even overpolished, this subjectivity is a virtue of abstract art. Viewing both text and visual imagery engages the viewer through multiple sensory processes – as a viewer and as a narrator.

The exhibition for me is a cumulative signpost – the specific tone of the narrative becomes a reality in the exhibition hall, even as the paintings also involve a more purposeful and even architectonic zest. In this construction work I engage with humanity as the main building block, where acrylic paint becomes a form of breathing; warmth becomes a catalyst for documenting expressions. All my exhibitions are personal, perhaps a result of the chosen medium, making everything public. Perhaps this is what distinguishes an artist from everyone else.

Jaan Elken is a painter, art critic, curator, and art teacher. He started his artist career with hyper-realistic paintings in 1970s and has become one of the most significant abstract painters in Estonian art. Elken has held more than 60 personal exhibitions, including in Adamson-Eric Museum (2000), Tallinn Art Hall (2005), Tartu Art Museum (2005), in Berlin, Kiev, Kotka, Uppsala, Turku, Riga etc. His works belong to the art collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, Museum of Tartu University, Tallinn Art Hall, Viinistu Art Museum, Tretyakov Gallery, Norton Dodge Collection / Zimmerli Art Museum, European Parliament, CAM – Casoria Contemporary Art Museum and many other collections around the world. He has published more than 200 writings on art and arts policy. Elken has been the head of Estonian Painters’ Union (1995-1999) and the president of Estonian Artists’ Association (1999-2013). Since 1997 works as a professor in the department of painting at the University of Tartu.

Exhibition will be open until July 16, 2016.

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Artists’ Association.

Jaan Elken is a painter, art critic, curator, and art teacher. He started his artist career with hyper-realistic paintings in 1970s and has become one of the most significant abstract painters in Estonian art. Elken has held more than 60 personal exhibitions, including in Adamson-Eric Museum (2000), Tallinn Art Hall (2005), Tartu Art Museum (2005), in Berlin, Kiev, Kotka, Uppsala, Turku, Riga etc. His works belong to the art collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, Museum of Tartu University, Tallinn Art Hall, Viinistu Art Museum, Tretyakov Gallery, Norton Dodge Collection / Zimmerli Art Museum, European Parliament, CAM - Casoria Contemporary Art Museum and many other collections around the world. He has published more than 200 writings on art and arts policy. Elken has been the head of Estonian Painters' Union (1995-1999) and the president of Estonian Artists' Association (1999-2013). Since 1997 works as a professor in the department of painting at the University of Tartu. www.jaanelken.com

18.07.- 06.08.

ADO LILL

From the corner of an eye

18.07.- 06.08.

ADO LILL

From the corner of an eye

Ado Lill (1932) will open his personal exhibition From the corner of an eye in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday, July 18, 2016.

Current exhibition mostly includes nude paintings completed in 2016; only one painting out of eight has been completed in 2014. In the freshly published catalogue „Paintings 2008-2015“ of Ado Lill’s work, art critic and art historian Eero Kangor states the following:

In feminist art writing, erotic female nudes have been considered an unabashedly modernist and phallocentric genre, aimed at displaying the female body as an object of admiration of heterosexual men, and attuning it into an exclusive item of luxury. The principal clientele of nude paintings were traditionally the wealthy bourgeoisie, who could afford sensual pictures in so called high styles. No doubt most of Ado Lill’s female nudes will end up on the bedroom walls of male art lovers, although his paintings are untraditional in several senses. Lill has been fascinated with the more intimate works of the 19thcentury painters of nudes, mainly drawings, sketches and drafts. Another source of inspiration has been the poetry of Pierre Louÿs, active at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, where lesbian love is often celebrated.

The main feature of Ado Lill’s paintings has always been his remarkable treatment of colour. He can produce color harmonies that are surprising, but at the same time that seem the only possible solutions. Although Lill’s paintings reveal highly-calculated choices in creating contrasts or blending pastel shades, enough space has been left to chance. Painting over earlier layers can sometimes yield results that amaze even the artist himself. It should be emphasised that Lill has never produced any monochrome paintings and has always preferred bright colours. Since the second part of the 2000s, Lill has been used even brighter neon-acrylic paints, which enabled him to produce pulsating and intense contrasts. This kind of colour combination has a symbolic meaning and an erotic undertone.

Lill prefers more girlish models whose feminine side is not yet fully developed. The chosen postures, however, are the work of the models themselves, without an exception. Allowing free reins to the models’ imagination, the artist can better delve into their psychology. However, Lill’s drawings are certainly not portraits – the body comes first, plus psychology displayed in the pose, and not the individuality seen in the facial expression. Ado Lill’s treatment of figure moves somewhat away from nature and almost a bit primitive. Such treatment is certainly intentional, reflecting a wish to relate to the tradition of painting and at the same time making it possible to find a position that would differ from the mainstream nude painting.

Exhibition will be open until August 6, 2016.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Ado Lill has graduated from the faculty of law at the University of Tartu but since 1970s has been actively practising art as a painter and a graphic artist. Having focused on abstract expressionism in painting for decades, Ado Lill has been mainly painting nudes since early 2000s. The artist has held more than thirty personal exhibitions and he has participated in numerous group exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. Ado Lill's work has been awarded with Sadolin Art Prize (2006), annual art award of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2000) and Kristjan Raud Art Award (1995). His works belong to the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, Jane Voorhaes Zimmerl Art Museum, Tartu Art Museum, Tallinn Art Hall, Estonian Bank and others.

09.08.- 27.08.

LEONHARD LAPIN

Temples. Rituals

09.08.- 27.08.

LEONHARD LAPIN

Temples. Rituals

Leonhard Lapin (1947) will open his 100th personal exhibition Temples. Rituals in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Tuesday, August 9, 2016.

The artist exhibits his new work from the series „Temples“ and „Rituals“.

Temples are architectonic objects – created from various materials. The concept of „architecton“ was introduced by Russian avant-garde artist of Ukraine origin, Kazimir Malevich, and Lapin was the one to bring up the concept into Estonian culture in early 1970s. Malevich’s spatial objects from his early artist career that he called „temples“ among his friends in 1920s were neither sculptures nor architectural maquettes – these were rather ideas of spatial thinking with the background of Malevich’s original philosophy of Suprematism, disregarding the world of objects and Capitalist mode of production, with the main objective of leaving the Earth and turning the human into a spiritual being. Malevich was an anarchist.

Lapin has been among the one of the most consistent followers of Malevich in the world; during the last decade his dedication has been more intellectual than based on form. Lapin’s temples-architectons are objects created of various materials and things; the artist started with this process in 1975 and since then he has made both small and large architectons, including the Freedom Clock in Vabaduse Square, Tallinn (completed in 2003 in collaboration with Kristel Jaanus). Architectons have been the main architectural work by Lapin during the last decade: he has completed more than hundred objects by now.

Rituals are Lapin’s new paintings, created of different materials and objects. In ancient times rituals had much deeper meaning in people’s daily lives than they have today, not to mention the special days. Lapin uses objects and materials that have once been inseparable companions of man’s daily life yet today these would be gone. New things keep coming into our lives that makes us throw away old ones. After all, every object has been created by a human being since being worth of consecration in new rituals that bring depth into man’s life. Depth is an important way of being in spiritual life – something thoroughly personal, intimate and exceeding mental borders, in a way even crazy. Yet, artificial nature, including its new developmental phase called „technobia“, is an inextricable part of living nature. Thus, Lapin synthesizes these two different worlds in his paintings – contemporary man has no other choice than to adjust to the changes of the new world. With the help of rituals men can re-establish their connection with their Creator.

Exhibition will be open until August 27, 2016.

For the current exhibition, the artist has been supported by the Estonian Association of Architects and Architectural Endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Leonhard Lapin is undoubtedly one of the most influential and multi-talented artist of the post-war period in Estonia – as an artist, writer and an architect. Lapin has also staged theatrical plays, performances, and is among the founders of Estonian happening art. He started his artist career in 1960s while quickly becoming one of the leading avant-garde artist, organizer and theoretician. His graphic art has drawn international attention. Lapin has been a productive architect and architectural theoretician. His work belongs to the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, Museum of Estonian Architecture, Estonian Bank, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Bridgestone Art Museum (Japan), Cooremans Institute (Brussels, Netherlands), Zimmerli Art Museum (New Jersey, USA) and others. Lapin has been awarded with the Prize of Ljubljana Printmaking Biennial (1973), Prize of Tokyo Printmaking Biennial (1974), Kristjan Raud Art Award (1989) and the Cultural Prize of the Republic of Estonia (1997). In 2001, Lapin was bestowed the Order of the White Star of the Republic of Estonia.

29.08.- 17.09.

ENN PõLDROOS

Electric shock from fondling a cat

29.08.- 17.09.

ENN PõLDROOS

Electric shock from fondling a cat

Enn Põldroos (1933) will open his personal exhibition Electric shock from fondling a cat in Draakon gallery on Monday at 5pm, August 28th, 2016. Exhibition will be open until September 17, 2016.

Enn Põldroos:
„Why a cat, fondling and the electric shock?
We can enjoy pain only if it is sufficiently weak and does not last long. If not lethal, a strong makes one angry. A vaguely felt static snap (like from fondling a cat) may lead us to an excited state for a moment, which drops the curtains and creates an illusion that we have grasped the tangibility. Or perhaps we have been?
It is such moments that I have tried to collect. Cats and electricity are not always required for that end.“

Enn Põldroos has been a diverse Estonian artist since late 1950s when he started to innovate the essence of Estonian art of painting. In his modernistic painting experience he has characteristically combined the personal with the social while finding possibilities for original treatment of a subject. Põldroos is also known as a talented writer in Estonia. He has also been a member of the first Parliament of the Republic of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Enn Põldroos studied painting at the Estonian State Art Institute in 1952-1958. In 1961-1966 he worked as a lecturer in Tallinn Pedagogical Institute and at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1973-1985 and in 1994-1995. In 1985-1989 and in 1995-1998 Põldroos was the head of the Estonian Artists' Association. Since 1998 he has been a freelance writer. He has gained popularity with his books especially in 2000s; in 2002 he was awarded the third prize of Estonian novel competition with his book „Joonik kivi“. Põldroos has won several art awards – for instance the award of Vilnius Painting Triennial in 1969 and 1975; Kristjan Raud Art Award in 1973, 1983 and 1986; USSR state art award in 1987. In 2002, the artist was bestowed the 4th class of the order of the national coat of arms and in 2006 the 3rd class of the order of the national coat of arms.

19.09.- 08.10.

MARIA VALDMA

Off

19.09.- 08.10.

MARIA VALDMA

Off

Maria Valdma (1973) will open her personal exhibition Off in Draakon gallery at 5pm on Monday on September 19, 2016.

The door was locked and that was it. The key was left to its regular place,
the hallway, next to the fridge.
One could have thrown them into a container nearby.
I forgot about the asparagus and the fern. For a moment I even felt sorry.
I sneaked back to the yard in the dark. In a hurry I tore off all peony blossoms. All of them.
(March 2014)

Maria Valdma studies space and its memory at her present exhibition. Her latest jewellery series focuses on mapping fictive meetings and situations. Random or selected figures removed from their initial context form new territories – either future worlds or utopias. Their „self“ has been stolen from them, their identity is deformed and put into a new situation. Their gender, nationality and position have been transformed – through fire they have become more equal.

Materials of jewellery: burned wood, concrete, paint, silver.

Exhibition will be open until October 8, 2016.

Thank you: Jaana Jüris, Berit Teeäär, Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Kaire Rannik, Andres Ansper, Mihkel Säre, Johannes Valdma, Lauri Laasik, Tuuli Aule, Hans-Otto Ojaste, Allar Esko, Aurelia Minev, Mattias Valdma, Marek and Voldemar.
Graphic design: Tuuli Aule.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Maria Valdma has obtained MA degree in the department of metal art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2000. She has participated in exhibitions since 1994. Besides having taken part in numerous group exhibitions in Estonia and abroad, Valdma has held four personal exhibitions, recently in A-Gallery (Tallinn, Estonia) in 2014. Whereas mostly known for her poetical treatments of space and objects, Maria Valdma has also created several socially sensitive pieces. She was a member of the artist group F.F.F.F. in 1996-2005; for this, she was also granted the Annual Prize of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in 2002. Valdma's work has been awarded with the annual prize of A-Gallery in 2009. Her work belongs to the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia and Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, also to private collections in Finland, USA and Estonia. www.mariavaldma.com

11.10.- 29.10.

HANNA PIKSARV

Hats for Life

11.10.- 29.10.

HANNA PIKSARV

Hats for Life

Hanna Piksarv‘s (1989) personal exhibition Hats for Life will be open in Draakon gallery from Tuesday, October 11, 2016.

The artist comments her present exhibition as follows: „There is headwear at the exhibition – hats, scarves, shawls. Hat as perhaps one of the most human garments that facilitates us to acquire roles, to show who we are, to communicate with others as well as with oneself. Inside of my headwear items there are motivational ideas that have haunted me as being a member of today’s information society full of wisdom of life. The sentences that help you to move on, to keep going and if lucky they will bring you to happiness. The flow of inspirational posters, life hack lists, wisdom of life and truths has become endless. Thus, it is possible to find support both to your convictions and whims at every moment. Motivational sentences are not shared by thinking nor by ritual activities such as praying, one does not even has to say it out loud any more – all you have to do is to „click“. In order to escape this mess I was looking for a more peaceful and effective way to arrange my thoughts and emotions. Embroidering is for me the first step in order to bring the haunting thought, prayer or consolation into life. This way, the headwear will get an extra function.“

Exhibition will be open until October 29, 2016.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Hanna Piksarv has obtained MA degree in the department of installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has also studied in Georg Ritter Studio in Austria and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under the Leonardo da Vinci Programme. Piksarv has participated in exhibitions since 2009. In 2016, Piksarv's work could be seen at the main exhibition of „Kilometre of Sculpture“ (kmS) in Rakvere; at „Terra Incognita. Familiar Infinity“ in the inner yard of Kumu Art Museum; and at the curatorial exhibition „Women Amongst Themselves“ by the Estonian Artists' Association in the Tallinn Art Hall Gallery. Her previous personal exhibition „Wood and Good“ was held in the Monumental Gallery of Tartu Art House in 2014. Hanna Piksarv has been awarded the Young Sculptor Prize (2012), FIDEM Young Artist Scholarship (2012) and Eduard Wiiralt Grant (2014).

31.10.- 19.11.

MARIA SIDLJAREVITš

Confucius hair

31.10.- 19.11.

MARIA SIDLJAREVITš

Confucius hair

Maria Sidljarevitš (1982) will open her personal exhibition Confucius hair in Draakon gallery at 5pm on October 31st, 2016.

[—]
The great square has no corners
…the great tone makes only a tiny sound,
the great image has no form.

[—]
Hold the great image in your hand
and the whole world comes to you.

Laozi / Francois Jullien

Maria Sidljarevitš comments on her present exhibition: „The attempt to express one’s ideas and thoughts in an understandable and accessible form is one of the most important aspects in our life. Attaching linguistic form to an idea or a thought makes the transfer complicated since every word is a concept that everybody has different associations with. I am intrigued as an artist by forwarding my ideas and thoughts with their initial content and meaning. How to relate to an object the way the viewer would perceive it as an abstract form, irrespective of his or her personal associations and not giving it either positive or negative evaluation? In my paintings I depict various objects and images as part a composition the way they also express in real life, serving as small parts of a big system. There are no such concepts as „good“ or „bad“ for the universe – every phenomenon of life is just a part of it. My purpose is to achieve the state of understanding in painting that makes it possible to become completely free from judgement.“

Exhibition will be open until November 19, 2016.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Special thanks to: Aleksei Sidljarevitš, Aleksander Litvinov and Michel Blumer.

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Maria Sidljarevitš has obtained MA degree in painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2014. The artist studied the subject of personal memory while reviving images from the past in her naivistic-expressionistic way as seen at her personal exhibition „You broke my life“ held in Tallinn City Gallery in 2014. She has participated in exhibitions since 2008, is a member of the Estonian Artists' Association and the chairwoman of the board of Estonian Painters' Association.

22.11.- 10.12.

RENE REINUMäE

Morning in a Four Room Apartment

22.11.- 10.12.

RENE REINUMäE

Morning in a Four Room Apartment

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