EKA Gallery

Contemporary Drawing: Worlding in Layers
Triin Anijalg, Maria Hindreko, Sander Karjus, Kassandra Laur, Rebecca Norman, Helena Pass, Mia Rulli, Nana Schilf, Sirel Tammisto
Curator and supervisor: Britta Benno
23.05–17.06.2023
Opening: 22.05 kell 17.00

Join us for the opening of the exhibition “Contemporary Drawing: Worlding in Layers” on May 22 at 5 pm at EKA Gallery!

The openness and liminality, being in between, on the threshold, of drawing contain the immense potential of transformation, the inherent non-being and hybridisation. Becoming something or somebody feels like flowing or writing: it is a place that requires common construction; it is a time which does not flow in a linear manner. Instead of being complete, there is becoming, the endless unrolling of materials and gestures, limitless potential. The technical processes of making art are very similar to the descriptions of the becoming of a Land(scape). When printing, painting, drawing or building installations, one is adding new layers of traces from materials, colours, (conceptual) motions and other means of depiction to a base structure. In printing, one uses different methods and mechanisms of transfer to create imagery. When drawing directly onto the canvas or on paper, a new layer is created with a pencil or the tip of a brush leaving its trace. Sometimes, however, the layers are also removed: erased, washed off with water or by tearing the textile into shreds.[2]

The exhibition displays the works of students, which were completed as part of the elective course. The aim of the course was a critical analysis or rethinking of contemporary drawing art by looking at various examples, reading texts and experimental tasks. The use of the layered work method applied in the art practice of the participants: the layered combination of experimental materials and forms in the art of drawing.

[1] Britta Benno, Saamisest maa(stiku)ks. Materjalid, teadus, utoopia. ­– Leida, 25.11.22 (https://leida.artun.ee/et/issues/tehnokriitika/saamisest-maa-stiku-ks-materjalid-teadus-utoopia vaadatud: 09.05.23).

[2] Britta Benno maa, Of Becoming a Land(Scape). Material, Science, Utopia. ­– Leida, 25.11.22 (https://leida.artun.ee/en/issues/technocriticism/of-becoming-a-land-scape-material-science-utopia accessed: 09.05.23).

May brings an opportunity to experience, in an exhibition format, works produced by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts as their term projects: every day there will be a fresh crop of university students’ works on display in the gallery.

Works in contemporary art, prints, installation, sculpture and painting curricula will be on display. On each morning of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the evening the exhibit will give way to the next one. Hopefully, viewers will be able to keep up with the pace of the young artists.

SCHEDULE

02.05. Painting, supervisors Merike Estna, Alice Kask, Kristi Kongi, Holger Loodus
03.05. Photography, supervisor Madis Kurss
04.05. Drawing, supervisors Maiu Rõõmus, Matti Pärk
05.05. Drawing, supervisors Tõnis Saadoja
08.05. Drawing, supervisor Ulvi Haagensen
9.05. Drawing, supervisor Lilli-Krõõt Repnau
10.05. Drawing, supervisor Tõnis Saadoja
11.05. Graphic Art, supervisors Charlotte Biszewski, Eve Kask, Rene Haljasmäe, Viktor Gurov
12.05. Graphic Art, supervisors Kadi Kurema, Maria Erikson, Charlotte Biszewski, Britta Benno
15.05. Photography, supervisors Marge Monko, Paul Kuimet
16.—17.05. Scenography, supervisors Ene-Liis Semper, Mark Raidpere
18.—19.05. Contemporary Art, supervisors Marge Monko, Kirke Kangro, Merike Estna, Taavi Talve, Anu Vahtra, John Grzinich, Paul Kuimet, Taavi Piibemann, Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Eve Kask, David K. Ross

Vaim Sarv Live Performance @ Entropy Gauntlet (EKA Gallery) on Friday, April 14, 7 pm.

As part of the programming for the Entropy Gauntlet group exhibition, performance artist and experimental musician Vaim Sarv (EE/USA) will be playing free, using voice and electronics to respond to the exhibition themes revolving around the porousness of post-western notions of national identity and it’s haunted histories.

Free admission!

Entropy Gauntlet
Zody Burke, Taylor “Tex” Tehan, Joonas Timmi, Lauri Raus April 6 – April 28, 2023
Opening: April 6, 6pm–9pm

“There is nothing more mysterious than a TV set left on in an empty room … Suddenly the TV reveals itself for what it really is: a video of another world, ultimately addressed to no one at all, delivering its images indifferently, indifferent to its own messages. You can easily imagine it still functioning after humanity has disappeared.”

— Jean Baudrillard, America

Entropy Gauntlet invites you to pass a threshold into a transmutation of space. Inspired by wide-eyed summer night visits to amusement parks and roadside motels, laden with the nostalgia of childhood & playing with the expectations generated by the psychogeography of such spaces, the exhibition leads viewers to contemplate the tension between fantasies of the world we’ve inherited versus the reality of a warming planet.

Solastalgia, a concept which describes a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change, presents itself materially through an amalgam of works and artifacts set inside a narrative. Within the Entropy Gauntlet is a contemporary apologue; using architecture as archetype, exploring the porousness of post-western notions of national identity and its haunted histories. Here, utopia and dystopia become uneven categories in the realm of the anthropocene.

In the tradition of transformative environmental-architectural works such as Gregor Schneider’s “Totes Haus u r” and Jonah Freeman’s “Hello Meth Lab in the Sun”, and hearkening to Robert Ashley’s operatic compositions of late capitalist melancholia, the Entropy Gauntlet manifests as a linear series of archaeological sites undergoing perpetual excavation. It is a narrative of motion and placelessness tropifying the notion that invisible, emotional environs can be injected into the visible sphere to create a sense of longing, dread, and even abject horror.

A note from the artists…

The roadside motel is a ubiquitous feature upon the sprawling face of the continental USA, but it is entirely absent in Estonia. It is taken for granted as a place where small tragedies may or may not occur. It is a location for repressed emotions to manifest due to its invisible status, despite its ubiquity in the flyover states. Within the Entropy Gauntlet, our aim is to engage with the surreality that permeates the line where memory and history interact, in an unexpected location in Tallinn; creating a hauntological simulacrum of a space that exists between destinations. The poetic transmutations of culture that occur when countries on opposite sides of the globe mirror and refract one another are acutely fertile terrain for our work.

The fact that the USA exists partially as a fantasy informed by media is intrinsic to our concept. Two out of four of us are American; despite this, the two of us have experienced our home country in ways that run contradictory to the America that exists in the imagination of the cultural status quo. The other two of us are Estonian and have spent a considerable amount of time formulating fantasies about America & weighing these fantasies against facts. To honestly engage with the USA is to deal with omnipresent shadows that resist truth & dominate the country’s emotional cartography, and with an endless deluge of popular fantasies that provide alternative images to the USA that exists.

Artist Bios:

With an eye towards the complicated nature of inherent and enforced structures, American multidisciplinary artist Zody Burke criticizes the absurdity of late capitalism and the mythologies and archetypes it generates, while leaving a liminal space for larger ways of being together.
Working with sculpture, illustration, sound, and other media, Burke has sought to establish that societal concepts of identity, symbolism, brutality and hierarchy are as tenuous as we see to craft them, and yet they paradoxically shape practically every facet of our lives.

Taylor “Tex” Tehan is an M.A. Graphic Design student from the United States and an interdisciplinary practitioner. Working with textiles, sound, metal, wood and film, his work is influenced by the landscape, nostalgia, speculative futures, mythology and romanticism of the American West. Previously working in the fashion industry, Tehan has worked as a designer for various brands, including a recent traineeship on the Menswear Design Team at Louis Vuitton in Paris. His interests meet at the cross section of fashion, music, contemporary art, film and graphic design, with a strong emphasis on experiential-environmental themes.

Joonas Timmi is an Estonian artist & designer who explores the contemporary identity of craftsmanship by combining traditional woodworking techniques with VR-modeling, 3D-printing and CNC-milling. In his work, he expresses the relations between functionality and sentimentality in objects using furniture as the main medium. Each piece aims to be a somewhat functional artifact with an emphasis on biomorphic form with anthropomorphic charisma. A recent work, “Traction” chair, was exhibited in the exhibition “Present Yet-to-Be” (Tallinn, Hobusepea gallery) in January 2022. The installation combined meandering forms of plywood with textile to create throne-like structure, inspired by the idea of alternate realities.

Lauri Raus is an Estonian songwriter & guitarist, most notable for his work in contemporary country/shoegaze ensemble Holy Motors. Through his work, he engages with western musical tropes from a distance, transfiguring his own interpretation of Americana into something subtly different and altogether unique. His band is signed to New York-based indie label Wharf Cat which has enabled him to tour the USA, allowing him to rupture, expand, and transform his relationship with the musical tradition he uses as a foundation for his art. He studies anthropology at Tallinn University.

Don’t cross their boundaries!
17.03-25.08.2023
Opening: 17.03, 4 pm at EKA lobby
EKA Billboard Gallery, Kotzebue 1

Participating artists:
Kristiina Aarna, Karola Ainsar, Katharina Grepp, Kärt Heinvere, Annika Hint & Irmeli Terras, Maria Kapajeva, Sanna Kartau, Hanna Eliise Kask, Karis Kivi, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar, Annemarie Maasik, Marlene, Susanna Mildeberg, Katariin Mudist, Enn Nazarov, Liisa Niit, Katerina Rothberg, Pamela Samel, Tiina Sööt, Daria Titova, Kadi Viik, Laura Vilbiks

Feministeerium and EKA Gallery invite you to the exhibition “Don’t cross their boundaries!” opening on March 17 at 4 pm in the EKA lobby!

72% of Estonian university students have experienced sexual or gender-based harassment at least once. The most common types of harassment that the students have experienced are stereotyping remarks, sexually suggestive language, ambivalent jokes and inappropriate staring.*

Everyone has the right to decide for themselves about their bodily integrity. However, how personal boundaries are established depends on the cultural norms and on the social contract, institutionalized in the form of civil laws. Any sexual relation must be based on the explicit free consent of all parties. Free consent means that the parties of a sexual relation can decide whether they want to continue or end it at any time, fully assured that their boundaries will be respected. Consideration of each other’s needs creates an emotionally safer space and is a step towards defying stereotypes that contribute to violence and inequality.

The 2017 Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, also ratified by Estonia, advocates for changing the definition of rape in the Penal Code, so it would be based on consensual sexual relations as the norm, while deviation from consent constitutes rape. Alongside the law, it is important to establish a popular understanding across the society that everyone has the right to physical and mental self-determination and integrity. 

For this exhibition, we have selected submitted artworks that address the principles of sexual consent culture and confront the problems created by stereotyping attitudes.

* Based on the 2020 Federation of Estonian Student Unions survey Gender and Sexual Harassment in Estonian Higher Education Institutions.

Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Active citizens fund

Beyond the Blue Yonder

Denisa Štefanigová in collaboration with Johanna Ruukholm and Marleen Suvi, curated by Yilin Ma.

16.02–16.03.2023
Opening: 16.02, 5 pm

In Štefanigová’s Beyond the Blue Yonder exhibition, humans are melting, becoming tides into other creatures to coexist together, in the same body. Culture historian Astrida Neimanis writes on ”Hydrofeminism; Or, On Becoming a Body of Water”, how the space between ourselves and our others are at once as distant as the primaeval sea, yet also closer than our skin. 

Current in Štefanigová’s practice, is the fluidity between human and nonhuman subjects, where no living being is separated nor untouched from others. Like water connecting us all and ensuring we are always in a state of becoming as it travels in our bodies, in Beyond the Blue Yonder Štefanigová’s works are blending into new boundaries. Through works especially made for the exhibition, Beyond the Blue Yonder studies the possibilities of fluidity and fusing into each other, very much like boundless water crashing into itself in our bodies. 

When looking at Štefanigová’s work through connections, you can see how they are formed and how unavoidably they reach out to every corner of our own private lives in good or in bad. Neimanis writes how “Despite the fact that we are all watery bodies, leaking into and sponging off of one another, we resist total dissolution, material annihilation. Or more aptly, we postpone it: ashes to ashes, water to water”; this is evident in Štefanigová’s work where water, air, or anything that bounds us together, works as a communicator between our bodies, connecting us and facilitates bodies into being. Doing so, it shows all the things from the past to the present. Our bodies are holding the past, and simultaneously are on the verge of the future. The space of constant becoming that is trying to find its own, but without the naivety of being born again. 

There is also something queer about the way Štefanigová’s approach to challenge boundaries between human and nonhuman, and everything that sets them apart socially and environmentally. As bell hooks writes ”queer as not who you’re having sex with, that can be a dimension of it, but queer as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to love”. 

Štefanigová’s technique holds water in an important role — from working with acrylics that water controls from how the water dries to the canvas, Štefanigová’s one line technique awakes something watery in the paintings; a reflection, that’s on a constant move. Installing these 31 pieces of paintings next to each other, Štefanigová is creating a wave that flows through the space. 

The exhibition consists of paintings and an installation by Denisa Štefanigová, as well as sculptures by Marleen Suvi. A limited amount of catalogues that examine the exhibition through a dialogue between the artists Denisa Štefanigová and the curator Yilin Ma is designed by Johanna Ruukholm. 

Denisa Štefanigová (she/her) (b.1995) is a Czech artist who mainly works in painting. She recently graduated from the Master’s Program in Contemporary Art at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). She also holds a bachelor’s degree from the Technical University, Faculty of Fine Arts (FaVU), during her studies she also attended the Faculty de Bellas Artes in Bilbao. In 2021, Štefanigová was one of the 15 finalists for the Young Painter Award for the Baltic countries. Her recent exhibitions include MO Museum, Vilnius, and Hobusepea, and Hoib Gallery, both in Tallinn. Her works are represented in the KogArt collection based in Hungary and in SYNLAB based in Tallinn. This year, she will have a solo exhibition in Tallinn, Prague, and then one group show with the Hungarian artist Asztrid Csatlós in Brno. 

Marleen Suvi (b. 1998) (she/her)has graduated from the department of painting in the faculty of fine art at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2020) and is currently acquiring a MA degree in the contemporary art program at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Marleen Suvi is examining the interwovenness between the body and the human soul. At the moment she is working with ideas such as whether it is possible to meet yourself, how to let go of your selfishness and what it means to depict yourself in a sexual way. Most of her works are autoportraits. While writing haikus, the artist contemplates empty phrases, which arise from subconsciousness that sometimes seems to belong to someone else. She prefers to work with oil on canvas and glass. Among her recently held exhibitions are ‘‘A Visitor’’ (Hobusepea Gallery, 2022) and ‘‘So That the Body Does not Forget’’ (Vent Space Project Room, 2021). 

Johanna Ruukholm (she/her) (b. 1996) is a graphic designer and artist. She is part of a design duo Jojo&me. Her graphic works vary from websites to illustrated visuals and she enjoys telling stories through characters in colourful and enigmatic worlds. Besides working with a computer and pencils, she creates ceramic sculptures and everyday objects under a brand called Nestworkers. She is also one of the curators of the club event series HoneyCombat, which takes place in Tallinn. 

Yilin Ma (they/them) (b.1995) is a Helsinki based curator and writer, who works in intersections of literature and visual culture with a focus on East-Asian queer diaspora narratives and queer- feminist way of understanding the spaces in between lyrical and material. Currently they are attending The Praxis Master’s Programme in Exhibition Studies at The University of Arts in Helsinki. 

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Estonian Academy of Arts

Opening drinks by Punch

Aleyna Canpolat, Andrea Gudiño, Alp Eren Özalp “Inside Me, Unveiling Us” at EKA Gallery on 17.01—09.02.2023

Opening: 17.01 at 4 pm

According to Andy Goldsworthy, we often forget, that we are nature. When we lose our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves. The authors of the exhibition Aleyna Canpolat, Andrea Gudiño, and Alp Eren Özalp come together from different sides of the world Turkey and Mexico and study at EKA in the Urban and Animation departments. In the exhibition “Inside Me, Unveiling Us” they are asking how do we perceive a place, where we feel belonging, that embraces us as who we truly are. Nature tends to create a common roof for foreigners and locals. There are no various borders, languages, or countries. Nature is the only entity, that seems to be embracing us fully.

The exhibition invites the participants to explore connection points between their own identity and nature through physical and audiovisual elements. Each element is a different mixture of textures, animated territories, and anonymous silhouettes. The exhibition provides a periphery for visitors to reflect on their own emotions through different organic elements, words of unpredictable wishes, and shadows of daydreams and ambiance.

Aleyna Canpolat (b.1998) is an architect and designer who is currently studying in the Estonian Academy of Arts in the Urban studies department. She graduated with a MA level in architecture from Yıldız Technical University in 2021. In her creative practice, she is focused on biophilic and sustainable design. Throughout her education, she has curated many exhibitions and group discussions with ‘Mimarlık Bunun Neresinde?’. She has won different awards in several competitions, that she has participated in. 

Andrea Gudiño (b.1993) is a Mexican director, animator, and photographer. Her work is based on the experimentation of mixed media animation techniques such as stop-motion, cut-out, rotoscope, and 2D. She is currently studying in the Estonian Academy of Arts animation MA program. 

Alp Eren Özalp (b.1997) is a Turkish architect and designer who is currently studying at the Estonian Academy of Arts in the urban studies department. He graduated from the architecture department at Yıldız Technical University in 2020. He has worked professionally on urban planning and architecture and was awarded for creating a smart village project, which was then built in Azerbaijan. For this, he developed a design and a way to use wooden products using wood carving techniques. 

The department of photography of the Estonian Academy of Arts presents a new publication Last Edit was Seconds Ago. BFO19 in EKA gallery at 18:00 on Thursday, December 8th, 2022.

The publication introduces the works of eleven BA students (BFO19) – Andra Junalainen,
Laura Ruuder, Ivor Lõõbas, Elo Vahtrik, Imbi Sõber, Meel Paliale, Markus Mikk, Joosep Kivimäe, Kertu Rannula, Jana Mätas, Laura Maala – who graduated from the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. The abbreviation BFO19 stands for the group of students who started their studies in the fall semester 2019.
The book includes a selection of images realized during their study period, exhibition views of graduation projects, short interviews with the students and an essay by Marge Monko, the professor of the department of photography.

The publication is designed by Alejandro Bellon Ample and Björn Giesecke who recently
obtained MA degree in the department of graphic design at EKA.

The discount price at the presentation will be 15 €, later 20 €.

Our gratitude goes to: Sean Yendrys, Laura Kuusk, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo
Supporters: Hartwall Estonia, Põhjala Brewery

December brings an opportunity to experience, in an exhibition format, works produced by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts as their term projects: every day there will be a fresh crop of university students’ works on display in the gallery.

Works in contemporary art, prints, installation, sculpture and painting curricula will be on display. On each morning of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the evening the exhibit will give way to the next one. Hopefully, viewers will be able to keep up with the pace of the young artists.

SCHEDULE

1.12. Drawing, supervisors Matti Pärk, Maiu Rõõmus

2.12. Drawing, supervisor Eero Alev

3.—4.12. Scenography, supervisor Mark Raidpere

5.12. Drawing, supervisors Tõnis Saadoja

6.12. Drawing, supervisor Britta Benno

7.12. Photography, supervisors Annika Haas, Kadri Otsiver

8.12. Photography, supervisor Taavi Piibemann

9.12. Photography, supervisor Kalle Veesaar

12.12. Graphic art, supervisors Liina Siib, Eve Kask, Maria Erikson, Len Murusalu, Martinus Daane Klemet, Viktor Gurov

13.12. Graphic art, supervisors Kadi Kurema, Mark Antonius Puhkan, Aarne Mesikäpp, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar

14.12. Painting, supervisors Tõnis Saadoja, Mart Vainre

15.12. Painting, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Mihkel Maripuu, Jaan Toomik

16.12. Painting, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Alice Kask, Mart Vainre

17.12. Sculpture and Installation, supervisors Taavi Talve, Laura Põld

19.—22.12. Contemporary Art, supervisors Anu Vahtra, Jaan Toomik, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, John Grzinich, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Marge Monko, Taavi Piibemann, Eve Kask, Maria Erikson, Kristi Kongi, Sirja-Liisa Eelma

Estonian Academy of Arts Museum exhibition:
A Child Thing. Children’s designs by students at EKA

21.10–29.11.2022 at EKA Gallery

Professional design for children is broadly a phenomenon of the last hundred years. The field of children’s design has became more significant in the Estonian Academy of Arts since 1970s. More and more attention has been payed on the actual needs, physical and mental characteristics of young people. From the aesthetic utility objects of the 20th century, design is increasingly moving towards solutions that engage children to develop their creativity.

Numerous established fashion, textile and leather artists, ceramicists, designers and interior architects in Estonia have worked with children’s designs during their student years. Besides the practical world of design, the exhibition also presents book illustrations, theatre costumes and animated films from the realm of fairy tales that stimulate children’s imagination.

The exhibition covers almost a century, starting with the rooster illustration for the ABC book from the State School of Arts and Crafts time and ending with interactive objects from the last decade. The exhibition is largely based on the historical collection of the Estonian Academy of Arts Museum. Most of the student design projects remained on paper. However, designers have generously contributed to the exhibition their items that were turned from ideas into real objects more recently. The signs of wear on some toys and therapeutic facilities testify that they have been enjoyed by children in hospitals, orphanages, libraries or playgrounds, thus serving their purpose.

Curators of the exhibition: Jelizaveta Sedler and Reeli Kõiv

Exhibition is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia