EKA Gallery

The winter assessment marathon is here! For three weeks, you can once again experience works produced by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts as their term projects are presented: every day there will be a fresh showcase of university students’ works on display.

Works in animation, contemporary art, installation and sculpture, painting, photography, graphic art and scenography curricula will be on display. On almost each evening of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the following 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.

The assessments will take place in the main building of EKA Gallery (Kotzebue 1, Tallinn) and the new EKA monumental studio (1st floor of Kotzebue 1, Tallinn).

On the assessment day(s), the exhibitions are open from 2 pm to 6 pm, on Sundays the exhibitions are open from 12 pm to 4 pm.

SCHEDULE

Mon 1.12. Drawing, Fine Arts BA I, supervisor Matti Pärk (EKA Gallery)
Tue 2.12. Drawing, Fine Arts BA II, supervisor Eero Alev (EKA Gallery)
Wed 3.12. Drawing, Fine Arts BA III, supervisor Tea Lemberpuu (EKA Gallery)
Thu 4.12. Sculpture, Fine Arts BA I, supervisors Laura Põld, Taavi Talve (EKA Gallery)
Thu 4.12. – Fri 5.12. Scenography BA III, supervisor  Mark Raidpere (Kotzebue 10)
Fri 5.12. – Sat 6.12. Contemporary Art MA I & II, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Merike Estna, Viktor Gurov, Tuukka Kaila, Eve Kask, Kristi Kongi, Karel Koplimets, Paul Kuimet, Camille Laurelli, Holger Loodus, Laura Põld, Sten Saarits, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, Jaan Toomik, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (EKA Gallery)
Sun 7.12. – Mon 8.12. Contemporary Art MA I & II, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Merike Estna, Viktor Gurov, Tuukka Kaila, Eve Kask, Kristi Kongi, Karel Koplimets, Paul Kuimet, Camille Laurelli, Holger Loodus, Laura Põld, Sten Saarits, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, Jaan Toomik, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (EKA Gallery & Kotzebue 10)
Tue 9.12. Contemporary Art MA I & II, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Merike Estna, Viktor Gurov, Tuukka Kaila, Eve Kask, Kristi Kongi, Karel Koplimets, Paul Kuimet, Camille Laurelli, Holger Loodus, Laura Põld, Sten Saarits, Liina Siib, Taavi Talve, Jaan Toomik, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (EKA Gallery & Kotzebue 10)
Wed 10.12. Painting, Fine Arts BA I, supervisors Karl-Kristjan Nagel, Tõnis Saadoja (EKA Gallery)
Thu 11.12. Graphic Art, Fine Arts BA II & III, supervisors Britta Benno, Charlotte Biszewski, Liisi Grünberg, Viktor Gurov, Eve Kask, Liina Siib (EKA Gallery)
Thu 11.12. Graphic Art, Fine Arts BA II & III, supervisors Charlotte Biszewski, Viktor Gurov,Eve Kaaret, Madis Kaasik, Eve Kask, Pawel Schulz (Kotzebue 10)
Fri 12.12. Graphic Art, Fine Arts BA II & III, supervisors Kadi Kurema, Marten Prei, Paul Rannik (EKA Gallery)
Sat 13.12. Drawing, animation BA I & photography BA II, supervisor Lilli-Krõõt Repnau (EKA Gallery)
Sun 14.12. – Mon 15.12. Photography BA I, supervisor Annika Haas (EKA Gallery)
Tue 16.12. Painting, Fine Arts BA III, supervisors Angela Maasalu, Jaan Toomik, Mart Vainre (EKA Gallery)
Tue 16.12. Photography, BA II, supervisor Kalle Veesaar (Kotzebue 10)
Wed 17.12. Painting, Fine Arts BA II, supervisors Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Holger Loodus, Tõnis Saadoja (EKA Gallery)
Thu 18.12. Animation BA I, supervisor Lilli-Krõõt Repnau (EKA Gallery)

COMPOSE◠DECOMPOSE
EKA Gallery 31.10.–30.11.2025
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm
Opening: Thursday, October 30 at 6 pm
Performance by Albertina Tevajärvi: Thursday, October 30 at 6.30 pm
Tour guided by the curators and artists: Friday, October 31 at 5 pm

The exhibition “compose◠decompose” submerges deep into a cyclical narrative of growth, decay, and renewal. Through the works of thirteen artists, the exhibition traces along the fragile balance of care and control.

The exhibition brings to light the hidden and often overlooked elements of our ecosystem— microscopic creatures, plant matter and organic systems that thrive beneath the surface of our mundane. Here Composition and decomposition do not appear as opposites, but rather as entangled acts of shaping and unshaping, of tending and of letting go.

The participating artists work with various ways to either mimic- or closely collaborate with the processes of the natural world. In this exhibition the artists dream about composing and decomposing. They dream about listening to, remembering and reimagining narratives that collaborate with insects, animals, plants, and microorganisms.

Participating artists: Alexis Brancaz, Albertina Tevajärvi, Alma Bektas, Augustas Lapinskas & Ditiya Ferdous, Freyja Tralla & Kassandra Laur, Janne Schipper & Andreas Andersen, Johanna Rotko, Julie Sjöfn Gasiglia, Kamilė Pikelytė, Paula Zvane
Curated by artists Inessa Saarits and Victoria Björk
Graphic design: Daria Titova
Technical support: Karel Koplimets and Karmo Migur
Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Icelandic Visual Arts Fund, Sadolin Estonia and Tallinn City.
Opening drinks from mirai™ and Põhjala Brewery.

Download the leaflet here.

“Carmen Electra” – like a bolt from the blue!

 

On October 24 at 7 pm, the band ants1 will premiere their musical “Carmen Electra” at EKA Gallery. The act combines contemporary dance, colorful costumes, disturbing music, and scandalous statements into its magical world. The libretto was collaboratively written by members of ants1, with the lead role performed by the eternally young and immortal Anumai Raska.

 

“Carmen Electra explores themes that feel both familiar and melancholic to a generation coming of age in a time when Europe is once again at war. It is a time when leaders of great nations won’t acknowledge climate change, when carrots cost more in Estonian grocery stores than in Belgium – even though the average income here is three times lower,” says a rabbit who wished to remain anonymous, commenting on the background of the production. “What will become of us like this?”

 

The band ants1 is a collective that emerged from the Estonian Academy of Arts, whose members work in various fields of contemporary art. When they come together, the collective is called ants1, whose music connects contemporary social problems with the painful yet fun language of punk music.

 

The musical “Carmen Electra” is not recommended for children under 12.

 

Performers: Ekke Janisk, Ats Kruusing, Andreas Kübar, Eke Ao Nettan, Anumai Raska, Henri Särekanno, Mattias Veller

Costumes by: Lisette Sivard

Light design by: Leon Allik

Sound design by: Roman Belov

Co-producer: elektron.art

Supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment, City of Tallinn

 

Performances will take place on October 24, 25 and 26 at the EKA Gallery (Põhja pst 7, Tallinn). The performance is in Estonian with English subtitles. Entrance through the EKA lobby (from Põhja puiestee).

 

Tickets are available at Fienta:

https://fienta.com/s/ants1-muusikal-carmen-electra-esietendus 

 

More info: https://elektron.art/projects/carmen 

 

CARMEN ELECTRA

Musical by ants1 at EKA Gallery

 

Performances:

24.10.25 19.00–20.30

25.10.25 19.00–20.30

26.10.25 17.00–18.30

 

“Carmen Electra” is a completely ordinary musical with a classical structure, a very beautiful stage design, and where the main character overcomes difficulties from the beginning until the end. The libretto was written by the band ants1. The lead role is played by the eternally young and immortal Anumai Raska.

 

The magical world of the musical combines modern dance, colorful costumes, disturbing music and scandalous statements. Since the musical deals with death in essence, it is not possible to summarize it briefly. We hope for your understanding!

 

“We build our own workshop of non-existent tools from week to week, we rent two-room apartments to sleep in alone, we are accepted for jobs that we have never applied for in the first place, we are specialists in matters that we have never studied. Damn it… or are we canceling life ourselves before we even live it?”

– Unknown elk from the Estonian Forest, 2025

 

The ants1 band is a collective that emerged from the Estonian Academy of Arts, whose members work in various fields of contemporary art. When they come together, the collective goes by the name ants1, whose music connects contemporary social problems with the painful yet fun language of punk music.

Eugenio Marini & Ingrid Helena Pajo
THE DAY THE LINE BENT INTO A SPIRAL
Second floor of EKA Gallery 27.09.–19.10.2025
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm
Opening: Friday, September 26 at 6 pm

We don’t know the exact day the line bent into a spiral. At some point, it was simply happening—twisting ever forward, spinning as it turned. In the beginning, perhaps it all moved a little slower—the bending and the spinning—and already then, we were inside it.

“The Day the Line Bent into a Spiral” brings together works, material experiments, and found objects created and collected over the course of nearly a year by artists Eugenio Marini and Ingrid Helena Pajo. The main principle for building this collection of fragments was to work with a single idea for no longer than a week—both in parallel and in collaboration. Another key aspect was the associative threads that emerged while working with the materials: allowing these to carry the artists along, and pausing from time to time somewhere in the middle of the process. While the material may suggest a direction, in the end each form speaks about the artists’ themselves and their temporary states. The exhibition becomes a kind of diary, written in an unknowable order, along curved lines. Now, the artists invite you to turn with them along this line—summoning memory, and rowing your way back to the starting point through the spiral labyrinth.

Eugenio Marini (IT) and Ingrid Helena Pajo (EE) are artists based in Tallinn and Rome. While both artists have individual artistic practices, they have been combining their backgrounds in sculpture and textile by collaborating regularly since 2022. Pajo’s works explore early textile technologies through gathering and weaving, trying to make sense of the experience of human life. Marini reflects on the idea and meaning of utility in today’s living. Found materials are an integral part of this shared journey of exploration, highlighting the importance of the path and the process, often encouraging improvisation.

Graphic design: Daria Titova
Technical support: Erik Hõim
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Sadolin Estonia and Tallinn City.
Opening drinks from mirai™ and Põhjala Brewery.

Public program at the exhibition “30×30” at EKA Gallery
Participation in the events is free!

Thursday, September 11 at 4–6 pm
Event “And this is not all…”
Drawing lesson with Malle Jürgenson, head of the Interior Architecture Department (on the second floor of EKA Gallery, in Estonian)
NB! The number of participants is limited, register here.

Sunday, September 14
At 1 pm, guided tour led by curators Madli Kaljuste and Paco Ulman (in Estonian)
At 2 pm, curatorial tour (in English)

Sunday, September 21 at 3–5 pm
A discussion, where topics that arose during the planning of the exhibition and during the exhibition will be discussed.

Read more about the exhibition here.

“30×30. Exhibition on the Graphic Arts Collection of the Faculty of Architecture at the Estonian Academy of Arts”
EKA Gallery 29.08.–21.09.2025
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm
Opening: Thu 28.08. at 7 pm

The Estonian Academy of Arts has been educating architects for 75 years. The exhibition “30×30”, which kicks off the anniversary year, explores the past decades of the Faculty of Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts through graphic assignments from the first year.

“Architectural Design I”, “Project Graphics”, “Composition I” – behind the different names lies a preparatory studio that has existed since the 1970s, which has been completed by all first-year students of the EKA Department of Architecture. Also in 2025, new architecture students will be introduced to rapidographs, the materiality of paper, questions of composition, the differences and similarities between plan and section, and the possibilities and impossibilities of graphic imagery. This is the students’ first exposure to the tools of an architect, which are both the means of depicting and creating space, as well as the ways of thinking about space and communicating it on a more abstract level.

The archive exhibition “30×30” opens up an array of graphic works secretly collected in the EKA Museum and the archives of the Faculty of Architecture. The paper and ink and the form of the works seem unchanged, yet the nearly seven hundred sheets reveal the emphases, feelings and tasks that have changed over the course of half a century, on the basis of which the shaping of a person into an architect begins.

The works exhibited at the exhibition belong to the collection of the EKA Museum and the archives of the Faculty of Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Exhibition organizers and architecture: Madli Kaljuste, Paco Ulman
Participants: former first-year students of the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn University of Arts and the State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR
Graphic design: Maria Muuk
Exhibition construction: Dream Team (Johannes Säre, Dénes Farkas, Eke Ao Nettan, Paul Säre)
Technical support: Karmo Migur
Lighting design: Mikk-Mait Kivi
The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Association of Architects, the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the Faculty of Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts, ETS NORD, Niguliste Museum, Sadolin Estonia and Tallinn City.
We also thank: Ulla Alla, Imbi Hepner, Malle Jürgenson, Tiina Kaljuste, Reeli Kõiv, Laura Linsi, Hannes Lung, Mari Möldre, Andres Ojari, Sille Pihlak, Tarvo Roose, Tarmo Saaret, Mihkel Säre, Merilin Tee
Opening drinks from Põhjala Brewery.

_________________________________________________

Public program at the exhibition “30×30” at EKA Gallery
Participation in the events is free!

Thursday, September 11 at 4–6 pm
Event “And this is not all…”
Drawing lesson with Malle Jürgenson, head of the Interior Architecture Department (on the second floor of EKA Gallery, in Estonian)
NB! The number of participants is limited, register here.

Sunday, September 14
At 1 pm, guided tour led by curators Madli Kaljuste and Paco Ulman (in Estonian)
At 2 pm, curatorial tour (in English)

Sunday, September 21 at 3 pm
Discussion

The opening of the joint work “Weather As a Conversation Topic” by Liisa Kruusmägi and Lukas Weidinger will take place on Thursday, September 11 at 6 pm in front of the EKA Billboard Gallery. During the event an artist talk will also take place. The event will be held in English and will be moderated by David Schilter. In case of bad weather, the conversation will take place indoors. The artwork is visible round the clock until October 26.

Read more about the exhibition here.

Liisa Kruusmägi & Lukas Weidinger
“Weather As a Conversation Topic”
EKA Billboard Gallery 27.08.–30.11.2025
Open 24/7, free
Opening & artist talk: Thu 11.09. at 6pm

The opening of the work and a talk with the artists will take place on Thursday, September 11 at 6 pm in front of the EKA Billboard Gallery. The event will be held in English and will be moderated by David Schilter. In case of bad weather, the conversation will take place indoors. The artwork is visible round the clock until October 26.

Invisible, all-encompassing phenomena such as heat, cold, wind, (un)happiness, desire, love, poverty, wealth play the leading roles in a fragmented narrative about the weather and its irritating omnipresence in the everyday life of the society that lives in it. The work contains many personal reflections and references to people and situations. Lukas Weidinger and Liisa Kruusmägi have created a joint work where one story is told within another. Some look at the outside – the weather in the cityscape, others colorfully depict life indoors.

Liisa Kruusmägi is a freelance artist working primarily with painting, drawing, and ceramics. Liisa Kruusmägi has been painting her thoughts and feelings, featuring people, animals, and the things around her in various environments often using bright colours in her practice . In addition to having held numerous exhibitions, she has also focused on creating public artworks, for example her large murals are on the north side of Paide Pritsumaja and above the entrance of Tops Bar in Tallinn.

Lukas Weidinger is a freelance graphic artist and comic author from Austria. Weidinger has studied in Vienna, Leipzig, and Strasbourg. Since then creating, editing and publishing a range of solo and collaborative comic books, anthologies, print series, besides working on commissioned illustration, screenwriting, tattoos and more. Weidinger takes us on a journey through landscapes bursting with life – from lively streets in modest, workingclass neighborhoods to front-row seats in a theatre where an orchestra plays joyfully out-of-tune.

David Schilter is the founder, director, and curator of Kuš!, the only comics publisher in Latvia. Since 2007, Kuš! has been regularly releasing comic books and anthologies, organising competitions, residencies, masterclasses, and other events, promoting alternative comic art in Latvia, and popularising local talent around the world.

Graphic design by Daria Titova
The exhibition is supported by Tallinn City.

The Estonian Academy of Arts has been training architects for 75 years!

We will celebrate this at the Faculty of Architecture throughout the upcoming academic year.

You are invited to the opening of the anniversary year on August 28, 2025 in the EKA auditorium:

at 6:00 PM, with opening remarks and speeches, we will open the new newspaper of the Faculty of Architecture “c400”. Editors-in-chief Diana Drobot and Linda Li Arro.

at 6:30 PM, we will take a look at the longest-established architectural subject “30 x 30”, of which the curators of the exhibition, doctoral student Paco Ernest Ulman and Madli Kaljuste, will provide a historical overview.

at 7:00 PM, we will open the exhibition “30 x 30. Exhibition from the graphic arts archive of the EKA Department of Architecture” in the EKA Gallery.

You are welcome to join us!

Liisa Chrislin Saleh’s & Hansel Tai’s duo exhibition “Dance of Resistance”
Second floor of EKA Gallery 1.–24.08.2025
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm
NB! EKA Gallery is closed during Wednesday, August 20.
Opening: Thursday, July 31 at 6 pm

Estonian-Yemeni artist Liisa Chrislin Saleh and Tallinn-based, Chinese-born artist Hansel Tai join forces for the first time in their duo exhibition “Dance of Resistance”. With a shared appreciation for each other’s artistic practices, Saleh and Tai engage in a powerful dialogue that confronts their rich cultural heritages through the lens of feminist and queer ideologies. By intertwining their personal narratives, they explore the intersections of identity, culture, and resistance.

Liisa Chrislin Saleh was born into an Estonian-Yemeni family and raised mainly in Estonia. Her perspective is shaped by this Northern European context, but she is increasingly engaging with her Yemeni background, navigating what it means to hold both identities. With this project she explores the connections and disconnections between historical resistance movements across different regions. The work examines how solidarity is formed—and where it breaks down—across cultural and political lines. Drawing on humanist values and intersectional feminist thought the artist considers how resistance is remembered, represented, and reinterpreted today. Rather than aiming to present a unified narrative, the project opens space for complexity, contradiction, and critical reflection.

Hansel Tai, born in Mainland China and now based in Tallinn, has long focused on queer culture in the Post-Internet era. His award-winning project, “Nude Jade Pierced”, explored Chinese cultural identity through a queer lense, blending traditional symbols with subcultural aesthetic. In “Dance of Resistance”, Tai re-contextualizes traditional Chinese calligraphy and incense—both of which have found resonance in Western culture, from tattoo parlors to metaphysical shops. His work aims to challenge the appropriation of these cultural symbols, while reclaiming their significance from a queer perspective.

This multifaceted installation brings together objects, jewelry, and immersive elements to examine how cultural identity and ideological resistance are experienced and expressed by the two artists. Saleh and Tai draw from their own positions to explore themes of cultural disconnection, feminism, and queer identity. The installation does not aim to present a unified message but instead opens space for critical engagement with the complexities and contradictions of identity, belonging, and resistance
Together, “Dance of Resistance” offers a poignant reflection on the fluidity of identity and the power of art as a form of resistance in the face of cultural and societal challenges.

Graphic design: Daria Titova
Technical support: Ats Kruusing and Karel Koplimets
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Sadolin Estonia and Tallinn City.
Opening drinks from Pühaste Brewery.