Exhibitions

EKA library, 6.03.–15.05.2026

Dear friend,

It has been a long time since we last heard from you. Last time we spoke, you were working on some prints in the graphic arts workshop with a roller in your hand and ink on your fingers. How is it going? We would love to see some trials or progress pictures. At the moment we are also in the process of doing some tests. I have added a sample in the envelope. Check it out and tell us what you think!

Let’s keep in touch.

The exhibition shows works from the EKA Print Exchange project initiated by the department of Graphic Art at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Printmaking students from different universities were invited to take part and submit an original print edition. Each print was shipped to Tallinn, sorted and sent back to participants, so everyone received a random selection of ten prints.

The vision of this project was to create new connections between printmaking departments and students through collaboration and sharing physical works. So, we wrote to our penpals and were curious what students of other universities were up to. Depictions of current ideas, projects or any experiments were warmly welcomed as a response.

Four universities participated in the exchange: Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA),
Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO), University of the West of England (UWE), The Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław.

Exhibitions of the Print Exchange have taken place at the universities participating in the exchange, and the first presentation in Estonia took place in June-July 2025 at the TYPA Balcony Gallery in Tartu.

We would like to thank EKA graafika, TYPA, Anna Kodź, Aleksandra Janik and Angie Butler.

Organisers of the EKA Print Exchange: Alona Chuprina, Margarita Feofanova, Chantal Gerschuetz, Merit Himmelreich, Triin Mänd, Helena Pass, Marten Prei, Sandra Puusepp and our supervisor Charlotte Biszewski.

Exhibition design at the EKA library: Sandra Puusepp and Marten Prei. 

3rd-year Graphic Art students are showcasing the artists’ book as an independent medium of visual art and an original artwork. The authors draw from personal experiences and memories, exploring themes of physicality, history, and ethical boundaries:

• Aliisa Ahtiainen presents a grandfather’s life story in risography and a “breathing” book inspired by her grandmother’s experience in a tuberculosis sanatorium.
• Jacqueline-Desiree Rosenthal exhibits a piece made of tattooed pigskin rawhide, raising questions about morality and the parallels between animals and humans.
• Olga Dubrovskaja utilizes her background as an intensive care doctor to explore the experience of death through her own and her colleagues’ perspectives. In her second book titled “Delight”, she focuses on the moments of life.
• Adriana Jinmao Biosca Sánchez examines the volatility of memory through materiality and layers of printing.
• Robin August Vöörmann deals with gender identity, drawing parallels with changes in nature.

Supervisors: Eve Kask, Eve Kaaret (binding) and Viktor Gurov. 

Exhibition dates: 6.03.–15.05.2025

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

The band ants1 will perform their musical “Carmen Electra” at EKA Gallery three more times in March! 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
Graphic design: Jaan Evart

Co-producer: elektron.art

Supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment, City of Tallinn

Performances will take place on March 25, 26 and 28 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/ants1-muusikal-carmen-electra-156400

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

Kaie Olmre: kaie@elektron.art +372 5241778

“To feel the pull of desire is to feel the presence of absence.”
-Anne Carson, “Eros The Bitterweet”

It was the gods’ punishment to separate the whole being into two, condemned to fit the chase of our ideal fullness into one lifetime — and pathetically, we turn back to gods to show us the ways we can be united again. Some say this love belongs only to gods themselves. Still, we defy that notion treacherously, and we face whatever form of divinity we believe in, to plea:
“I wish.”
To wish is to indulge in the lack. The lover does not only wish for the ephemeral sense of fulfillment, but eventually wishing itself serves to satisfy the lover’s hunger. The wish transforms into the sustenance and our appetite refuses to act as a form of weakness, but as devotion.
The exhibition “The Wishing Well” is simultaneously a practice ground and a receipt of reverence. Light a candle, throw a coin, count the petals and make your wish.

opening 05.03.2026 at 6PM

06.03. – 12.04.2026

open Wed-Sun 12.00-18.00

KETT gallery / Aparaaditehas, Kastani 42, Tartu

Irmak Semiz (b. 1997, Istanbul) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Tallinn, currently pursuing a master’s degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Working primarily through sculpture, installation, and animation, their practice focuses on expressing contradictory identities, decisions, and emotional states, processed through the lens of humor, connection, and myth-making.
Jana Ribkina (b. 1995, Riga) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Riga. Working primarily with ceramics, textiles, and illustration, she explores reflections from her daily life through a playful approach, while drawing inspiration from folklore and fantasy. Her work seeks to weave the personal and the mythical into one continuous thread.

Graphic design: Paul Graßler
The exhibition is supported by the City of Tartu and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

5–31 March 2026

On Wednesday, 4 March at 18:00, Katariin Mudist’s exhibition “Temporary Solution”(Ajutine lahendus) will open at ARS Showcase Gallery.

“Temporary Solution” brings together doorholders collected from various institutions, mainly from Estonia’s cultural field. Doorholders are born out of necessity: something needs to be held open for a moment, something needs to be let through. Yet a temporary solution tends to become permanent without anyone noticing. In this way, an accidental form and material can become surprisingly universal.

The exhibition focuses on small moments of annoyance: when your bike tyre is flat again; when you forget your towel, but discover it at the gym; when you have to return the shirt you ordered; when the internet keeps buffering during a film; when someone explains something you already know; when, at the grocery store, the line you chose is the slowest, or when the doorholder is missing. This annoyance is a minor disturbance that, through repetition, begins to shape attention, movement, and one’s attitude toward space. A door has been kept open for years with the help of an apparently insignificant piece of material. But one day, arms full of things, that familiar wooden block is no longer there. There is a brief delay and mild irritation: something else is quickly found as a substitute, the door is held open again, and work continues. The moment passes and is very likely forgotten immediately.

Over the course of a year, the collected doorholders have held open different kinds of doors (main entrances, side doors, back doors, etc.) and operate according to different principles: as a wedge, as a threshold stopper, or as weight. What unites these objects is that they come from institutions where doors are not merely architectural elements but tools of access and work organisation. Doorholders are small, unofficial spatial interventions that make movement smoother and signal for whom a space “works. ” Removing them and gathering them into one room reveals a layer of temporary solutions on which institutional space quietly depends.

The door to the exhibition is always (temporarily) open.

Katariin Mudist is an interdisciplinary Estonian artist who believes that the most telling things are often those that usually remain behind the door. She is interested in small annoyances that arise, for example, when a door refuses to cooperate- whether it’s an automatic door that won’t open or a missing doorstop. Humour and irony run through her practice. She examines social norms and the practices and meanings of being an artist within the context of the cultural field and its institutions, using material and process-based approaches. She is currently studying in the Fine Arts Studio programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts, searching for common ground between visual and material-centred art. Mudist holds an MA in Contemporary Art (EKA, 2022) and a BA in Media and Advertising Design (Pallas University of Applied Sciences, 2018). She has received the Adamson-Eric Scholarship (2025) and the Young Sculptor Award (2025). In 2026, together with Keithy Kuuspu, she received the main prize of the Visual and Applied Arts Endowment for the exhibition “Unfortunately, You Were Not Selected This Time” (2025) and the performative Awards Gala (2025).

Exhibition team:
Exhibition design and production assistance: Alden Jõgisuu
Graphic design: Katariin Mudist
Supporters: Punch Club, Põhjala, Estonian Artists’ Association
Special thanks: Alan Voodla, Johanna Mudist, Eva Nava, Keithy Kuuspu, Maria Elise
Remme, Helena Pass, and all the institutions from which the collected doorholders originate.

Exhibition open:
5–31 March 2026
Mon–Fri 12–18, Sat 12–16

On March 1st, Natalia Mirzoyan’s exhibition “Winter in March” will be opened in Telliskivi Container Gallery.

The art exhibition Winter in March is inspired by the short animated film Winter in March, created at the Estonian Academy of Arts and produced by film studio Rebel Frame. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 and has since won nearly twenty international awards at animation and film festivals around the world. It also received the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s annual award for Best Animated Film of 2025.

The exhibition expands the poetic and political world created in the film, exploring helplessness and existential fear experienced by individuals living under a repressive regime. The film tells the true story of a young couple from St. Petersburg, Kirill and Dasha. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shakes their lives. Dasha finds the strength to protest, while Kirill withdraws into himself, sinking deeper and deeper into depression. They decide to leave their homeland and set off for Georgia. The journey is metaphysical the train travels along the Russian-Ukrainian border, where the landscape outside the window is filled with symbols of war. Meanwhile, fellow passengers behave as if nothing is happening. Through snowstorms and fear, the most painful moment arrives at the border: will they be allowed to continue? Although they eventually reach Georgia, their greatest fear catches up with them in another way — from an unexpected place.

The exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in this world of imagery and emotional associations. The space is designed as a journey, leading the viewer from intimate memory fragments into a broader political and poetic dimension. The aim of the exhibition is to create an immersive experience that connects the film and the exhibition into one whole. It is also important to provide the audience with an opportunity to perceive the personal and collective experiences of war, repression, and migration, and thereby initiate discussion about democracy, memory, and resistance.

Artist Natalia Mirzoyan
Curator Santa Zukker
Artist Team: Rebecca Kruus, Alexander Toodu, Kadi Rebane, Annaliisa Lepik, Katrina Oll, Marina Hirv, Dashka Dementeva, Saskia Sikk

Artists: Rover Indigo Bertels-Andréa, Þórey Björk Halldórsdóttir, Denis Kudrjašov, Ivor Mikker, Daniil Musesovs, Elise Marie Olesk, Kertu Rannula, Lotta Karoliina Räsänen, Éric-Olivier Thériault, Kail Timusk, Lume Tuum, Elo Vahtrik, Ats-Anton Varustin, Maria Wrang-Rasmussen

Metamorphosis – simultaneous disintegration and formation; melting, bending, flowing, estrangement from function.

Emerging sculpture explores transformation, transitions, and continuous, uncertain in-between states – in the body, in material, and in space. Traditional techniques and materials encounter synthetic, industrial, and technological elements, generating tension between the organic and the artificial, the rural and the urban, the past and the present.

The works address questions of perception and adaptation: how to find direction in fog, in subterranean layers, or within internal transformations? How do we orient ourselves in a world where the visible is no longer the primary source of knowledge? Can disintegration and fading serve as prerequisites for creation and becoming? What role do ritual, tradition, and vanishing skills play in a technologically charged everyday life? Where does the body end and the environment begin – or does such a boundary still exist?

Established in 2012, the award aims to highlight and recognize emerging sculptors and installation artists currently pursuing their studies. The exhibition presents works created during the 2025/26 academic year by the 14 shortlisted artists. The exhibition is organized by the Sculpture and Installation Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts. A Grand Prix as well as second and third prizes will be awarded.

The exhibition is open to visitors at ARS Project Space from 7–22 March, 12:00–18:00. At the opening of NSPN on 6 March at 4:00 PM, the Grand Prix as well as the 2nd and 3rd prizes will be awarded. A special prize will also be presented by the Estonian Association of Young Contemporary Art.

Exhibition team: Laura Põld, Kirke Kangro, Taavi Talve, Visa Nurmi, Eva Mahhov

Supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Artists’ Association, Põhjala, Vaskjala Creative Residency

Special thanks: Kunst.ee magazine, ARS Project Space

Short films developed in 3D and puppet animation techniques by the 2nd year students of animation
EKA Gallery video booth 25.02.–22.03.2026
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm, free of charge

The films present intriguing characters, relatable situations, inner dialogues, beauty and absurdity. Quite literally, they take the viewer on a journey from outer space to a drop of water, from the macro world to the micro world. It is especially fascinating to observe how different techniques influence one another. Digital and material spaces enter into dialogue through form, texture, rhythm and atmosphere.

Step into the cinema space and allow yourself to be carried into the worlds created by these emerging filmmakers.

Participants: Paolo D’Angelo, Ailin Budõlina, Kätri Jaaguman, Maibrit Kaur, Aleksandra Nikolajeva, Tobias Oblikas, Karl Erik Pajo, El Soosalu
3D course supervisor: Hleb Kuftseryn
Supervisors of the puppet animation course: Anu-Laura Tuttelberg and Francesco Rosso.

Screened films:

1. “Fiore (Flower)” (3D) by Paolo D’Angelo
2. “Tangled Senses” (Puppet film) Maibrit Kaur, Aleksandra Nikolajeva
3. “Creature Therapy” (3D) by Maibrit Kaur and Aleksandra Nikolajeva
4. “A Nail in the Table” (3D) by Karl Erik Pajo
5. “Pain Killer” (Puppet film) by Paolo D’Angelo, Tobias Oblikas
6. “Still Raining” (3D) by Tobias Oblikas
7. “One More Time”  (Puppet film) El Soosalu, Kätri Jaaguman
8. “Lost and Found” (3D) by El Soosalu and Kätri Jaaguman
9. “Inner Wolf” (Puppet film) Karl Erik Pajo, Ailin Budõlina

The total duration of the films is 21 minutes.

“Image Is for Illustrative Purposes Only. Interventions in the Monumental Murals of the Old Airport Terminal’s Central Waiting Hall at Tallinn Airport”
EKA Gallery 21.02.–22.03.2026
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm, free entry (NB! EKA Gallery is closed on February 24.)
Opening: Friday, February 20 at 1 pm
Guided tour: Thursday, February 26 at 3.30 pm

What should be done with the legacy of totalitarian regimes? Should it be intervened in? And if so, in what circumstances – and how?

The exhibition grew out of a practical need to engage with two ideologically charged socialist realist monumental paintings in the old terminal of Tallinn Airport. One is View of Moscow by Viktor Karrus and the other View of Tallinn by Richard Sagrits (both 1955). In 2025, in cooperation with Tallinn Airport, a competition was held to create intervening artworks, but the winning proposal was ultimately not realised by decision of the commissioning body. For the exhibition, the paintings have been loaned to the Estonian Academy of Arts to present artists’ interventions in dialogue with the original works. Additional layers are revealed through archival materials related to the airport. After the exhibition, the painting will be given to the Art Museum of Estonia.

The exhibition has been created as part of “How to Reframe Monuments”, a collaborative project between the Estonian Academy of Arts and Tallinn University, funded by the Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Artists: Hanna Piksarv, Kati Saarits, Anna Škodenko, Sigrid Viir, Jevgeni Zolotko and Viktor Karrus, Richard Sagrits
Curators: Linda Kaljundi, Kirke Kangro
Curator of archival materials: Jarmo Kauge
Designer: Anna Škodenko
Technical support: Margus Elizarov, Erik Hõim, Ain Kilk, Priit Laanekivi, Oliver Kanniste, Madis Kaasik, Visa Nurmi, Sofia Schneider-Sepping, Mattias Veller
Graphic designer: Kristjan Mändmaa
Language editors: Phillip Marsdale, Hille Saluäär
Näituse töörühm: Merike Kallas, Taavi Tiidor, Annika Tiko, Maris Veeremäe

The exhibitions at EKA Gallery are supported by Tallinn City and Sadolin Estonia.
Opening drinks from mirai™ and Põhjala Brewery.

EKA FOTO presents:
Screening of films by Ingel Vaikla

“Double Exposure” (2020)

“EUR42” (2022)

“Moi aussi, je regarde” (2024)

February 12 at 6 p.m.

EKA Auditorium A-101

The screening will be followed by a conversation with Ingel Vaikla.

Ingel Vaikla (b. 1992, Tallinn) is a Brussels-based visual artist and filmmaker who works primarily with video, 16 mm film, and found footage. Her artistic practice explores the representation of architecture through its relationship with communities, seeking a visual language that goes beyond viewing architecture as a sculptural form. Instead, she attempts to convey the existential, conceptual, and ideological nature of spaces. Ingel has been a resident at HISK in Ghent (2018-2019) and at the WIELS Contemporary Art Center in Brussels (2021), and is pursuing a PhD at PXL-MAD/UHasselt University (2025). Her audiovisual works, including “The House Guard”, “Roosenberg”, “Double Exposure”, “Papagalo”, “What’s the Time?”, “EUR42”, and “Moi aussi, je regarde” have been shown internationally at film festivals and art institutions, including IDFA in Amsterdam, Kunsthalle Wien, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia and Tallinn Art Hall, Beursschouwburg and Bozar in Brussels, Manifesta 13 in Marseille, Videonale in Bonn, Tramway in Glasgow, European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, Busan International Video Art Festival, etc.