Exhibitions

On Friday, June 19th at 6:00 PM, the group exhibition “No matter what, matters” will open at the Uus Rada Gallery. The exhibition will remain open until June 28th.

The exhibition is open daily from June 20th to June 28th from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM.

The group exhibition “No matter what, matters” explores the Anthropocene through a pagan and posthumanist perspective, offering alternative ways of understanding knowledge and experience. The exhibition places other agents alongside humans—materials, technological systems, virtual characters, and other non-human entities—that shape our world just as actively as we do. By remaining in constant relation with these actors, it arrives at a perspective being free from hierarchies, opening up new possibilities for perceiving information and inviting reflection on the diverse forms of identity, knowledge, and coexistence.

The exhibition brings together Estonian and international artists whose practice encompasses sculpture, installation, video and painting. Exploring the realities of modern landscapes, pre-apocalyptic future, power structures, self-exploration and heritage and relationality, artists approach in different ways the questions of consequences of interaction, ontology through material and negotiations with one another through posthuman and pagan lenses.

Participating artists: Éric-Olivier Thériault, Lili Maud Dobell, Yuko Kinouchi, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Ats Anton Varustin, Piia Bianka Pere and Daniil Musesovs.
The exhibition is curated by Daniil Musesovs.
Graphic design – Georg Ander Sild.

The exhibition is supported by Uus Rada Gallery, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Cultural Endowment.

On 18 June at 6:30 PM, the contemporary artist Riina Varol will open her solo exhibition Overstream at the Draakon Gallery, dealing with the creative process as the formation of life.
The exhibition addresses questions of biological and non-biological self-realisation, comparing them with natural and creative processes.

The display stems from a nine-month-long pilgrimage; the space itself serving as an environment that activates perceptions, emotions and bodily experiences. The audience is presented with newly completed invisible images, small sculptures and spatial photo collages that, through their cavities and incisions, open reality as a layered experience. The exhibition space is designed as a playful and interactive sanctuary, accompanied by Helen Västrik’s atmospheric soundscape.

The rhythms of nature and creative practices that help to relate to uncertainty and existential questions play an important role in Varol’s work. In her practice, identity is seen as a fluctuating phenomenon that is formed through constant interaction with the surrounding environment. This idea is further enhanced by the materials and working methods used by the artist: plaster, layers, playing with stones, blind stamping and incision techniques.

According to Johan Huizinga, artworks belong to the sacred sphere, where play and holiness are united through rituals. In contemporary art, the esoteric dimension often reveals itself through symbols and attunement. The recurring toe motifs in Varol’s work symbolise grounding and gratitude for the Earth that carries and nourishes us. By placing them in nature and symbolically meaningful places, they might one day become archaeological finds, leading to personal mythologies. In the exhibition, the motif of the toe becomes the footprint of human experience: a sign of touch, presence and commitment.

RV: “For me, one of the main principles and qualities of creation is that I do my best to create environments which allow nature to allow ones nature to reveal in its entirety. Tactile work with materials is my way of awakening the body and the inner compass. That which seeks to eminate knows me better than i know them.”

Riina Varol is an artist and photographer based in Estonia. In her creative practice, she focuses on questions of sensorial perception and the functions of the subconscious, as well as animism and oriental philosophy. Varol’s body of work encompasses a variety of media, including site-specific multimedia installations, photography, graphics, ceramics, video, sound, tactility and smell. She studied photography at the Pallas University of Applied Sciences and the Naples Academy of Fine Arts. Varol is a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association and the Tartu Artists’ Union. She has participated in exhibitions in Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Lithuania, Ukraine and Australia. Since 2017, Varol has been a guest lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts and, since 2022, also at the Pallas University of Applied Sciences.

Location: Draakon Gallery, Pikk Street 18, Tallinn
Open to visitors: 19.06.–19.07.2026, Wed, Fri–Sun 12:00–18:00, Thu 12:00–19:00

Curator: Liisi Kõuhkna
Graphic design: Helmi Arrak
Sound design: Helen Västrik
Exhibition installation: Hans-Otto Ojaste
Special thanks: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Artists’ Association, Draakon Gallery, Mari Volens, Gunnar Kalmet, Valerio Sarnataro, Helen Tago, Caroliine Pajusaar, Lauri Kilusk, Anne Eelmere, Jaan August Viirand, Hedvig and Ian, Hubert and Hilda, Christin Taul, mother, Craftrag, Punchclub, Nudist Drinks

On 18 June at 17:00, the exhibition “Tosin” opens on the ground floor of Draakon Gallery. The exhibition brings together a selection of master’s projects completed in the glass workshop of the Estonian Academy of Arts over the past twelve years. The exhibition is open from 18 June to 19 July.

The point of departure for the exhibition is the history of glass education in Estonia. The archive collection of the Tallinn School of Arts and Crafts holds a 1936 protocol of the school council, which refers to the establishment of the crystal and glass-cutting department by a decision of the Minister of Social Affairs. This may be understood as one of the first important milestones in Estonian glass education. “Tosin” looks back at this historical point of origin from a contemporary perspective, bringing together EKA master’s projects in which glass is the primary material.

The exhibition does not present a chronological overview. Instead, it focuses on a selection of master’s projects completed during the past twelve years and considers glass as a contemporary artistic medium moving between technical skill, spatial thinking, embodied experience and conceptual research.

“Tosin” brings together master’s projects whose physical realisation is connected to the technical possibilities and know-how of the EKA glass workshop. Glass connects the authors, workshop-based knowledge, historical continuity and personal creative processes.

At the centre of the exhibition is the question: what has glass enabled EKA master’s students to explore? The selected works use glass to open questions related to the body, memory, space, working process, industrial heritage, psychological self-reflection, digital identity, material agency, and the borderlands of art and design. In the exhibition, glass may appear as a technical challenge, an embodied partner, a reflective surface, a spatial installation, an image of a psychological state, a carrier of material memory, or a trigger for the creative process.

“Tosin” brings master’s projects that have since moved into artists’ studios or private collections back into public view, creating a new dialogue between them.

The participating artists are Iohan Figueroa, Andra Jõgis, Niina-Anneli Kaarnamo, Elle Lepik, Rait Lõhmus, Maris Maasikas-Korts, Alyona Movko-Mägi and Kristiina Oppi.

Acknowledgements: Estonian Glass Artists’ Union, Estonian Academy of Arts, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Draakon Gallery

Exhibition: Tosin  

Participating artists: Iohan Figueroa, Andra Jõgis, Niina-Anneli Kaarnamo, Elle Lepik, Rait Lõhmus, Maris Maasikas-Korts, Alyona Movko-Mägi, Kristiina Oppi  

Opening: 18 June at 17:00  

Exhibition dates: 18 June – 19 July  Venue: Draakon Gallery, ground floor

Opening on 8.06 at 2:00 PM, in Narva
Exhibition open 8.06 – 22.06.2026

“A Breath” is an exhibition created as a school project by students of the Contemporary Art and Curatorial Studies programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts. It invites visitors to slow down and notice what often remains hidden between everyday moments.

The exhibition explores quiet moments of breath that arise both in solitude and in the company of others. These small pauses, often delicate and easily overlooked, carry reflection, intimacy, and a sense of shared presence. The project invites viewers to momentarily forget the turbulence and uncertainty of daily life and instead contemplate states of being, moments of silence, and quiet observation. Through works in various media, the exhibition creates a space where visitors can slow down and experience these fleeting yet meaningful moments.

At 2:30 PM, visitors are invited to enjoy an edible artwork by Mia Maria Rohumaa and Maria Wrang-Rasmussen. As Virginia Woolf wrote, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”

You can take the 9:55 AM train departing from Tallinn.

Artists: Daria Morozova, Maria Wrang-Rasmussen, Mia Maria Rohumaa, Lotta Karoliina Räsänen, Kertu-Liisa Sarap
Curator: Karen Aasa

Opening on 8.06 at 2:00 PM, in Narva, Green Gallery 

Opening of the exhibition “I hate violence and I see it everywhere” at 18:00 at OKAPI Gallery in Tallinn

Yeva Sihachova

Curator: Ilja Jakovlev
Graphic design: Ksenia Kvitko

I hate violence and I see it everywhere.
Not only in war or catastrophe, but in the ordinary choreography of living alongside others.
I see how it impales the body, leaving no space for resistance.
I see how, through force, it restructures culture, embedding itself across generations as trauma.
I see it in the attempt to make everything defined – what does not fit is forced to take form, yet even when fixed, it remains out of place.
I see how it alters the body until adaptation turns pain into routine.
I see how it quietly inhabits the spaces between people.

The exhibition explores the ontology of violence: where it lives, how it manifests itself, what language it speaks, where it is born, and what it eventually transforms into.

The works focus on moments in which violence has not yet become fully visible or fully named – on the normalization of discomfort, on adaptation as a survival mechanism, on repetition, pressure, fixation, and the unstable distance between bodies.

Again and again, the exhibition returns to the question of connection.
Perhaps violence begins much earlier – in the attempt to fix, define, or fully overcome distance.

Fear becomes one of the central mechanisms within the exhibition. The attempt to understand violence can become an attempt to rationalize it, to make it predictable, and therefore less threatening. As if analysis could create a certain form of control over what is feared. But the need for control itself easily begins to reproduce the logic of violence.

The works do not offer a stable definition of violence. Instead, they trace the moments in which it quietly enters everyday life – reorganizing proximity, settling into ordinary forms of coexistence, and changing the ways bodies learn to exist alongside one another.

Drinks at the opening are provided by PÕHJALA!

Exhibition dates:
11.06–19.07.2026
Wed–Fri 12:00–18:00
Sat 12:00–16:00

OKAPI gallery
Niguliste tn 2, 10146, Tallinn

We thank the exhibition supporters:
EKA Student Council, OKAPI Gallery, PÕHJALA

Sõprus cinema 06.06. at 5–7 pm

Free entry

Join us at the screening of bachelor’s and master’s theses in animation of the Estonian Academy of Arts, which will take place on June 6 at 5 pm at the Sõprus cinema. The screening is free of charge.

Afterwards there will be a Q&A with the authors at EKA campus, Põhja pst 7.
The screening will take place within the framework of the EKA thesis festival TASE ’26. TASE is the Estonian Academy of Arts’ annual graduation theses festival, where the faculties of architecture, design, art culture and liberal arts present this year’s graduation theses at both bachelor’s and master’s levels. The TASE festival is growing every year, and this year we will present nearly 280 works to visitors.

Check out the TASE ’26 program and list of graduates on the website tase.artun.ee. The written parts of the graduation theses can be viewed in the EKA Digital Archive at eka.access.preservica.com.

Participants: Christopher Galinos, Karmen Müürsoo
Kadi Rebane, Viktoria Shmidt, Chia-Hui Lei, Vilmos Péter, Valerie Sarle, Fernanda Resende
TASE Anima organisers: Lyza Karoly Jarvis, Lilli-Krõõt Repnau
Graphic design: Grittel Kastan, Martin Kislõi, Richard Vainola
Visuals: Christopher Galinos

Welcoming drinks from Punch Club.

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TASE DAY on Saturday, June 6th:

1–9 pm TASE exhibition open
1–3 pm guided tours of the Faculty of Design, in Estonian
3–3.30pm guided tours of the Faculty of Art and Culture, in Estonian
3–6 pm burning ritual at Kail Timusk’s installation “Requiem Larium” on the sea terrace of the main building
3.45–4.30pm Jaak Juske’s historical tour around EKA, in Estonian
5 pm TASE Anima ’26 screening at the cinema Sõprus
7 pm TASE Anima ’26 Q&A in the lobby of the main building of the Estonian Academy of
Arts, moderated by Lyza Karoly Jarvis and Kaur Järve, in English

Keithy Kuuspu’s durational performance in the yard of Kotzebue 4

– “Indirect Performativity” on Wednesday, June 17 at 7 pm

Burning rituals at Kail Timusk’s installation “Requiem Larium” on the sea terrace of the main building of EKA

– Sat 6.06 at 3–6 pm
– Sun 14.06 at 4–7 pm
– Fri 19.06 at 1–4 pm

Margaret Tilk’s study club “Girls, In Theory”

Tuesday, June 9 at 6 pm at EKA Gallery, with pre-registration, in Estonian

GUIDED TOURS

All tours start in the lobby of the EKA main building and participation is free of charge.

Historical tour

Saturday, June 6 at 3.45–4.30 pm historical tour around EKA, led by Jaak Juske, in Estonian, donations are welcome

Guided tours of the Faculty of Architecture

– Thursday, June 11 at 2–3 pm guided tour of the Department of Interior Architecture led by Gregor Taul, in Estonian
– Thursday, June 11 at 3.30–5 pm guided tour of the Departments of Architecture and Urbanism led by Roland Reemaa, in Estonian
– Monday, June 15 at 5–6 pm guided tour of the Faculty of Architecture led by Sille Pihlak, in Estonian
– Tuesday, June 16 at 1–2 pm guided tour of the Department of Interior Architecture led by students of the faculty, in Estonian

Guided tours of the Faculty of Design

– Saturday, June 6 at 1–3 pm, guided tour by Kätlin Leokin and students of the faculty, in Estonian
– Sunday, June 14 at 1–3 pm, guided tour by Kätlin Leokin and students of the faculty, in Estonian

Guided tours of the Faculty of Arts and Culture

– Saturday, June 6 at 3–3.30 pm, guided tour by Valve Saarma, in Estonian
– Sunday, June 14 at 3–3.30 pm, guided tour by Valve Saarma, in Estonian

Guided tour of the Faculty of Fine Arts

– Sunday, June 14 at 4–5 pm, guided tour by Elo Vahtrik, in Estonian

More info at: https://tase.artun.ee/

Being / Becoming
Põhjala tehas, Marati 5-3, 2nd floor
Exhibition open June 4–14, everyday 11:00–19:00
Opening: Wednesday, June 3, 18:00

From materials to maker,
from environment to mind.
Through the fingertips into an object,
which then finds its way back to the environment again.

The practice of craft is one of interconnection: between material and body, environment and society, thought and action. Craft extends beyond the production of a physical object – it shapes the ways we relate to the world around us and to one another.

The exhibition Being / Becoming presents works by the first year students of the Craft Studies MA program. Developed alongside one another over the past year, the works emerge through conversations between materials and makers, processes and practices, experiments and outcomes – shaped through sharing spaces of making, thinking and exchange.

Being is existing in the same space with others. Becoming is an endless process of change until we decide to lay a pause on it.

Participating: Astrid Davis, Þórey Björk Halldórsdóttir, Carmen Kremm, Anna Larionova, Athaly Lens, Marco Manfredino, Teresa RA, Anna-Maria Saar, Kay Shek, Laura-Maria Vahimets

In curatorial dialogue with: Anu Vahtra
Graphic design: Andrew Kuus-Hill & Linda Morel

Thank you: Juss Heinsalu, Kärt Ojavee, Põhjala tehas
Supporters: Craft Studies, Estonian Academy of Arts, Punch Club OÜ

Throughout the exhibition we have a few events organised for the public, including tours, workshops and a finissage:

Tours
Sunday, June 7, 11:00–12:00
Sunday, June 14, 15:00–16:00
In English & Estonian
* Free participation

Workshops
‘Materializing the Handwriting. The Workshop’ by Anna-Maria Saar

The hand-stitching workshop develops participants’ awareness of their personal working methods through hands-on experimentation with different materials. It supports learners more broadly in understanding and articulating their intuitive choices as makers.

Sunday, June 7, 13:00–13:45
Wednesday, June 10, 18:00–18:30
Thursday, June 11, 18:00–18:30

* Workshops take place in the exhibition space, free participation with prior registration: anna-maria.saar@artun.ee. Materials are provided on site.

Finissage
Sunday, June 14, 16:00–19:00

29.05–16.08.2026
Maria Kapajeva. I Am A Border
Curator: Siim Preiman, Exhibition designer: Anu Vahtra

Estonian artist Maria Kapajeva will open her largest solo exhibition to date at the Tallinn Art Hall’s Lasnamäe Pavilion on 28 May at 6 pm. Titled I Am a Border, the exhibition brings together 16 works created between 2014 and 2026, many of them produced specifically for this show. Admission is free.

The exhibition is the culmination of more than a decade of artistic research into the border as a geographical, bodily, and emotional phenomenon.

Its point of departure is the region beyond Narva, Narvataguse – the former homeland of the artist’s paternal family, now located within the Russian border zone and inaccessible to the family today. Through photographs, video works, installations, and textiles, Kapajeva approaches borderliness not as a fixed place, but as a continuous state of transition – never fully one thing, never fully becoming the other.

The works intertwine the Narva River, the post-operative body, family archives, a disappearing language, and disrupted connections to landscape and heritage. One of the exhibition’s central works, Four Generations Later, features the artist’s relatives reading dialect texts from the Narvataguse region recorded in 1947 – a language that has become partly incomprehensible even to younger Russian-speaking generations.
The installations incorporate materials such as maps from the family archive, diary entries by Kapajeva’s father, a family tree drawn by a geneticist, and a blanket that once belonged to the artist’s grandmother. Several works also explore the fluidity of the body and identity, connecting queer perspectives with ecology and border landscapes.

“What moves me in Maria Kapajeva’s work is her ability to speak about identity without simplifying it. Her works hold vulnerability, the weight of history, and a deeply personal clarity all at once,” said the exhibition’s curator Siim Preiman. “Every day I see how nationalism is often something that divides rather than unites us.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a diverse public programme:

• 30 May at 2 pm – curator’s tour with Siim Preiman
• 17 June at 5 pm – artist’s tour with Maria Kapajeva
• In July, Maria Kapajeva and Anton Küünal will host a joint event exploring the intersections of plants, ecology, and queer perspectives (date to be confirmed)
• 9 August – a collective textile workshop titled Queering and Sewing Together
• On the exhibition’s final day, 16 August, there will be an artist’s tour followed by a communal cooking event in the Korr-korr (Borborygmus) series, where the exhibition team and visitors will prepare and share food together.

Maria Kapajeva is an artist whose work explores questions of identity and gender, with a particular focus on in-between and transitional states. Her works are included in several museum collections, including the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art and the Tartu Art Museum. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts and is one of the recipients of the Estonian state artist’s salary.

When you think of the Nordic and Baltic regions, your first associations might be trolls and Vikings, the midnight sun and polar nights, saunas and ice swimming, hygge and fika, Nokia and IKEA. Maybe you have also heard about their excellent school systems and strong social welfare models. But what is behind these myths? 16 comic artists from across the Nordics and Baltics created works that reflect their unique perspectives on life in the region.

Participating artists: Akvile Magicdusté (Lithuania), Cecilia Vårhed (Sweden), Clara Jetsmark (Denmark), Disa Wallander (Sweden), Elín Elísabet (Iceland), Emmi Valve (Finland), Ida Neverdahl (Norway), Joonas Sildre (Estonia), Jurijs Tatarkins (Latvia), Laura Ķeniņš (Canada), Liisa Kruusmägi (Estonia), Mari Ahokoivu (Finland), Ona Kvašytė (Lithuania), Søren Glosimodt Mosdal (Denmark), Tim Ng Tvedt (Norway), Tommi Musturi (Finland). Curator: David Schilter.

Along with the exhibition comes the publication Baltic Comics Magazine š! #57 ”Mythbústers,” which collects these stories and gets distributed worldwide.

Organized by Kuš! in collaboration with Nordic Council of Minister’s Offices in Latvia and Estonia.

Supported by Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation, Nordic Council of Minister’s Offices in Latvia and Estonia, Danish Cultural Institute and Embassy of Sweden in Riga.