Exhibitions

On Thursday, May 15th at 5:30 pm jewellery and blacksmithing students of the Estonian Academy of Arts will open the group exhibition “Wasted Light” on two floors at Roosikrantsi 8b.

The exhibition features contemporary jewellery and metal works that explore wear and tear as a slow but constant process through time and change.

The exhibition connects the past and present day, offering a vantage point where material and cultural wear and tear form a poetic yet critical reflection of identity, memory and embodied experiences. “Wasted Light” discusses how we are affected by processes that do not entirely erode, but bring out what is hidden beneath the layers.

Participants
Greg-Robin Al-Touby, Miia Helena Allsalu, Kelly Engelbrecht, Marek Huntsaar, Robert Idvani, Liisi Kõuhkna, Helle-Maris Laanet, Kaspar Lesk, Tarvo Porroson, Kaspar Pulk, Liisa-Chrislin Saleh, Patrick Soome, Pärt Taukar, Melani Telliskivi, Liisa Tikka

Supervisors Eve Margus and Nils Hint
Graphic design Mikk Jõgi

Thanks to the Estonian Academy of Arts, Aldar Eesti OÜ

Open for visiting 16.05-01.06.2025

Wed-Fri 14:00-19:00

Sat-Sun 12:00-19:00

Rait Lõhmus presents the methodology developed during his MA studies with the project Reblow Toolset: “Piiritus / Infinite” – a site-specific glassblowing performance that connects industrial production heritage with contemporary craft. The performative reblowing takes place in the historic Rakvere Distillery and invites to reflect on the invisibility and impact of mass production. The demonstration brings human presence back into a space built on mechanised precision.

Reblow Toolset is a selection of tools and devices for reblowing premade glass objects. Influences from earlier productions and modified equipment are extensions of the designer’s body in a mobile glassblowing studio. The technology redefines and revalues existing glass objects, referring  to collaboration with a previous author, production, era or region.

“Piiritus / Infinite” is the outcome of experimentation, conceptual and tool development during the MA studies. The final project presentation takes place at Rakvere Distillery, an iconic yet vanishing part of Estonia’s industrial heritage. The former production space bridges creator, material, space, eras and heritage.

Reblowing reveals the potential of premade glass objects: resume, retake, reblow, remember, reproduce and reshape.

Supervised by Andres Allik, Triin Jerlei, Juss Heinsalu, Kärt Ojavee

Supported by Estonian Academy of Arts – Craft Studies

Rait Lõhmus’ site-specific glassblowing demonstration “Reblow Toolset: Piiritus / Infinite” is part of the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Craftstudies MA programme and the EKA TASE Graduation Show.

An invitation to the opening of “From Mines to Mountains”, an exhibition by Hannah Segerkrantz on Thursday 15.05 at 18:00 

From Mines to Mountains unfolds as an act of care within an industrially mined landscape often denied tenderness. Anchored in historical, environmental and socio-political research, the project unveils the complex entanglements of Ida-Virumaa, Eastern Estonia—a region reshaped by over a century of oil shale mining. At its core are four hand-sculpted vessels made of clay and glazes from oil shale ash sourced directly from this terrain. Through field research, writings, material experiments, and a visual essay, the project asks what it means to care for a terraformed environment, offering a new perspective through the language of craft. 

With special thanks to: Lina Kaljundi, Juss Heinsalu, Kärt Ojavee, Eik Hermann, Ainar Varinurm, Maksim Olissov, Anne Eelmere, Jaan August Viirand, Ethel Ütsmüts, Tiiu Meiner, Kati Saarits, Marite Helena Kuus, Karl Joonas Alamaa, Taavi Teevet 

Supported by: Estonian Academy of Arts – Craft Studies 

Opening: May 15th, 2025, 18:00 

Exhibition is open by appointment between 15.05-29.06 

Pikk Jalg 3, III floor 

Hannah Segerkrantz is a designer whose practice combines the notion of agency with the re-definition of what we address as our ‘surroundings’. With an interest in the intersection between architecture and radical ecologies, her approach to research is environmental, sensorial and contextual. Whether exploring the cultural background and gestures of architectural materials, or studying the relations between objects, people and local traditions, she offers tools and means for bridging our connection with the environments we inhabit.

hannahsegerkrantz.com

The exhibition Jääkolek consists of works by the second-year graphic art students at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The word jääkolek in Estonian refers to what is left behind. The exhibition looks at how memory settles into ordinary things: the spaces we move through, the tools we use, the images we make. These traces live not only in the work itself, but also in the studio we share; a space that holds the rhythms of our daily making, quiet moments, and collective conversations. Over time, it has become both a place of creation and reflection, marked by what has happened within its walls.

The works of Jääkolek explore a range of topics, from personal introspection and identity to tradition, collective memory, and the nature of artistic labour. Some pieces are shaped by family histories or past events, while others focus on internal experiences and questions of the self.

There is a shared interest in traces: the marks left by repeated gestures, the sounds that linger, the material presence of things. Together, these works form a collection of imprints, fragments of thoughts, feelings, and memory that refuse to disappear.

Participating artists:

Aliisa Ahtiainen, Alona Chuprina, Olga Dubrovskaja, Merit Himmelreich, Jacqueline-Desirée Rosenthal, Robin August Vöörmann

Thank you: Eve Kask and Viktor Gurov for supervising, EKA Graafika for support and Art Lovers of Estonia for sponsoring the opening eventJääkolek

Exhibition dates: 20.–30.05 2025

Opening: 19.05 2025 kell 17.00

Location: GÜ galerii, Pärnu mnt 154, Tallinn

Opening hours: E–R / Mon-Fri 12–18

MACA 1st year students’ group exhibition in two shifts takes place at EKA Gallery on May 11–12 and May 13–14 and is open to public from 14:00–18:00.

The exhibition is part of Fine Arts Faculty’s Assessment Marathon and brings together a variety of practices, featuring works created during the spring semester’s Art Practice module addressing the following keywords and topics: breeze, collapse, derivation, gaze, glue-3-in-1, grass, homelessness, interval, memory, pigeoning, snug, sometime, time, to do list, unconscious, veiled.

Participating artists:
[May 11–12] Anna Ovtšinnikova, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Denis Kudrjašov, Denis Lebedev, Kroplya, Lisette Lepik, Rosa-Maria Nuutinen
[May 13–14] Aidan Timmer, Anastasiia Krapivina, Anumai Raska, Edvard Vellevoog, Fausta Norekaite, Giulio Cusinato, Kertu Rannula, Kristina Kuzemko, Nadya Tjuška*, Nora Schmelter*, Siim Laanemäe

* work by Nadya Tjuška and Nora Schmelter will be presented at Uus Rada and Raja 11a building, open by appointment.

Supervisors of Art Practice in spring semester: Anu Vahtra, Camille Laurelli, David K. Ross, Jaan Toomik, Laura Põld, Liina Siib, Marge Monko, Maris Karjatse, Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Taavi Talve, Viktor Gurov

EKA Graduation Show TASE ‘25 opens on May 28, 2025

The Estonian Academy of Arts’ grad show TASE ’25 is back, with the main event being the graduation exhibition held at the “Projekteerijate maja”, located at Rävala puiestee 8, Tallinn.

The TASE ‘25 opening event will be held on Wednesday, May 28, at 17:00 in the park in front of the Rävala 8 building. During the public opening event, awards for Young Artist, Young Applied Artist, and Young Designer will be presented to both bachelor’s and master’s level students.

PROGRAM
TASE ‘25 Opening: 28.05, 17:00–23:00

Graduation defenses at the Estonian Academy of Arts and at the TASE graduation festival, Rävala puiestee 8, Tallinn: 26.05–11.06.2025

TASE ANIMA 2025 — animation graduation film screening on Friday, June 13, 17:00–19:00 at Cinema Sõprus, free entry.

Further information will be updated at: https://tase.artun.ee/

TASE is the Estonian Academy of Arts’ annual spring graduation festival, with the graduation exhibition at its heart. The exhibition features graduates from the faculties of architecture, design, art culture, and fine arts.

The Forest Whispers is a unique jewellery exhibition that brings Estonian jewellery to Finland for the first time.

The exhibition of contemporary Estonian jewellery, Forest Whispers, tells the story of the relationship with nature, the forest and its meanings for Estonians. The jewellery opens up the relationship with the forest and nature from different perspectives: through mythology, the forest connection and the production of natural materials or ideas.

This unique jewelry exhibition brings Estonian jewelry to Finland for the first time. The exhibition features the work of around 50 jewelry artists, a forest project by students from the Art School of Helsinki, and the work of Roman Tavasti artists. The exhibition is curated by PhD Kärt Summatavet.

The forest is a meaningful, even sacred place. The experience of nature opens up by spending time there in different ways: walking, sitting, listening, drawing, photographing, swimming, picking berries and mushrooms. The exhibition allows you to delve deeper into the history of Estonian jewellery, mythology and the relationship with nature. The jewellery has been transformed into experiences, observations and dreams, traditions and ancient knowledge in the hands of artists. The relationship between Finnish and Estonian people with forests is very similar and exhibition visitors will certainly find common ground in their own ideas about nature and forests.

You are warmly invited to the opening of Juulia Aleksandra Mikson’s solo exhibition “For a Moment” on Tuesday, May 6th at 18:30, at Manufaktuuri 7/2, Tallinn.

From 6th to 16th of May Juulia Aleksandra Mikson is organizing her solo exhibition “For a Moment” as part of her master’s project at the Craft Studies department at the Estonian Academy of Arts. The overarching theme of the exhibition is the metamorphosis of life and the fading of matter. The materials used in the artworks engage with the gradual decay of life. The limited lifespan of the pieces — their potential to break, unravel, or fragment — conveys the uniqueness of both disintegration and creation.

By using the word ‘hääbuma’ that translates as decay or fading , often associated with melancholy or sorrow, the artist embraces the inevitability of life’s flow — where every end marks a new beginning. Nothing is permanent nor irreversibly lost, but rather in constant motion, always offering the potential for rebirth.

The exhibition site itself reflects a location-specific metamorphosis through time — the reinhabitation of the once-abandoned Baltic Cotton Spinning and Weaving Factory, now being transformed into the Manufaktuuri Quarter. The exhibition unfolds across three spatial environments: an apple orchard, liminal space between old factory buildings , and a contemporary residential development. This new architecture contrasts visually with the remaining factory buildings — at least, for now, before the old is fully absorbed by the new.The exhibition space brings together the works that embody various forms of textility and stages of transformation.

Juulia Aleksandra Mikson is a textile artist who explores the boundaries between materials. Her creative process is guided by the intrinsic properties of the materials, allowing them to lead the dynamics of creation. In her liminal practice, she has combined textiles with clay, and metal with textiles — revealing new layers within the relationships between materials. Working with both metal and clay, she values the freedom found in not knowing — a space where limitations do not hinder experimentation or the flow of creativity. For her, the essence of creation lies in the pure joy of making, where technique and material naturally become extensions of the hands and the mind.

Juulia’s work engages with themes surrounding the relationship between humans, the Earth, and nature. Through this lens, she reflects on the contemporary fear of dacy and fading — where, in denying disappearance, we live in illusion.

“For a Moment”, Juulia Aleksandra Mikson’s solo exhibition, forms part of her master’s thesis in the Art Studies curriculum at the Estonian Academy of Arts and is presented within the EKA TASE Graduation Festival.

Supervisors: Marta Konovalov, Kärt Ojavee, Juss Heinsalu
Mentor: Ivar Veermäe
Installation Team: Martin Mikson, Anna-Liisa Pärt
Sound Artist: Karolin Sigus
Graphic Design: Katariin Mudist

The artist wishes to thank:
The EKA Ceramics Department, the EKA Jewellery and Blacksmithing Department, the EKA Textile Department, the EKA Art Studies programme, Karl Aunin, Kille-Ingeri Liivoja, Mari-Ann Reede, Paul Aadam Mikson, Aleš Rezler, Mia Tamme, and all other collaborators in thought.

Supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Põhjala Brewery, Estonian Academy of Arts – Art Studies

Opening: May 6, 2025 | 18:30–21:00

Exhibition Open:

7th May: 16:00–19:00
9th May: 16:00–19:00
12th May: 16:00–19:00
14th–16th May: 16:00–19:00

Location: Manufaktuuri 7/2, Tallinn

Anita Kremm’s exhibition on contracts and identity

On April 30, 2025, at 18.00, the solo exhibition CONTRACT by Anita Kremm, recipient of the 2024 EKA Young Artist Award, will open at Hobusepea gallery.
The exhibition is curated by Ene-Liis Semper.

Anita Kremm has been working with the theme of contracts since 2021. Since then, she has conducted a series of practical experiments, entering into contracts on a wide variety of topics and in various formats: a contract signed in blood, in which participants commit to revealing the most violent act from their past. A birthday contract, wherein all guests bring the birthday person a book they are then required to read throughout the course of the evening. A debt contract, in which both parties agree to a mutual debt relationship, which can only be resolved by performing the specified act or surrendering an object as described in the contract. And so forth. All contracts are valid under current legislation and binding upon mutual agreement between the parties. According to Anita, this artistic trajectory emerged as a response to the COVID-19 era: “I felt I needed a deeper understanding of people and how they function. I felt that everything I knew was merely the surface.”

The current exhibition centres around a contract made between the artist and a volunteer, to whom she transferred her entire external identity for a 24-hour period: her apartment, clothing, eating habits, daily routines, phone, computer, and all social and familial contacts.

A video documentation of the experiment invites viewers to reflect on questions such as: What constitutes the self? What defines me? Does the self require external identity to be recognised? Or is the self formed through this external framework? What personal and general agreements define our sense of self? Etc.

Anita Kremm (1998) is an interdisciplinary artist working in photography, theatre, film, video, and performance. While engaging with various styles and mediums, her work consistently focuses on interpersonal relationships, and the boundaries between the familiar and unfamiliar, the everyday and uncanny. By disrupting daily routines and pushing beyond comfort zones, she creates extraordinary moments, provokes the everyday, and welcomes the unknown into familiar spaces. Her works have been exhibited in Tallinn, Helsinki, Moscow, Weimar, Graz, and Prague, and her experimental short films have been screened at multiple European festivals. Her master’s thesis,  Me/Her – In Dialogue with Julia Kristeva, was awarded the EKA Young Artist Award in 2024.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia & COBALT Law Firm.
The artist’s gratitude goes to: Irina Kremm ja Vladislav Kremm, Ljudmilla ja Hariton Drajev, Jakob Juksaar, Mia Maria Rohumaa, Aksel Haagensen, Karin Allik, Eva Mari Mahhov, Ele Mall Vainomäe, Mihhail, Tõnu Hiielaid, Oliver Reimann, Anette Pärn, Mark Raidpere, Peeter Kutman, Kanuti Gildi Saali perekond, Still Frame OÜ.
Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.