Exhibitions

If history were to end today, as who would you be left standing in the following static oblivion? The exhibition “Läbi dissonants” contrasts five audiovisual artworks, with the goal of taking a deeper glance at the tools and mechanisms that neoliberalism, as a system, uses to enforce and recreate its modern political hegemony.

Abstraction can be found everywhere, from long, seamlessly blending beaches to industrial megastructures. From strong outlines around hollow bodies to misleading wordplay that those shapes espouse. From the foggy beginnings of a human’s existence to their last interrupted movement.

The exhibition includes works from the artists Inna Tarakanova, Artjom Jurov, Aksel Haagensen, Marto Mägi, and John Smith.
Open from the 13th of May till the 19th of June. To visit, we ask that you contact the gallery a day ahead of time to organize your visit.

Curator: Kaur Järve

Metropolkapp – https://www.instagram.com/metropolkapp/?hl=en

Curated by Rebeka Põldsam

15.05.-14.06.2026

Opening Thursday, May 14 at 6 pm at Draakon Gallery 

Mara Kirchberg’s solo exhibition explores the technologization of care, focusing on how the automotive sector has shaped care work. Moving between garage and medical settings, Kirchberg examines the metaphor of the body as a machine, tracing how petromodern systems designed for efficiency come to structure how we carry, support, and maintain one another.

At the center of the exhibition is a hanging installation assembled from industrial materials forming a fragile organism—lifting slings, artificial membranes, lubricants—requiring ongoing maintenance to remain functional. During “Service Hours,” the artist activates the pulley system, performing a public maintenance while wearing a PVC “Sweat Suit”. 

Performances: 30 May and 13 June at 5 PM

Performed by Mara Kirchberg

Curator: Rebeka Põldsam

Graphic design: Kert Viiart–Õllek

Technical support: Gisèle Gonon, Marko Odar

Outside Eye: Gisèle Gonon

Supported by The Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Goethe-Institut Estland

Special thanks to: Eesti Kunstnike Liit, Hans-Otto Ojaste, Mari Volens, Sandra Ernits

On Thursday, 14 May at 6 PM, Viktoria Martjanova’s first solo exhibition Biomaterial will open at the Hobusepea Gallery.

Working with installation, video and photography, the artist regards the body as a resource: a currency that can be optimised, controlled, used and categorised according to political, military and economic interests.

At the centre of the exhibition is a large-scale installation made of hair, transforming this intimate and personal material into a spatial experience. From this enchanting, yet repellent approach to material and form, Martjanova moves on to the media of photography and video, creating a more direct link between organic matter and human life. The exhibited bodies and materials have lost their autonomy and function rather as units in a broader socio-political system, where their value is determined by their usability and purpose.

Viktoria Martjanova is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes video, installation, sound, text and performativity. Her work focuses on the formation of identity in conditions where the personal experience is inextricably linked to social and political mechanisms, perceiving the body as a tension field where these power dynamics are manifested.

Martjanova uses bodily experience, memory and language as materials to examine how personal tension and social structures intertwine in the body and how these relationships become perceivable. Her works move along the axis of tension and interruption, looking at identity as an unstable construct that is constantly rewritten. Martjanova highlights the human and young author’s position in conditions shaped by external pressure, visibility and the requirement to create one’s self-image.

Her works have been shown at the Performa Biennial in New York, the Riga Art Week’s (RAW) opening event, the Alma Gallery in Riga and the Vilnius Art Week. She is the laureate of the 2025 Young Artist Award granted by the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Curator: Lilian Hiob-Küttis

Graphic design: Maxim Nikanorov

Installation of the exhibition: Polina Kaaiko, Tõnis Tallermaa, Madis Eek, Hans-Otto Ojaste

Metalwork: Märt Vaidla

Special gratitude to Eesti Kultuurkapital, Eesti Kunsti Aakadeemia, Valge Kuup Studio, Anita Kremm, Ksenia Verbeštšuk, Juri Krutii, Todd Richter, Dmitry Gubin, Aksel Haagesen, Viktoria Arapina, juuste doonorid, kunstniku perekond, Villem Varik, Liisi Kõuhkna, Kaisa Maasik-Koplimets, Anna Mari Liivrand, Jordi Hin, Andrei Kazakov, Meraki Testa Dell’Acqua, Compose.

PS! The celebration of the exhibition opening will continue at Paavli Culture Factory starting from 8:30pm.

Exhibitions in the Hobusepea Gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.

The gallery is managed by the Estonian Artists’ Association.

On Friday, May 15 at 1:00 PM, the Patarei Sea Fortress will host the opening of an exhibition titled “Alone Together” curated by the second-year students of the Estonian Academy of Arts Jewellery and Blacksmithing department. The exhibition will present works of contemporary metal and jewelry art which examine the inner world of a person, exploring how the desire to belong shapes our choices, ideologies, and prejudices. 

As humans, we are frightened by loneliness – the need for communication, touch, and a sense of belonging is natural. Although it is easier to make new connections today than ever before, reality seems to indicate the opposite – people are experiencing increasing loneliness. 

Participating students: Alexander Matthias Saage, Karl-Erik Eeriksoo, Barbara Põldmaa, Kirsika Kaljuste, Stiina Marie Sarevet, Johanna Maria Maripuu

The student’s work was supervised by Eve Margus and Nils Hint.

Graphic designer: Mattias E. Tiik

Patarei Sea Fortress

Kalaranna tn 28

May 15 – 24, 2026

Mon-Sun, 13-19p.m.

We are happy to announce the Urban Studies Exhibition at 18.04 in Logi Sauna. 

Exhibition “Ebbs and Flows, Perspectives on Baltic Sea and Beyond”
Opening: May 18, 6pm
Open: May 19–20, 12am–7pm
Location: Logi Saun  

This exhibition presents work from Urban Studies Studio 2, developed through a semester-long inquiry into the Baltic Sea and its wider urban, socio-political and ecological relations. Rather than treating the sea as a blank blue void beyond the urban, the works invite us to look again at what remains unseen: the seabed and the inbetween, the information and goods that travels across, the ruins, the privatised territories and the labour. What appears distant or abstract becomes close, material and lived.

The exhibition brings together works by Catherine Lavrik, Claudia Jung, Emely Bobsien, Giacomo Alberto Rescia, Kadri Haugas, Mihkel Uku Karindi, Muhamudul Hasan, Nabid Hasan Shovon, Nika Khalus, Shariful Islam and Zsofia Helka Molnar, developed within the studio led by Miina Pohjolainen and Nabeel Imtiaz.

“Moments Held” is a group exhibition by second-year students from the Department of Graphic Art at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The title refers to nostalgic or meaningful fragments of time that each artist preserves through their work in their own unique way. The exhibition explores human memory and its fragility, the act of holding onto memories, and the attempt to capture moments that would otherwise vanish all too quickly.

The works address the transformation of the mind under societal pressure, the shifting of memories with every recollection, and the stories carried by objects. Some artists draw on family heritage, others on the experience of adapting to a new environment, yet almost all look inward during the creative process to interpret and visually depict the moments that hold personal significance. Together, they form a cohesive whole defined by craftsmanship, experimentation, and materiality.

Participating artists: Anastasija Šteinle, Anna Weidebaum, Ronja Jõgi, Sadhbh Connolly, Selene Taur.

The artists would like to thank their supervisors Viktor Gurov and Eve Kask, and the EKA Department of Graphic Art.

Exhibition dates: 11/05.–30/05. Opening: May 11 at 17:00. Location: GÜ Gallery, Pärnu mnt 154, Tallinn. Opening hours: Mon–Fri 12–18, Sat 12–16

Opening on Thursday, 21 May at 6 pm in the Great Hall of the Kumu Art Museum
(Weizenbergi 34 / Valge 1, Tallinn).
 
Chromatic Drift creates a cohesive perceptual and spatial experience centred on colour, a defining element in the oeuvre of the Estonian painter Kristi Kongi. Works created specifically for this exhibition over the past couple of years, together with the surrounding installation-based environment, evoke both chromatic richness and a poetic mode of being in unmapped territory.
 
At the opening, the launch of the book accompanying the exhibition will also take place.
 
The opening will take place in Kumu’s courtyard, weather permitting.
 
Opening programme on Saturday, 23 May:

Exhibition tours with curator Ann Mirjam Vaikla and artist Kristi Kongi: 12 noon (in English) and 2 pm (in Estonian)
Artist talk with Kristi Kongi at 3:30 pm

The exhibition will remain open until 11 October 2026.

Curator: Ann Mirjam Vaikla
Exhibition design: Mari Hunt, Grete Daut (MARIHUNT architects)
Graphic design: Brit Pavelson
Exhibition installation manager: Tõnis Medri
Coordinator: Anastassia Langinen

Opening: May 9, 2026, from 19:00 until sunset

We are a group of EKA students, all of whom are from different major cities around the world and we invite you to a get-together with us on May 9 at 7:00 p.m. on the beach near the Logi sauna. The exhibition takes place within the course “Exhibition: Artist as Nomad”. 

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Only Temporary unfolds as a brief gathering shaped by light, time, and presence. The exhibition brings together works that shift, dissolve, or exist only for a limited duration. This concept is to resist permanence and inviting attention to what cannot be held.

Somewhere between intervention and coexistence, the artworks hover in an ambiguous space. At times they might be appearing parasitic, at others in quiet sync with their surroundings. Visitors are invited to encounter them intuitively: to stumble upon, to observe, and to question.

This is not a fixed moment, but a passing one. A shared experience shaped by change, perception, and the act of letting go. As daylight fades, so does the opening. The event follows a natural rhythm, ending with the disappearance of light. 

In a society of ultra-modernity and hyperconnectivity, what does it mean to resist acceleration?

Between infinite production and the rejection of speed, the works produced question our relationship to technology and nature, particularly in the era of valuing fast production and quick reward over process and slowness.

Acceleration promises transformation yet produces cyclical redundancy.

Slowness appears as an alternative, yet risks disappearance.

We must imagine other ways of being, and investigate how one might exist within a system saturated with the homogenization of forms and algorithmic repetition.

This exhibition does not aim to resolve this tension.

It sustains it.

It stages practices that oscillate, overflow, and evade.

It does not propose a solution but rather creates a space for transgression by observing the inherent slowness of the garden.

Allowing us to construct a world where other rhythms, forms, and futures become conceivable.

This exhibition was made possible by the generosity of Kopli 93, community and educational garden. The central theme of the exhibition was heavily influenced by our collective perception of the vast, mystical space. We would like to thank Kristin Lang and the other gardeners of Kopli 93 for warmly welcoming and educating us, and the community of Kopli for allowing us to exhibit in their neighborhood.

Exhibiting artists: Esther Borrett, Nancy Bettina Beard, Coco Corbineau, Sadhbh Connolly, Kimberly Jüschke, Karolin Mägedik, Chloe McDougall, Elise Muchowski, and Tin Trong Nguyen.

Exhibition team: Oleksandra Aleksieienko, Panna Becker, Yann Mazzalovo, Daria Zaitseva”

Moulds for the Wilderness / Vormid tühermaale
Odie Lap Chun Chow
Location: Hanger, Põhjala tehas, Marati tn 5, Tallinn
Opening 8.05 at 18:00
Visting hours: 8.05–19.05 WED-SUN 11:00-17:00
Defence date: 12.05 at 10:00

Moulds for the Wilderness is a showcase of Odie Lap Chun Chow’s journey into mould making, inspired by ceramic casting production and self-experience in identity seeking. Gypsum, clay, and photography became the materials Odie used to explore and reflect on his struggle to find self-identity, bound to the city he came from. Here, he raises the question of whether moulds give limits or freedom to one, and whether one can create their own “wilderness”, a space without borders.

Perfect Dupes / Täiuslik duplikaat
Maia Hellman
Location: Kopli tn 2a
Opening: 9.05 at 18:00
Visiting Hours 9.05–30.05 THR-SUN 14:00-19:00
Defence date: 12.05 at 15:00

The remnants of the honey shop linger here, in the elongated shelves that run the walls and the price stickers from the beekeeping and gardening equipment they once sold. The same shelves now hold objects that arrived here with their own histories. Second-hand tableware, ceramic pieces, raw materials. Things that have passed through other hands before reaching these shelves. Some of them have passed through mine.

Lyly Pudi-Padi Pood, Lyly’s IJzerwinkel, La Quincallerie de Lyly
Lyly Letzer
Location: Keskturg Kiosk 168
Opening date: 10.05 at 11:00
Visiting hours: 10.05–17.05
Defence date: 13.05 at 11:00

A “ijzerwinkel”, “quincallerie” or “pudi-padi pood” is a place where you can find glue, a flower, a plate or someone to talk to. // Pudi-padi pood on koht, kust võib leida nii liimi, lilleõie, taldriku kui ka vestluse. // Une quincaillerie est un endroit où on peut tout trouver, un clou, une assiette, un savon et une personne à qui parler. // Ik ga naar een ijzerwinkel om van alles en nog wat te vinden: een tas, een koek of een babbel.

Unfolding Gestures / Avanev käeliigutus
Mariam Mestvirishvili
Location: Angaarinstituut, Põhjala Tehas, Marati tn 5, Tallinn
Opening 8.05 at 18:00
Visiting: 8.05–24.05 WED-SUN 11:00-17:00
Defence date: 13.05 at 15:00

Unfolding Gestures brings together practices of ceramic and textile making, exploring what lies beyond their surface and unfolds through them. By focusing on the process of making, the coexistence of material and maker as beings in their own right becomes visible, resulting in a series of works that reveal the traces of the process and its inherent mundanities.

Beyond Wearability / Kantavusest kaugemal
Peixuan Lin
Location: ARS Kunstilinnak, Stuudio 53, Pärnu mnt 154
Opening 11.05 at 18:00
Visiting hours: 11.05–15.05
Defence date: 14.05 at 10:00

Beyond Wearability builds on the personal experiences and theoretical research of designer Peixuan Lin, exploring how accessories transcend from wearability to becoming fluid symbols of identity. It shows how materials, myths, and everyday use collectively transform accessories into vehicles for personal narratives.

Souvenirs from Home / Suveniirid kodust
Sylvia Burgess
Location: Pika Jala väravatorn, Pikk Jalg 3
Opening: 16.05 at 18:00
Visiting hours 16.05–14.06 THR–SUN 12:00-17:00
Defence date: 14.05 at 14:00

Souvenirs from home is an exhibition of small objects and jewellery drawing on motifs, techniques and materials gathered through the three homes Sylvia Burgess has experienced in the past two years.

KULTIVEERITUD KEHA
Joanne-Heleene Sõrmus
Location: EKA Stenograafia stuudio, B304
Opening: 14.05 at 19:00 (performance)
Defence date: 15.05 at 10:00, A403

At the culmination, the focus shifts away from the body to what remains of it: its traces, forms, and surfaces that are transferred into the garment. Performance KULTIVEERITUD KEHA explores the moment when the body ceases to be the objective and instead becomes a trace – a shell no longer defined by physical perfection, but by the aesthetic and emotional residue left by the pursuit of it.

Extensions / Pikendused
Marite Kuus-Hill

Location: Kopli 70a, II floor/korrus
Opening 12.05 at 18:00

Defence date: 15.05 at 14:00

Extensions is a collection of events surrounding a handmade 4 m x 4 m quilt. This project presents a series of proposals and brings forth open-ended questions about space and space making, while expanding the notion of a quintessential cultural object, the quilted blanket.

Collection of public events:

April 17th 18:00
Thesis Assembly
Marite Kuus-Hill & Chloé Gourvennec
Krulli maja, Kopli 70a, Tallinn

May 6th 14:00
Patchnotes: Line Arngaard
Haron Barashed & Marite Kuus-Hill
oh.eka-gd-ma.ee / EKA sea terrace, Põhja pst 7, Tallinn

May 12th 18:00
Twelve Proposals for an Unfolding Event
Lili Maud Dobell & Marite Kuus-Hill
Krulli maja, Kopli 70a, Tallinn

May 13th 18:00 (invitation only)
Quilting Bee and Talking Bird
Jordy Weaver & Marite Kuus-Hill
ETC Space, Niine 8, Tallinn

May 22nd – 23rd 11:00-17:00
Quilt Space
Fair Enough Art Book Fair
Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design
Lai 17, Tallinn

June 3rd 14:00
Patchnotes: Alek Green
Haron Barashed & Marite Kuus-Hill
oh.eka-gd-ma.ee / EKA sea terrace, Põhja pst 7, Tallinn