Exhibitions

On May 18 and 19, we invite you to visit the EKA gallery and the open spaces on the 2nd and 5th floors, where over the course of two days this semester’s works by the first-year MA Contemporary Art students will be exhibited.

The exhibition is open on both days from 15:00–18:00 and is part of the Fine Arts Assessment Marathon, which offers an unique opportunity to get to know the current works of the young artists.

In addition to the EKA building, works by several students can be seen in other locations:

– Rose Magee’s exhibition is open at Vent Space gallery until Wednesday, May 17, 16:00–19:00

– Lara Žagar’s exhibition will open at Vent Space gallery on Friday, May 19, 19:00.

– Sarah Nõmm’s work can be seen at the exhibition Naturally It Is Not at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design until June 11, Wed & Fri–Sun 11:00–18:00, Thu 11:00–20:00.

– Eri Rääsk’s work can be seen at Balta (between Vana-Kalamaja street 1 & 3) on Friday, May 19, 17:00–03:00.

Students participating in the exhibition: Rose Magee, Sarah Nõmm, Mia Felic, Mara Kirchberg, Mirjam Varik, Siim Preiman, Anna-Liisa Kree, Iryna Tanasiichuk, Sarah Noonan, Eri Rääsk, Leonor Talefe, Sandra Ernits, Mari Steinberg, Lara Žagar, Alisa Khellberg, Gerda Hansen and Syed Sachal Rizvi.

The students were supervised by Marge Monko, Kirke Kangro, Merike Estna, Taavi Talve, Anu Vahtra, John Grzinich, Paul Kuimet, Taavi Piibemann, Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Eve Kask, David K. Ross.

The exhibition “Fregment_21:12” by second-year jewelry and blacksmithing students of the Estonian Academy of Arts, will be held in the Long Leg Gate Tower of Old Town, Pikk Jalg 2, between May 19 and June 4.

The exhibition reflects eight young artists’ curiosity about preserving something – what they think is worth keeping and passing on, and in what way. The desire to keep what is important to oneself has always existed. What is preserved gives us a sense of security, that even though the world around us is changing at breakneck speed, there is something that remains the same. But when trying to store something, its nature also changes. Isn’t keeping something unchanged a failed endeavor from the very beginning?

Over the years, both our values and what is held sacred change, but the original information about something important always remains. Wisdom for life is passed on through knowledge and skills, and we hope to continue to be better than before with that. All previous experiences are somehow embedded into our DNA and manifest under certain conditions when it is necessary to save us from destruction. Despite our own contradictions and self-destructiveness, we also have a survival mechanism coded into us. To trigger it, we just need to know the right code or  the right time – let it be 21:12 for example.

Artists: Aleš Rezler, Elis Liivo, Lara Herrmann, Maarja Hallika, Madlen Hirtentreu, Madli Pajos, Helen Tiits and Paul Aadam Mikson will perform at the exhibition.

Supervisors: Eve Margus and Nils Hint

Thanks: Bruno Lillemets, Jens Andreas Clausen, Kristo Pachel, Taavi Teevet, Sander Haugas, Villu Mustkivi

Lara Žagar’s solo exhibition “Herbaryum 2188″ at VENT Space gallery

Opening: 19.05.2023  at 19.00
Exhibition is open till 25.05
12.00-17.00 every day

Lara Žagar (1993) is a visual and contemporary artist from Ljubljana. She graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering – Department of Fashion Design (2018) and is attending the Master’s programme at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana (2021-) – Department of Video and New Media. She creates long-term projects in which she explores the visual experience of the environment and her relationship to it. She is interested in different approaches to new media art and combines installation , video , photography , light and sound.

This research discovers the ecosystem of the future, breaks it down and analyses only one part of it in detail. These are the remains of organic matter that have been transformed into inorganic forms during the fossilisation process, leaving imprints that speak of a specific period and place in history. We are looking at a fossil record, or a fossil herbarium, a record of a living organism that exists in a world that has not yet come into being, but which reflects a picture of a relatively present world that is about to come to an end in this kind of form and presentation

In the empty bear cage of the Tallinn Zoo, starting from May 19th, the exhibition “Unbounded Nature” by the glass and ceramics students of the Estonian Academy of Arts can be seen.

On May 18, at 17.00, ten second-year students of the Estonian Academy of Arts will open a joint exhibition “Unbounded Nature” in the old bear cage of the Tallinn Zoo, which raises questions about the natural relationships of living beings with the environment and adaptation to unfamiliar settings. At the same time, the budding artists also investigate the influence of the animal cage as an exhibition venue on the meaning and interpretation of the artworks.

The works in the exhibition deal with the change of human nature at a time when the primordial nature around us is disappearing and artificiality is taking over. Will life lose its natural essence if we begin to manipulate it technologically? Or as Sara Kyllönen, one of the authors, asks with her sculptures: “Is the exploitation of the most innocent creatures a natural part of civilized society, or could it work differently?”

Annali Kruusamägi, Annika Luhaäär, Erko Lill, Helen Tiits, Kätriin Reinart, Laura Stina Parri, Marta Vikentjeva, Sara Kyllönen, Valeria Poljakova and Õnne Paulus will perform at the exhibition. Each of them approaches the topic from their own personal authorial position.

This is how Annika Luhaäär remembers almost extinct sea lilies by making new fossils from them. However, Annali Kruusamägi’s work consisting of a thousand keys explores the abundance of opportunities in our lives and how rarely we take advantage of them.

The exhibition “Limitless nature” is open from May 19 to June 18 every day from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Entrance with a zoo ticket.

The authors thank the Tallinn Zoo for their welcoming and friendly cooperation. Also tutors Laura Põldu and Kateriin Rikken, EKA’s glass art, ceramics and blacksmithing departments and the Estonian Academy of Arts Student Council and OÜ Kerakot.

The Embassy of Spain and the Estonian Academy of Arts invite:

The first presentation of the fashion collection “Estonia” by Spanish fashion designer Juan Duyos in Estonia will take place on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 at 16:00 in the auditorium A–501 of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

All fashion enthusiasts and lovers are welcome!

Juan Duyos is a well-known fashion designer in Spain who, among others, designs for the Spanish royal family. The fashion collection, which will be presented for the first time in Estonia, is inspired by the Estonian land, fashion and craft culture.

“A visit to Estonian nature, the symbiosis of folklore and modernity, and the new use of old techniques was the initial impetus for the “Estonia” collection,” says Piret Puppart, professor of fashion, textile and accessory design at the Estonian Academy of Arts, who was the guide for Duyos’s trip to Estonia and himself in his work on Estonian ethnology. draws ideas from nature and folklore. Puppart adds:

“Estonia has two great sources of design inspiration that I have introduced to design-minded people over the years – one of them is nature and its organic place in everyday life. We don’t have the tallest trees, the longest rivers, the mightiest mountains, but we have a certain way of thinking and relating to it all. We can see and understand in a different way — that’s what makes our stay in nature extraordinary. Another important aspect is that tradition is a living culture, not just a museum piece. Juan Duyos had the opportunity to see folk costumes and their masters actively making them here and now.”

In Piret Puppart’s opinion, thanks to the Duyos “Estonia” collection, Estonia itself is also gaining recognition. For example, the collection was presented at last year’s Madrid Fashion Week, which received extensive coverage in the foreign press.

“Fashion and travel go hand in hand. The novelty of a new city or an unfamiliar environment can stimulate the imagination. Such was the case of Spanish fashion designer Juan Duyos, who celebrated 25 years as a fashion designer on the runway with a collection inspired by a midsummer trip to Estonia,” says Piret Puppart, fashion designer and head of EKA’s fashion department.

Please inform us of your participation via the RSVP link.

The Dirt Road, Vent Space Exhibition by Masters of Contemporary Art student Sarah Noonan opens May 2 at 18.00.

Exhibition Opening times are 2–7 May from 15.00–19.00.

02.05–07.05 The Dirt Road by Sarah Noonan

On September 24th, 2022 a small hurricane in Atlantic Canada destroyed an abandoned tree farm on a dirt road. The exhibition The Dirt Road symbolizes how the attachment to a specific location and the origin of home can turn a place into somewhere that is precious. Materials and memory teleport familiarity while roaming unnaturally through structures and color. To explore the ethereal desolation of nature, textile sculptures create an abstract representation of the dirt road. This installation environment recollects sensitive traits from this cherished place. It reveals how the roots of our upbringing are abandoned by abstract forms and imagining memories; But ground feelings of regret with youthful honesty.

Sarah Noonan uses her own discarded clothes and belongings to transform worn and renewed fabrics into hand-sewn, mixed media sculptures. Through indiscriminate uses of craft and textile materials they investigate material qualities of durability and softness. Their art reveals fragile layers of sentiment around us that navigate connections to inhabiting places. Changes in time, place, and acceptance encourages us to identify feelings of intrinsic worth.

Anu Vahtra will open her solo exhibition along the wall, down the stairs, outside in Hobusepea gallery at 17:00 on Thursday, May 4th, 2023. Exhibition will be open until May 29, 2023.

The exhibition along the wall, down the stairs, outside is a new installation by Anu Vahtra, consisting of works created since 2020. The process of observing and documenting situations, solutions and decisions in a city that is constantly under construction is reflected in photographs, videos and found objects. These works were originally created for exhibitions in Amsterdam, Athens and Brussels.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Anne Carson’s essay Chez l’Oxymoron (1988). The exhibition is accompanied by a text contribution by artist Lieven Lahaye and a film contribution by artist and filmmaker Ingel Vaikla. Graphic design by Elisabeth Klement.

Anu Vahtra (1982, Tallinn) is an artist working primarily with photography, video and installation. Initiated by the architectural characteristics as well as historical and contextual background of a certain site, Vahtra’s works often focus on the exhibition format and specifics of an exhibition space but also tackle issues of urban space. Vahtra has participated in numerous group exhibitions and has had solo exhibitions in Estonia and abroad. In 2017, she was an artist in residence at ISCP in New York and in 2020 at the WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels. Since February 2022, Vahtra works as the head of MA Contemporary Art program at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Thank you: Maris Karjatse, Lieven Lahaye, Tanja Muravskaja, Ingel Vaikla, Johannes Säre & Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

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

Roman-Sten Tõnissoo and Ellen Vene dive into the medieval darkness in Draakon gallery

Roman-Sten Tõnissoo & Ellen Vene will open their co-exhibition If This Is Light, Then Give Us Darkness in Draakon gallery at 17:00 on Thursday, May 4th, 2023.

Exhibition will be open until May 27th, 2023.

If This Is Light, Then Give Us Darkness, the co-exhibition of Roman-Sten Tõnissoo and Ellen Vene, serves as an ongoing collaboration between the two artists. Their distinctive styles exchange locations, reflect each other and create new forms of dialogue.

Through site-sensitive artwork, Tõnissoo and Vene attempt to disentangle and redefine visuals from fantasies that stem from one’s desire to escape into alternative environments from the restless quintessence of the world. Relying on technological development, the practice of referring and sampling has established itself even more firmly in visual culture – and therefore, the perception of contemporaneity is increasingly complemented by a collage of fragments from different eras. During pivotal times, one often yearns for magical archaism, a concept based on the imaginary, fragmented past. With their current exhibition in Draakon gallery, located in the heart of the old town of Tallinn, the artists observe the Middle Ages as a platform where all kinds of ideas and ideals can be projected. Examples of recycled medieval aesthetics, symbols and milieu are found in every field of culture – music, fashion, fiction, games and films. The darkness of the Middle Ages seems to be an alternation to the flickering light of screens reflecting modern despair.

Roman-Sten Tõnissoo (b. 1989) has graduated from the department of photography (BA) and contemporary art (MA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and has also studied at FAMU, Film and TV School in Prague. The focal point of his artistic practice lies in the quest for spirituality and purpose in contemporary society, and in the fragile connections between aggression and the sense of security. The artist’s cross-media work methods refer to and search for spatial moments of dialogue, including the potential to visualize new possible future perspectives. Among his recent exhibition projects are “Your Afterlife Is Cancelled” together with Ellen Vene in ARS Project Space (2022), “Out of Sight Is Out of Mind” together with Ellen Vene in ROAM Project Space in Berlin (2022) and “Dreams in Unfreedom” together with Sven Parker in the Monumental Gallery of Tartu Art House (2022).

Ellen Vene (b. 1990) has obtained BA in the department of sculpture and installation and MA in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and additionally studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and Central Saint Martins College in London. The core of her installative artistic practice includes strategies based on cultural and art history while illustrating the ways how historical systems and roles are reflected in the present. Among her recent exhibition projects are “Exercises for Dreamkeeping” in TYPA gallery (2022), “Your Afterlife Is Cancelled” together with Roman-Sten Tõnissoo in ARS Project Space (2022), “Out of Sight Is Out of Mind” together with Roman-Sten Tõnissoo in Roam Project Space in Berlin (2022).

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.