Exhibitions

Maria Erikson’s solo exhibition Soft Touch on the Deckle opens in Draakoni Gallery. 

At her present exhibition Soft Touch on the Deckle, the artist observes her relationship
with the process of graphic art involving the body of the artist and the lithographic limestone. Seeking parallels and contradictions between them a comparison is made between a body and its surface to the one of the stone. While attributing limestone with human skin-like ability to memorize, Erikson explores her personal artwork as a dialogue between the two bodies – the one of the artist and the one of the stone. Through material interactions and contact events new forms of co-existence and non-hierarchical ways of communication between them emerge. 

The surface of lithographic stone is smooth and porous. Similarly to skin it records the touch that stratifies over time. Lithographic liquid tusche is commonly used in Erikson’s artistic practice. Its dried coatings on the surface of the litho stone result in reticulation that can be seen as an abstract landscape. In this way the touch between the artist and the material as well as the stone´s geological strata are intertwined. 

Soft Touch on the Deckle is a three-part exhibition project – the first part is being
exhibited here in Draakoni gallery, the second one will be displayed in Ratamo gallery,
Jyväskylä in March 2023 and the third part will be held in the Museum of Lithography in Sweden in April 2023. 

Engagement and contact are central in Maria Erikson’s artistic practice. With the focus on materiality and materials as sets of relationships, she investigates visible and non-visible relations that are produced by the gestures between them. In new structural arrangements she investigates their jointness and indifferences, bodiliness and ability to
inhabit shared space. Maria Erikson has completed two-year studies as a collaborative lithography printer and holds a Master Printer certificate from Tamarind Institute (USA), obtained MA degree in the printmaking study area at the Academy of Fine Arts/Uniarts Helsinki (Finland). In 2019, Maria Erikson received the Eduard Wiiralt grant and in 2021
she was awarded with Ann-Margret Lindell Grant for Printmaking (Sweden). Among her recent exhibitions are Notes from Borderspace (ARS Project Space, 2022); Taidegrafiikan tapa olla – materiality, collaboration and agency (Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki, 2021); Grafik (Gallery Sander, Norrköping, Sweden, 2021). 

Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The artist expresses her gratitude to: Liina Siib, Paul Rannik, Mart Saarepuu, department of Graphic Art at the Estonian Academy of Arts. 

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

Maria-Kristiina Ulas will open her personal exhibition Clue Whizzing from the Left in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, January 11th, 2023. Exhibition will stay open until February 6th, 2023. 

“Contingency can be enlightening, a quiet nudging towards the bright side. A fresh opportunity to understand despite the fact that the remains of memory are floating in the void. The vigor of comprehension vividly explodes, clues assist us to take a turn and not to stop, to move on, to change direction, your manner will change with ease and screech, way of life becomes alive, world view will be readjusted. Direct awakening within the flow of clues – a clue from the left, a clue from the right, from the top of one’s head and under the soles of one’s feet. Fresh allusions choose the vibrations of freedom, ripples of light, murmurs of water. Purposeless destiny is constantly being weighed again and again. Why does the devilish suspicion of criminal offence undermine the hollow skulls? Where does the wary fear come from?

Disgusting proliferating foul intolerable reek is belligerently tapping in the left ventricle of one’s mind but the implacable clue is whizzing by from the left and takes you to the awakened fields. Outside political efforts, above, beneath machinations, higher, deeper, there is a silent warm sea rippling inside, and will remain the keeper of all mornings. Clues take us to understandings and every understanding must be confirmed by a trace, otherwise it will disappear into thin air, will be lost in non-existence, will be forgotten and one cannot reach it any more. A human being – an alert beast.”

Maria-Kristiina Ulas

Maria-Kristiina Ulas graduated from the department of graphic art at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1991 while following the footprints of both of her parents – her mother Concordia Klar (1938–2004) and father Peeter Ulas (1934–2008) were well-known Estonian graphic artists.

Already during her academic studies Maria-Kristiina Ulas excelled at her extraordinarily unique drawing – this diverse medium has remained Ulas’s main expressive means until the present day. Maria-Kristiina Ulas’s emergence in Estonian art life in 1990s coincided with the pivotal era of changing paradigms. On one side, her artistic nature fitted well with the mythologicalness and neoexpressionistic powerful figurativeness of the second half of 1980s; on the other side, the borders of art were broadening and new freedom arrived both in formats and techniques. Ulas expanded the borders of drawing as an attribute of expression while powerfully bringing the medium to the fore among big art and giving common sketching, pre-work or study a wider dimension. Maria-Kristiina Ulas’ drawing manner, based on classical drawing, has been always free and improvisational, reminding of the style of Ado Vabbe. Her gigantic and colourful drawings, balancing on the verge of figurativeness and abstraction, immediately caught attention and received acknowledgement. Later, Ulas’s figurative world, charged with playfulness and unconcealed eroticism, has increasingly acquired mysticism and surreal elements. With theatrical downrightness, the artist has developed her unique style of self-mythology while creating startling characters and enchanting loaded compositions where the expressiveness of line prevails over colourful surface.

Maria-Kristiina Ulas’ artwork were first publicly displayed in 1988. Since then, she has held around twenty personal exhibitions as well as participated in several group exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. For many years, Ulas has been worked as a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts and led several courses outside the institution as well as held drawing actions at the exhibition openings. She is a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association (since 1991) and the Association of Estonian Printmakers (since 1992). In 1989–1993 Ulas was a member of Uue Graafika Grupp. She received Kristjan Raud Art Award in 1992 and G Galerii Art Award in 2002. In 2006, Ulas was entitled with the Award of Noted Artist at the 12th Asian Art Biennial. In 2022, she was selected the Graphic Artist of the Year. Maria-Kristiina Ulas’ artwork are part of the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia and Tartu Art Museum.

Reeli Kõiv

Exhibition is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Vunder Skizze.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

‘One never sees the sun in a dream’ is the solo exhibition of artist Loora Kaubi.

It presents a selection of older sculptural works and paintings, new materials and video work, transformed in two spatial installations. The exhibition opens 12 January 2023 at 7 p.m. in the gallery of the historical sculpture building in Raja.

Kaubi brings together a body of work that deals with a continuous sensation of in-betweenness. At the core lies the practice of lingering: to last for a long time, or the delicate action of slowing down towards an end. When the artist pauses before the end, (and takes this final point out of the picture), her work stands still by tactics to escape the everyday, morbid habits and the impossible, yet intriguing attempt of an eternal sleep. She compares the body with a substance that will decompose as well as compose, actively dissolve, gather and shed the same things off again. What sensations are brought up during a persistent ‘not-doing’, and how can one feed and admire such a process?

The exhibition contains a performance of contemporary dancer Elle Viies. It is curated by Belgian, Tallinn-based curator Laura De Jaeger. The graphic design and visual identity is created by Taylor “Tex” Tehan.

Loora Kaubi (1998) is an artist working in Tallinn. He has acquired her bachelor’s degree in painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts and furthered his education in the sculpture department of the Vienna Academy of Arts. Kaubi’s practice revolves around the (female) body and the societal and social relations related to it. Wandering between the real and the fictional, in his works he approaches life as a spectacle and focuses on creating a scene through which to perform intense emotion. Kaubi has received the weekly prize of the Union of Estonian Young Contemporary Artists and has participated in exhibitions and performances in Tallinn, Narva, Haapsalu, Valga, Vienna and Põlva.

“Art and the City” – a live action play in Telliskivi Creative City – is inviting you to come and enquire what art and creativity do in a modern capitalist city. How is creativity and art used to make cities of today, who is the creative class and how can one enter the creative city? 

Urban studies and architecture students of EKA address the questions revolving around the role of creativity in a city via an immersive role play, inviting the player to see Telliskivi Creative City through seven different characters’ eyes. How would a retired worker of the former factory see the place today, when the citadelle of a secret factory with its monotonous work has been opened up into a diverse creative village with no walls around? How is it to be an artist in a gallery that doesn’t any more represent the value of art space as a critical force or antithesis but rather acts as a tiny particle in a greater creative soup? Or how could a young designer who recently moved to Estonia enter the area as a creative workforce, not merely a consumer? Etc, etc.

If you’re ready to play, meet us in Telliskivi on Sunday, 18. December between 12 and 3 PM. Come and win with us: there will be wonderful prizes for the best players! 

Lara Brener’s exhibition It Brittly Joints the Other’s
16.12.2022 – 22.12.2022
12:00 – 18:00
Vernissage on 15.12, 7 p.m.

It brittly joints the other’s is a reflection on the experience of translation and the meeting of displaced identities. Brener examines selftranslation, facing the other within and the border created through the contact between hybrid and ambiguous identities. The artist also reflects on displacement, playing with subtleties of text and exploring translation as the transposition of images and spaces, identities, languages, and experiences. 

Lara Brener is an artist and educator from São Paulo, Brazil. She holds both a Bachelor and a Licentiate degree in Visual Arts from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP) and is currently enrolled in the Master of Contemporary Art program in the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). She participated in exhibitions in Brazil, Estonia, and Lithuania, and is also a teacher in Tallinn. In her practice, working mostly with text, printmaking, and photography, Brener builds cavernous images, dissolving narratives, with images boiling up but never being fully uncovered.

Graphic design 3rd year BA students invite everyone to the opening of their exhibition I Will Always Remember… on Tuesday, 6 December at 5 p.m. 

The exhibition presents artworks that combine artificial and natural materials, resulting in a whole new world. Despite the wide spectrum of topics and personal points of departure, on closer inspection, the works have quite a bit in common.

Works are by Aleksander Alev, Elisabeth Järve, Emma Reim, Erik Merisalu, Karl Kevad, Katariina Kesküla, Katrin Kannu, Kaur Joonas Karu, Kertu Klementi, Csenge Kinga Kovács, Magnus Harjak, Steven Pikas.

The exhibition was created in the framework of a course supervised by Kaspar Sellin.

The exhibition is open on two days:
Tuesday, 6 December, 5–10 p.m.
Thursday, 8 December, 3–10 p.m.

Address: Tulika põik 4a, Tallinn

Find the Facebook event here. For more information, email sellin.kaspar@gmail.com

The department of photography of the Estonian Academy of Arts presents a new publication Last Edit was Seconds Ago. BFO19 in EKA gallery at 18:00 on Thursday, December 8th, 2022.

The publication introduces the works of eleven BA students (BFO19) – Andra Junalainen,
Laura Ruuder, Ivor Lõõbas, Elo Vahtrik, Imbi Sõber, Meel Paliale, Markus Mikk, Joosep Kivimäe, Kertu Rannula, Jana Mätas, Laura Maala – who graduated from the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. The abbreviation BFO19 stands for the group of students who started their studies in the fall semester 2019.
The book includes a selection of images realized during their study period, exhibition views of graduation projects, short interviews with the students and an essay by Marge Monko, the professor of the department of photography.

The publication is designed by Alejandro Bellon Ample and Björn Giesecke who recently
obtained MA degree in the department of graphic design at EKA.

The discount price at the presentation will be 15 €, later 20 €.

Our gratitude goes to: Sean Yendrys, Laura Kuusk, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo
Supporters: Hartwall Estonia, Põhjala Brewery

Final review and zine launch

Welcome to the final review and launch of NO-ZINE #1: This is Not a Pizza, the final project of the Urban Studies studio NO-THING: Theories and Urbanisms of the Void.

The research studio critically examines the narratives of potentials and resistance that accompany the gaps, voids and wastelands of the city. Though the void at the heart of urban space appears to hold the promise of something public, shared and democratic, its “nothingness” also serves as a fertile ground for speculation. What might the contemporary valorization of nothing hold from the perspective that nothing is, in fact, something? Weaving science fiction, fake bootlegs, counterfeit ads, GAN prompts, and essays about entrepreneurs, swimming pools, and market stalls, NO-ZINE #1 investigates the contemporary city through the lens of its perceived other—its emptiness—to examine the processes and forces that shape the city today.

The final review will be followed by the launch of NO-ZINE #1: This Is Not a Pizza. A limited number of copies will be available for distribution.

Students: Christian Hörner, Jarþrúður Iða, Nabeel Imtaz, Carl-Magnus Meijer,  Luca Ritter,  Paul Simon, Nora Soo, Paula Viedenbauma

Final Critics: Maroš Krivý and Bettina Schwalm

Course tutors: Leonard Ma and Helen Runting

Graphic design support: Oliver Long

The exhibition “On the Other Side of the Great Oblivion”, curated by Maria Helen Känd, will open at Narva Art Residence, exploring the feeling of emptiness and disconnection or being lifted into the air, brought about by forceful changes and movement from one phase of life to another.

Eike Eplik and Urmas Lüüs are known for their installational staging of the space, while Manfred Dubov and Angela Maasalu translate charged emotional states onto canvas.

The exhibition allows the viewer to perceive that everything happens in a constant state of in-betweenness. The present moment is split into two halves. We accommodate scenarios that are waiting to be fulfilled, offering a space for imagination and growing out of reach before they unfold and start to transform, decrease and warp once again. The uncanny, ritualistic, at times playful and somewhat humorous works strike a wedge into our consciousness. As the sharp blade of the sword falls behind us, the exhibition guides us through space-time continuums, within the reach of great powers, oblivion, reconciliation and dreams.

The title of the group exhibition is inspired by the Estonian poet Jaan Kaplinski’s poem from his collection “Raske on kergeks saada” (“It is Hard to Become Light”, 1982). The poetic self conveys a mystical experience of time and space, where the person has not yet received a time, a space or a name. For Kaplinski’s poetic self, the experience of the unknown is not one of misery or of a dark state of mind. On the contrary, letting go of the self brings enlightenment. Reaching the enlightened state, however, can be hard work, full of losses and renunciations.

The exhibition is opens 10 December 2022 at 4 pm and it stays open until 5 February 2023.

Opening times:
Thu, Fri 15.00–19.00, Sat 13:00–21:00, Sun 13.00–19.00

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Graphic design: Henri Kutsar

Exhibition supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, City of Narva, Water Fox OÜ 

The artists participating in the exhibition are EKA alumni and lecturers, and the curator Maria Helen Känd is a curatorial student at EKA.