Exhibitions

One of the starting points for the exhibition is Karel Čapek’s The Gardener’s Year. Čapek’s sharp and humorous observations on a (city) gardener’s desires, joys, disappointments and endless need to care for something immediately struck a chord.

Having spent an increasing amount of time at a summer cottage in recent years, I have also begun to develop my own, still rather vague understanding of rural life and the rhythms of nature. These rhythms can be calming and abundant, but at the same time ruthless and starkly indifferent.

Autumn evenings and nights in the countryside are dark, unless the moon is shining. If wearing a reflector in the city is recommended, in the countryside making yourself visible can be a necessity.

A beautiful summer is pleasant and abundant, but already in August the creatures that have kept their distance from the house begin pushing their way back in through cracks and openings. All it takes is a single day away for birds to devour all the berries ripening on the bushes, or for the last apples fallen beneath the trees to disappear overnight.

It is uncomfortably sobering to realise how fragile life is, and how much care is required to maintain this small part of our surroundings that we try to “domesticate” or cultivate. Even if one somehow manages to avoid disease, fungi and frost, a vole suddenly moving into the garden can be enough to throw the entire order of things into question.

In the countryside, humans are not necessarily the masters. Everyone is competing for food, light and space. If humans imagine they have an advantage in this struggle, it is only for as long as they remain vigilant and keep things “in order”. In the end, everything is food for someone or something.

Of course, one can take an arrogant position – scatter poison left and right, put up deterrents, or concrete over every available patch of ground. But at least I don’t want the countryside to become too orderly and controlled. That would take away one of the reasons for being there in the first place.

The ant, the wasp and the snail all have their place. So does the frog.

With thanks to: Estonian Artists’ Association, ARS Art Factory, EKA Foto, EVA Lab, Katrin Koit, Lipuvabrik OÜ, Taavi Varm, my wife, and my mother.

Open Mon-Fri 12-18, Sat 12-16

Finissage: 28 September, 18:00

* This plea has stayed with me from a period I once spent in Kütiorg, which significantly reshaped my understanding of living alongside nature and of nature conservation as an alternative worldview – one in which slogans and radicalism do not take centre stage, but rather common sense and an understanding of what is and is not possible.

Join us for the opening of the Nordic and Baltic Comics Exhibition “Mythbústers” on Thursday, September 3 at 5 pm in the lobby of the Estonian Academy of Arts!

The opening will be followed by an artist talk on the stairs of the lobby at 5.30 pm, where the artists participating in the exhibition Emmi Valve and Joonas Sildre will talk with the exhibition curator David Schilter. The talk will take place in English.

Read more about the exhibition here.

In September, the nomadic Pori Biennale takes place in the striking post-industrial Narva Venice (Kulgu), imagining what a biennale could be when shaped by local history, architecture and communities.

Continuing Porin Kulttuurisäätö collective’s long-term research into the biennial format, the project examines how a biennale might function as a site for co-existence, collaboration, activation and event. Art does not always need grandiose exhibition halls – rather, it needs people who come together.

Artists: Baran Caginli (TR/FI), Kristin Wiking (SE/FI), Jonas Palekas (LT), Sashapasha: Pavel and Sasha Rotts (FI), Aksel Haagensen (EE), Ulvi Haagensen (EE/AU).

Cotyledon project: Helena Atkin (UK/EE) and Daria Titova (UA/EE).
Cotyledon project workshop takes place on 25.,26., 27., ja 28.08. More info here.

Curators: Anna Jensen & Eliisa Suvanto, Porin kulttuurisäätö

Exhibition opening times: Thursday at 12:00–19:00; 3.09, Friday, 4.09 at 12:00–19:00; Saturday 5.09 at 12:00–19:00, Sunday 6.09 at 12:00–16:00.

Friday 4.09. at 16:30
Exhibition opening

Ingrian Pavilion: Clay. A durational performance by Pavel Rotts

Throughout the opening, the artist hand-builds clay bricks bearing the letters of INGRIA. Gradually, the repeated act of writing transforms language into architecture, assembling the Ingrian Pavilion brick by brick.

Saturday 5.09. at 14:00–16:00

Serving food and baking books. Food event by Jonas Palekas & Baran Caginli

16:00–

Ingrian Pavilion: Boat. A performance by SASHAPASHA.

Six unfired clay bricks spelling INGRIA are lowered into the water on ropes as anchors. As the clay dissolves, the boat returns to shore, where the flag is raised above the pavilion. The performance reflects on migration, memory, and the impossibility of permanently anchoring a place, a language, or an identity.

Pori Biennale VII takes place alongside Station Narva, the music and city festival that since 2018 has filled Estonia’s easternmost city with music, art, communal gatherings and cross-sector initiatives.

Address: Remmelga 8, Narva

Kindly supported by and in collaboration with: Narva Art Residency (NART), Finnish Cultural Foundation, Finnish Institute in Estonia, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Kone Foundation and Station Narva.

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The music and city festival Station Narva returns for its 9th edition to the easternmost Estonian city of Narva on 3-6 September 2026. Get ready for music from near and far, sightseeing, art experiments and new discoveries across Narva.
Station Narva 2026 tickets are on sale → shop.tmw.ee
More info https://stationnarva.ee/en

From Sketch to Printed Fabric, opening at Narva Art Residency (NART), brings together archival materials from Kreenholm textile artists and contemporary printed fabrics by students of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). The exhibition focuses on the “backstage” of printed textiles: the rules and working steps that turn a motif into a production-ready fabric, how the repeat (rapport) and pattern rhythm are constructed, and how colour separation and registration shape the final result. The archive presents sketches, repeats, colour studies and print proofs, while large-scale digital prints by EKA students carry the same logic into a contemporary context – reflecting themes relevant to a younger generation and the Estonian consumer landscape, anchored in the proportions of the Kreenholm rapport.

An installative printing table with technical samples introduces key steps of the screen-printing process, and a playful work table invites visitors to create their own patterns and see them instantly repeated.

Exhibition duration: Saturday, 6 September 2026 – 10 January 2027
Opening event: Saturday, 5 September 2026 at 16:00
Location: Narva Art Residency (NART)
Exhibition team: Alyona Movko-Mägi, Eva Reiska, Piret Valk, Krista Leesi
Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Join the NART resident artists for an evening dedicated to the artistic side/perspectives of Narva. The event is held at Narva Artist Residency (Joala 18, 20103, Narva, Estonia).

Programme all evening:

⎆ Installation “Firewall” – Vitalli Shupliak
⎆ Virtual installation “If These Walls Could Speak” – Bart Kuipers

17:00 Welcome with soup, bread, and snacks!

17:15 Tour of the installation “Firewall” by Vitalii Shupliak
Vitalli Shupliak works primarily with video installation, painting, and performance and will present video work and an installation based on his modular spatial installation “Firewall”, that is scheduled to be built in Narva later this year.

Liso Stec (BY) is a curator and researcher exploring the context of Narva and the artistic potential of NART.

18:00 Workshop “Writing the Poetry of Narva” by Bart Kuipers
Bart Kuipers is a poet and multimedia artist and is looking to write the poetry of Narva together with people who know Narva the best!

19:00: Artist talk “Artistic Unlearning in Narva” and discussion by Yulia Krivich
Yulia Krivich is a visual artist and scholar. In her artist talk, she will present her research on how visual culture shapes identity, memory, and belonging in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union space, inviting us to unlearn inherited ways of seeing and imagine different futures.

“It Always Seems Impossible”, Irma Holm and Sonja Sutt trace a Journey from Suffering to Hope.

“Why does it seem more believable that suffering must have a deeper meaning than that it could simply end? And why do we try, even in the hardest moments, to give the impression that we’re coping?”
Irma and Sonja

From 28th of August till 6th of September 2026, OUJEA Gallery presents “It Always Seems Impossible”, the first duo exhibition by Irma Holm and Sonja Sutt. Bringing together video, installation, and sculptural objects, the exhibition follows an attempt to find a way out of the trial of suffering.

The exhibition begins with the artists’ observation that suffering is not merely a personal experience but often a role that people learn to perform. At times, this performance becomes absurd, leaving a person appearing both tragic and comic at once.

Divided into five spaces, the exhibition unfolds as a simplified narrative. Its protagonists do not inhabit a fairy tale, yet their world follows a similar logic – every trial is expected to end in redemption, and every hardship should ultimately lead to something better. Along this journey, everyday activities become an artist’s portfolio, amateur sword fighting transforms into a heroic epic, and a makeshift hut built at home becomes a castle.

fb event – https://fb.me/e/8jtRQtynh

Opening: 27 August 2026, 6:00 pm
Exhibition: 28 August – 6 September 2026
Opening Hours: Daily, 12:00–19:00
Venue: OUJEA Gallery, Laboratooriumi 14, Tallinn, Estonia
Artists: Irma Holm and Sonja Sutt
Gallery: Hanna Samoson and Genius loci OUJEA
Graphic design: Kadri-Ann Kivisild

OUJEA GALLERY

Some places are born from a finished plan. Others are born out of a need. OUJEA belongs to the latter.

It is a gallery in Tallinn’s Old Town, but above all, it is a space for thinking, experimenting and coming together. A place where art does not have to justify its existence before it has had time to breathe.

OUJEA believes that meaning is not something an artist hides inside a work for the viewer to find. Meaning emerges through the encounter between people, time, space and attention. Sometimes it happens immediately. Sometimes much later. Sometimes only when, for a moment, everything seems impossible.

For this reason, OUJEA sees itself not simply as a gallery, but as a living process. A place where one can get things wrong, change one’s mind, start again, and trust that uncertainty, too, can be a creative material.

The gallery opens its programme with a duo exhibition by Irma Holm and Sonja Sutt, It Always Seems Impossible.

Everyone is welcome.

“silent resonance” is an exhibition in which ceramics and sound meet not through direct “musicality,” but through behaviour: how ceramic form, mass, surface, and emptiness affect the space we perceive. A work may function like an acoustic organism – one piece absorbing sound through matte, porous surfaces and soft edges; another reflecting it through glossy glaze, tense arches, and hard surfaces; a third dispersing it through rhythmic reliefs and fragmented geometry.

Air is an essential quality of the works: the invisible volume held inside the ceramic is like a lung or chamber, giving the object internal tension and presence. Openings, necks, edges, lids, and mouths create the impression that an object could resonate – even if it does not actually make a sound. The focus therefore shifts from sound as content – melody, recording, performance – to sound as a quality: resonance, silence, reverberation, and dampening.

Silence becomes the exhibition’s supporting material. “Silence” as a formal decision – an omitted detail, a break in a pattern – and “listening” as a way of looking. The viewer does not need to listen with their ears; it is enough for the work to make them perceive the space differently: more slowly, more closely, and more attentively.

“silent resonance” is not a conventional ceramics exhibition where visitors are expected to keep their distance from seemingly fragile works. On the contrary, visitors can physically engage with many of the pieces: approach them, view them from different angles, and discover details that only become visible up close. Several works can even be gently touched, moved, and used to produce sound. This interactivity is not a “game,” but a way of listening to the space and the work through the body: how the direction of openings, the depth of inner voids, the roughness of surfaces, or glazed areas become perceptible only through closer engagement.

A quiet resonance emerges when looking becomes a form of attention akin to listening.

Organizer: Estonian Ceramists’ Association

Curator: Cristopher Siniväli

Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Bellus Furniture OÜ, Nudist Participating artists: Mari Ait, Ingrid Allik, Kaja Altvee, Merike Hallik, Kadi Hektor, Elize Hiiop, Eve Hint, Jarõna Ilo, Sergei Isupov, Kadri Jäätma, Tiina Kaljuste, Karin Kalman, Üllo Karro, Kersti Karu, Lauri Kilusk, Milvi Korela, Jaana Kormashov, Külli Kõiv, Kristel Kärdi, Triinu Maide-Safin, Margit Mald, Maia Noorväli, Ann Nurga, Aigi Orav, Clelia Piirsoo, Urmas Puhkan, Rave Puhm, Kadri Pärnamets, Anne Pärtna, Rita Randma, Ene Raud-Mägi, Sander Raudsepp, Aino Saan, Maarika Saarelaht, Kärt Seppel, Marget Tafel-Vahtra, Katri Taklaja, Ene Tapfer, Annika Teder, Margit Terasmees, Helena Tuudelepp, Triin Türnpuu, Mart Vaarpuu, Helle Videvik

Sacredness usually sounds like something definite – a belief, symbol, or place set apart from the rest of the world. This exhibition, however, begins from a more fragile place: the feeling that something suddenly becomes meaningful, charged, untouchable, even when it is ordinary or impossible to describe in words.

The sense of intensity experienced in the exhibition presents sacredness not as a fixed definition, but rather as a field that circulates around objects. The protruding elements of the works evoke both protective armour and an energy field. Each form appears to hold or guard something—a memory, a body, a habit, a fantasy—yet their actual function remains open.

The exhibition invites visitors to reflect on, and remind themselves of, what feels sacred to them. Not in a grand or formal sense, but in the small ways certain objects, routines, and stories remain attached to us. Can something sacred exist only in reality, or does it exist solely in our imagination?

* Many of the ceramic works were created during an almost year-long ceramics internship in Berlin – a period that has shaped their forms and surfaces. In the exhibition, they are brought together in a new, altar-like constellation that makes room for both real and imagined sacred things.

Cristopher Siniväli (b. 1999) is a ceramic artist who received a Master’s degree in Design and Crafts from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2025. His artistic practice centres on creating non-functional ceramic compositions, drawing deeply on nature and personal emotions for inspiration. In recent years, he has also explored the relationship between the human body and ceramics, considering how form and presence affect both the viewer’s experience and the experience of wearing an object. His work creates connections between ceramics, fashion, and sculpture.

Thank you: ARS Ceramics Center, Estonian Artists’ Association, Vivarec, Bildhauerwerkstatt, Karksi, Fazer

On August 27. at 17:00 a group exhibition of contemporary women jewellers titled You’re Nobody ‘Till Somebody Loves You, will open at the HOP gallery.

The truth is, we want only for love. We want to be cherished, needed, protected. We desperately want to be intimate and vulnerable with an other. When love has been given or taken, denied or refused, found or lost; the ache of the heart becomes profound and pieces of jewellery become unapologetic love letters of desire, remorse, joy and loss. 

Nine contemporary women jewellers have been invited to make new, single pieces of jewellery based on their interpretation of the exhibition title per their own experiences – with or without, in and out of love. This is where the exhibition begins.

Curated by Erinn M. Cox

Participating artists: Erinn M. Cox, Piret Hirv, Katarina Kotselainen, Kristiina Laurits, Eve Margus, Erle Nemvalts, Pilvi Tammoja, Ketli Tiitsar, Hanna-Maria Vanaküla

Join us for a tour with the exhibition curator, Erinn M. Cox, on Thursday, September 3, 2026 at 17.00 [in English]

Join us for a tour of the exhibition on Thursday, September 10, 2026 at 17.00 [in Estonian]

The exhibition is open until September 27, 2026.

Special thanks: Estonian Ministry of Culture, Eesti Kultuurkapital, Estonian Artists’ Association, and Liviko Ltd.

28 August – 27 September 2026
Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn

On 27 August at 6:30 PM, the artist Andre Joosep Arming’s debut solo exhibition Chain Reaction will open at the Hobusepea Gallery with a festive, Renaissance-themed masquerade ball, directed by Linda Mai Kari.

The exhibition is an exploration of human fragility, solitude, adaptation and perseverance, focusing on the tension field between the ending of life and new beginnings. The exhibition will remain open until 27 September.

Chain Reaction is about celebrating the joy of existence and the privilege of being alive. Arming’s works serve as a poignant reminder to inhabit the present fully, with complete intensity, despite not knowing what the future holds. The artist adds: “I would like to remind everyone and acknowledge that life is hard, but it is worth it.”

The exhibition showcases works from 2018–2025, alongside three new series created specifically for the show: Don Quixote I, Detachment Does Not Exist and Epistemic Heart. A core element of Arming’s practice is the poetic autobiographical portrait, through which he presents an uplifting, life-affirming philosophy despite a complex medical background. His works move across the border between personal and universal, intertwining memories, identity, time, love and mortality.

Arming draws inspiration from both pop culture and the visual everyday environment. In his works, maximalism manifests itself not only as an aesthetic choice, but also as a viable lifestyle and resistance to simplification. During the exhibition, the artist’s alter ego “Non Mors” also comes to life, opening up the theme of death through playfulness, absurdity and drama.

Andre Joosep Arming (b. 1995) holds a BA in Photography (2018) and an MA in Contemporary Art (2024) from the Estonian Academy of Arts. His practice primarily utilises Polaroid photography and video. Recurring themes in his work include autobiography, the cyclical nature of birth and death, and the concept of timelines. Arming is a member of the Estonian Union of Photography Artists (FOKU) and the Estonian Artists’ Association, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions across Europe (including Germany and Lithuania). He is also a member of the NGO Siirdatud süda (Transplanted Heart).

Dream team: Kleer Keret Tali, Helle Ly Tomberg, Karl-Christoph Rebane, Linda Mai Kari, Sirel Soans, Mio Kurm, Johanna Ruukholm, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Hans-Otto Ojaste, Johannes Säre, Hugo Leinola and Artproof.

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.