Exhibitions

The Tartu Art Museum is pleased to present the solo exhibition “Verbarium” by Krista Leesi. Visitors will be greeted by a world of patterns inspired mainly by Tartu but also by Paris and Tallinn. As the title suggests, the author uses nuanced wordplay to offer new interpretations to the Leaning Building of Barclay de Tolly, where the museum is located, the two-storey sheds, or “kallerei”, that are so characteristic of the city, the graffiti covered traffic signs of Tartu and Paris and other elements from urban environments.

Krista Leesi (b 1966) is an Estonian textile artist and designer and associate professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Textile department, whose oeuvre is characterised by a clever conceptual union of language and visuals. Leesi’s interventions offer new and pointed meanings to familiar objects, images and environments. She finds an original way to join together the historical methods and practices of textile art, different materials and contemporary ideas. Her works lead the viewer to discover hidden meanings, to create connections between various narratives and to indulge in playful contemplations.

The technically adept execution and striking design language of Leesi’s oeuvre offer aesthetic experiences and practical aspects in parallel with gripping content. This is a magnificent example of the way the boundaries between design and contemporary art have become vague.  Leesi’s works are made unique by the fact that both art and design are equally important: they are highlighted successfully and with intensity.

Krista Leesi’s exhibition joins together two directions that are important to the Tartu Art Museum: exhibiting significant contemporary authors and presenting notable examples of design and applied arts to the public in southern Estonia. It is made even more noteworthy by Leesi’s skill and interest in approaching the exhibition with location-specific ideas, by joining Tartu to the wider context of her oeuvre and thereby adding it to her “world map”.

Curator: Joanna Hoffmann
Graphic design: Heino Prunsvelt
Coordinator: Kristlyn Liier
Educational and audience programmes: Kristel Sibul

Exhibition team: Richard Adang, Tanel Asmer, Indrek Grigor, Joanna Hoffmann, Margus Joonsalu, Jaanika Kuznetsova, Katrin Lõoke, Taavi Piibemann, Anti Saar, Peeter Talvistu, Kristo Tamm and Urmo Teekivi

Supported by: the Cultural Endowment of Estonia

NART is pleased to present Portrait of an Emotion – an exhibition of new works by Lydia Hannah, Diana Tamane, Yevgeny Zolotko and curated by Laura Toots.

Opening 18.09, 4 PM

The exhibition is inspired by the sensitivity of the three participating artists, and their skillful treatment and combination of different materials and motifs. What unites these artists is the impactfulness of their works, showing how emptiness or absence can turn into presence, into something solid and strong. Repetitions characterise their works, whether thematic or formal, emphasising the repetitive nature of human efforts. 

According to Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet and scholar, being human is comparable to an inn, where new guests come every morning in the form of emotions. They are always changing and, most importantly, always passing. All guests, including those who are spiteful, must be greeted and invited in, because when they leave, they make room for the next ones.

All three artists bring diverse portraits to the exhibition – from real life and fictive, introspective meditations, as well as wider social inquiries, amalgamations of historical and contemporary material, planar and spatial in form, but first and foremost these can be considered self-portraying visions – Yevgeny-Zolotko-like, Diana-Tamane-like and Lydia-Hannah-like ways of experiencing the world.

Lydia Hannah is both a visual artist and a musician. Her practice explores the spaces between sound and image. She creates immersive landscapes through video, live and recorded soundscapes and music. Her work mirrors the brittle duality of human existence, caught between the imaginary distance and the shapeless closeness of the real world.

Diana Tamane focuses primarily on photography, but also uses video, sound and writing in her work. Tamane works with autobiographical material – the artist looks at the relationship between herself and her family, everyday moments, memories, dreams and how these change in time. She relates her family history to broader historical and social changes, cultural identities and generational differences.

Yevgeny Zolotko’s work centres on the relationship between the verbal and the material. In his site-specific installations, Zolotko highlights the universal traits of human nature, intergenerational sensitivities passed on through culture and religion and the suppressed subconscious. 

Laura Toots is an art worker interested in different collective working practices and experiences. She has organised projects large and small – from publications to art biennials – aiming to bring together different professionals for a wider exchange of ideas. Since 2017, Toots has been a curator and project manager at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM).

Opening 18.09.2021:

2 PM – The opening of the exhibition “Portrait of an Emotion” is preceded by a tour by former resident artist Maria Kapajeva. A group of young people ‘Art Revolutionaries / Narva st.ART’ together with artist Maria Kapajeva will lead a tour around murals they have collaboratively produced based on a few Kreenholm designs from the Narva Museum collection. The tour will be in 3 languages (Estonian, English, Russian). The meeting point is in front of NART. 

3 PM – Curator’s tour with Laura Toots, in Estonian and Russian

4 PM – Opening of the exhibition

Food is provided by White Good Food Truck

The evening continues with a live performance by Analogue Quattro – musicians from Sillamäe.

Exhibition period 19.09 – 14.11.2021 

Hours:  Tues, Thurs – Sun 11-18

Free entry

Portrait of an Emotion is co-organised with Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) as part of  the programme for the sixth Tallinn Photomonth Contemporary Art Biennial.

Support for the exhibition is provided by: Estonian Ministry of Culture, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Union of Photography Artists FOKU, The General Delegation of the Government of Flanders, The Integration Foundation, and Narva Gate.

nart.ee

Facebook 

Amongst the many well-known international photo artists at Art Fair Foto Tallinn, organized by the EKA photography department born Estonian Photographic Artists’ Association and the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center, EKA Young Artist Prize winner Sten Eltermaa, EKA photography alumni Sigrid Viir, Paul Kuimet, Kristina Õllek, Krista Mölder and Cloe Jancis are exhibiting.

Art fair Foto Tallinn 2021 takes place from September 2nd to 5th at Kai Art Center. The fair is  dedicated to introducing a wide range of contemporary photography, and its 10th edition will feature the latest works by 37 Estonian and international participants. The fair welcomes artists and galleries from 12 different countries across the world. 

As the opening event of the 6th Tallinn Photomonth Biennial, Foto Tallinn offers exhibiting artists, galleries and project spaces an opportunity to introduce their works to a diverse audience and grow their network of professional contacts.

Foto Tallinn’s diverse programme includes book launches, artist talks, panel discussions, webinars, and curated tours of the fair. The program can be found here. The list of artists, gallerists and project spaces taking part in the fair can be found here.

Foto Tallinn is open Thursday to Saturday from 11am to 8pm and Sunday from 11am to 6pm. The fair tickets are available on-site or can be bought in advance here.

Foto Tallinn 2021 is curated by Isabella van Marle: “At Foto Tallinn 2021 we will present work by galleries and many emerging artists with different backgrounds, and practices. Participating artists are adopting multidisciplinary approaches, experimenting with the materiality of the medium and work amongst others with computer vision photogrammetry, installation and sound.”

Visiting Foto Tallinn is a great way to discover contemporary photography and meet artists and gallerists who will be present during the fair days. The fair also offers an opportunity to learn more about collecting (photographic) art. The Foto Tallinn team will be available to advise visitors in their selection.

Foto Tallinn 2021 is organized by the Estonian Union of Photography Artists and the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center.

 A selection of press images can be found here.

* We kindly ask all visitors of Foto Tallinn 2021 over the age of 18 to present a COVID-19 certificate (proof of vaccination, proof of having recovered from COVID-19 in the past 180 days, or proof of a recent negative test) and your ID to participate in the event. There is no rapid testing on-site. Please note that if you do not present a COVID-19 certificate, you will not be allowed to participate in the event and your ticket will not be reimbursed.

Young Artist MA award
07.09.–23.09.2021
opening: 07.09, 5 PM

At the exhibition Hopscotch Aksel Haagensen and Triin Kerge will present elements from their respective childhoods. Both artists approach a broader analysis of memory through their own personal memories.

As a young child in Australia, Aksel drew a lot of birds. There were many birds in Australia and they were all so interesting and colourful and different. Recently, Aksel asked his mother which bird had been his favourite and his mother said there was no such thing, “… you liked them all!” He wasn’t simply fascinated by the common popular birds, instead drawing every bird he could, constantly. Haagensen is interested in the subtle otherness of being an Australian-Estonian.

As a young child, Triin visited her great aunt at Voka, Ida-Viru County. Her great aunt lived in an apartment building and from the window all one could see were prefabricated buildings, sandpits and climbing frames. From Voka, Triin remembers picking chamomile, a machine for walnut-shaped waffles and a dating show on television, which made everyone laugh. Recently Triin visited Voka and while walking towards the shop, she remembered that it was from that very shop that to her great delight a roly poly toy was bought for her. At the exhibiton Kerge looks at the nature and materiality of memories.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Thanks to  Marika Alver, Saskia Lillepuu, Katarina Meister, Irmeli Terras, Marcin Teterycz, Tallinn University of Technology, Valge Kuup

On Friday, August 13th at 11.00, pre-reviewing of Art and Design programme PhD student Darja Poplitova’s exhibition “Tactilite: Stone that Tickles the Gaze“ will take place at Hobusepea gallery. Exhibition is part of the artistic (practice-based) doctoral thesis of Darja Popolitova.

Supervisors: Prof. Kadri Mälk and Dr. Raivo Kelomees
Pre-reviewers: Keiu Krikmann and Dr. Maarit Mäkelä (Aalto University)

Exhibition opening: 5 August, 6 PM
The exhibition is open from 5 August to 30 August 2021, 10-18 every day (except Tuesday)

If you come to the exhibition, you will receive:
1) a practical guide on how to create a silver jewellery yourself
2) —— ″ —— ″ —— ″ —— ″ how to invoke intimacy into your life
3) —— ″ —— ″ —— ″ —— ″ how to speak a foreign language without mistakes
4) —— ″ —— ″—— ″ —— ″ how to exercise self-control in dealing with a manipulator
5) —— ″ —— ″ —— ″ —— ″ how to make another person important
6) talisman as a gift (only on Wednesdays)

#C21witchcraft #contemporaryjewellery #technopaganism #hapticvisuality

Artist Darja Popolitova aims to mix ritual features of jewellery with the theme of digitality. At her show “Tactilite: Stone that Tickles the Gaze“ video works, jewellery, and installations create a fictional world where the witch Seraphita helps to cope with the frustrations of everyday life.

“Seraphita is a fictional character who helps me to expand the usual functions of jewellery. For example, to shoot the jewellery so that the viewer would be much more interested in watching a video clip rather than a stand-alone artifact attached to the stand,” the author notes.

Kelly Riggs, a contemporary critic and curator, writes about Darja’s work: “Though the physical jewellery objects are the crux of what Popolitova creates, they are also just a part of the total picture, or the collective persona she presents when she shares that jewellery online.”

Darja Popolitova was born in 1989 in Sillamäe and lives and works in Tallinn. She is also doing a PhD at Estonian Academy of Arts. Darja’s practice includes contemporary jewellery, digital craft and video art. Recently, Darja Popolitova has participated in exhibitions at the Museum Arnhem in Holland (2020), Art and Design Museum in New York (2019), the Kunstnerforbundet gallery in Oslo (2018). Darja Popolitova is represented by the following galleries: Marzee in Nijmegen, Beyond in Antwerp, and Door in Mariaheide. Her work is included in the collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Museum Arnhem, and private collections. The work of Darja Popolitova was awarded the Annual Awards of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in 2020, scholarships of the Ministry of Culture and Adamson-Eric in 2018. She also received the scholarship of Young Jewellery in 2015.

The exhibition is done in collaboration with Jakob Tulve (VFX) and Andres Nõlvak (sound design).

Artists’s gratude goes to: Aleksandr Popolitova and Nadežda Popolitova, Ando Naulainen, Anastasia Dratšova, Doctoral School of Estonian Academy of Arts, Jewellery and Blacksmithing Department of EAA, Estonian Artists’ Association, Elnara Taidre, Karl Kivinurm, Kadri Mälk, Karmo Järv, Keiu Krikmann, Kristo Pachel, Norman Orro, Pire Sova, Raivo Kelomees.

Sponsors: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Moe OÜ, Õllenaut OÜ, Hobusepea Gallery, Orbital Vox Studios.

We are living in a time of insecurity, diversity and pluralism. Different type of artworks can collaborate and create new conversations. For the three glass artists Mare Saare, Kazushi Nakada and Kristiina Uslar the common nominator has always been the material – glass. Albeit all three have worked in glass daily for years, sometimes different materials and approaches are used. For Nakada, here it is ceramics and video.

For all three, art is to express social, philosophical or political questions to societies. Art cannot help people physically or change the world systematically. But art has the power to make people think, realize and react. The exhibition “665448” – a code combined of the authors’ ages at present – brings together works of artists whose different dates and places of birth and environmental backgrounds create an interesting starting point for raising and/or solving problems in multiple ways.

A Stranger in the World

At a certain point in my life, I came to the conclusion that instead of words, glass is my means of expression. The comprehension seemed nothing to be ashamed of any more. Having passed through the world for sixty-six years, I decided to summarize the results in a series of glass pictures where the main characteristics of glass – transparency – is practically missing. Several significant places and fancies are documented as an afterimage, unique moments interpreted.

Mare Saare

My Archeology / Replica

Even though I have worked on My Archeology project for several years, I sometimes ask myself whether this may be called “art”. However, this project enables me to express social, philosophical, political questions. What I am urged to explore, is not artistic matters but the whole entity of human being and on-going events around the globe. Global economy has created our consumer society. And it seems to bring us some kind of “happiness”, even though there are so many problems increasing around the world such as climate changes, poverty or pollution. Ironically, our living style became convenient in many ways but today, it seems that the economy has become the most vital criteria for evaluating our values, way of living, and life itself.
The art project “Replica” may be interpreted in various ways. It has questions but not answers. Certainly, it does not demand “agreement”. By presenting the images that visually conflict each other, it allows us to focus on some critical issues around the globe and enables us to look at them from different perspectives beyond superiority and importance of the economy. Following the progress of an art project, my thoughts are also increased. Researching, experimenting and endless indulging in thought are the most funny part of art process. The art process is still very bizarre in a way. If there is something I attempt to make a statement of, it would be easier to verbalize or write a text. Obviously, no need of colours, shapes or objects at all… But I am aware of my nature that using a language of visual sensations enables me to express “something” intervening between the reality I observe and the imagination I have in my mind.

Kazushi Nakada

Conditions 2021
There are conditions that shrink down into seconds, stretch out for years or lock us up for an eternity. In some conditions, a second could last for hours and a week could pass like a day. Knots inside and around us affect our conditions and bend space and time. There could be several different conditions behind one particular knot and vice versa, one condition could consist of many knots from the past, present and future. There are some knots that will be untangled with time, and some knots that cannot be untied without cutting the knot. However, all knots are interconnected with each other by sharing the information and in this way, determining our current condition right now.

Kristiina Uslar

From June 22nd, the exhibition “In your skin you carry me” by Jana Mašková can be viewed in the Showcase Gallery of the Department of Photography of the Estonian Academy of Arts. 

The exhibition will be open until August 1st and can be viewed 24/7.

Showcase gallery, Põhja pst. 35 / Rumbi 3, Tallinn, 10415
June 22 – August 1, 2021

We carry a lot of weight on our shoulders.
In our heads, our hands, our feet, our muscle memory, our skin.
It remembers people that do not have to be in our lives.
It remembers the touch, the feel, the taste, the warmth or the cold.
It remembers things we do not own anymore.
It remembers things we do not remember.
It is not just our mind. It is us as a whole.
One day, I do not have to be here, but you may remember how I felt.

Jana Mašková (b. 1999, CZ) is a Prague-based artist working mainly in video and photography mediums. Mašková is obtaining a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Installation in Public Spaces in the Faculty of Arts and Architecture of the Technical University of Liberec. Currently, she is doing her Erasmus exchange studies in the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Mašková has been studying multimedia and art since 2014, and previously her main methods were exploring digital technologies and postproduction. Her subject matter varies through many topics; primarily, she works with different intimate and public themes. Recently she has concentrated on portrait photography to capture different people’s presence and stories.