Exhibitions

Jaan Toomik
First Slumber
Art Hall Gallery
4 March – 3 April 2016
After the solo exhibition at the Temnikova and Kasela Gallery that ended in January, in which he snickered about the beauty of aging, Jaan Toomik now steps into the madness of the outside world, which he drags onto a home yard decorated with an idol enthroned on a sawing block and a log that is growing out an axe handle.
Each of Jaan Toomik’s exhibitions is realised in a rhythm and context that is his alone, according to his logic and in a light focused by him. While the interrelation of the artist’s works and message may seem disconnected and uneven to the viewer, it is the next exhibition that reveals the continuity and meaning. And, as Hanno Soans notes, the fact something very significant* is present in the artist’s discontinuity is meaningful. His honesty in the documentation of himself as a place of reflection (Alina Astrova’s astute expression)** is comprised of a large number of premonitions and seemingly irrational connections, which whip both the artist and the interpreters of his work toward ever greater precision. Toomik’s ability is not only to capture and halt feeling and thought, but he has the power to actuate and start them up. The latter is much greater than the intimacy that is visible on the surface. It is the unformulated engine that moves all of us. So who can say they are not affected?
This exhibition continues the characteristic feature of Toomik’s recent exhibitions: alongside the dark and dull colour combinations typical of the artist, we see explosive paintings borne by the intensity of orange and violet. Compared to a fear of the unknown and longing for intimacy that immediately gets under your skin, there is a delayed inevitability and inescapability to the brightness of these paintings. This inevitability has the power to wake people from their slumber and the ability to help the set up the next frame of a long film that talks about life. About life, which as long as it is ticking, is always a sequel that becomes an image.
*Hanno Soans. Elu surmasuunaline voolus. Sirp, 18 December.2015
**Alina Astrova’s press release for Jaan Toomik’s exhibition Smells Like Old Men’s Spirit at the Temnikova and Kasela Gallery 5 November 2015 – 9 January 2016
Art Hall Gallery
4 March – 3 April 2016
Vabaduse väljak 6
Wed-Sun 12 noon to 6 p.m., free
www.kunstihoone.ee
More information:
Jaan Toomik – jaantoomik@gmail.com
Press release compiled by:
Tamara Luuk
tamara@kunstihoone.ee

The Open Day at the Estonian Academy of Arts will take place on March 24, 2016 from 10am-6pm. If you are a foreign student and need guidance in English, please contact admissions@artun.ee to register for a tour.  The programme is posted in Estonian here: https://www.artun.ee/x/avatuduksed/kava/

The Estonian Academy of Arts will hold an Open Day for all interested prospective students and others on March 24th, 2016. All lectures are open for visitors as well as there will be exhibits, information hours in departments and other activities. All are welcome! More information will be available soon.

Rundum Prooviruum: Kristin Reiman
idle time disquiet
12.01-17.01.2016, Rundum artist-run space, Pärnu mnt. 154
On Tuesday, 12 January at 18:00 Kristin Reiman will open her exhibition idle time disquiet at Rundum artist-run space (Pärnu mnt. 154). Artist talk will follow at 18:30.
“Only I didn’t know that the constant mild unease was boredom. /…/ We were all thoroughly numbed by boredom. There was nothing we could do to escape it, with its uninterrupted droning and flickering.”
– Marlen Haushofer “The Wall”
Idle time is the time associated with waiting, or when something is not being used while it could be. The amount of free time could be used for anything, yet the potential is so vast it generates anxiousness and every possibility seems distant. One ends up doing nothing and falling into boredom. The boredom, however, is a nervous boredom: pacing, loitering, fidgeting, passing time just to pass time, pointless movements and the repetition of them, waiting for something to start while not aware of what it is, feeling unsatisfied and not knowing what to do. The momentum of movement is kept in order to occupy oneself and hide the uneasiness of the lack of purpose. When still, every small movement, like the flickering of lights or humming of electricity, becomes induced, driving one disquiet to escape it.
Kristin Reiman (1992) is studying in the Installation and Sculpture department of the Estonian Academy of Arts, has been on exchange studies in Antwerpen Royal Academy of Arts and completed a traineeship in the Estonian Pavilion in the 56th Venice Biennale. Since 2012, Reiman has actively exhibited her work in Estonia and abroad, including Lithuania and Belgium.
Exhibition will stay open til 17. January
Opening hours: every day 13:00 – 18:00
Address: Pärnu mnt 154
Rundum is supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture
For more information:
www.rundumspace.com
https://www.facebook.com/rundumspace
—
www.rundumspace.com
https://www.facebook.com/rundumspace

PRESS RELEASE
Tallinn Art Hall
Ülle Marks & Jüri Kass
Vüüming
Art Hall Gallery
17.12.2015 – 10.01.2016

You are cordially invited to the opening on December 18th at 5 p.m!

This exhibition of drawings called Vüüming denotes initiation and dedication. Be it the initiation into the skill and nature of drawing or being a man/woman.

The generation of designers and architects who arrived in Estonian art during the late 1960s shook the relationship between professionalism and innovativeness, introducing outsiders amongst those who approached the art world through a single art medium. The newcomers associated with their surroundings as a collective body, a living environment, which included an awareness of style and trend creation, as well as the will and ability to change the urban space and quality of life. By the late 1970s and early 1980s – a time when Jüri Kass (s. 1956) had already entered art and design graphics – Andres Tolts, Jüri Okas, Ando Keskküla, Leo Lapin, Villu Järmut, Ülo Emmus, Silver Vahtre and many others had already established themselves in the fine arts. Some predominantly, others as a sideline. Even today Jüri Kass has one foot in design and the other in art.
Ülle Marks (b.1963) completed a traditional in-depth programme in one medium – graphic arts. At the end of the 1980s, when her works started appearing in exhibitions, Estonian graphic art as a trademark was already waiting for her with: a) a large number of emotionally supersensitive and labour-intensive female artists whose skills were Ülleunsurpassable; b) Estonian art scene in general was undergoing great changes. Ülle Marks brought with her a powerfully generalised and focused image and an expressively traced line, which culminated in Grand Prix awards at the 1992 Tallinn Print Triennial and Intergrafia’94 World Award Winners Gallery in Katowice, Poland.

When Ülle and Jüri joined forces at the end of the decade, a strong tandem was born, which was active in both: in the graphic art and design landscape. “A few years ago, in collaboration with Jüri Kass, Ülle Marks, who garnered the most prizes in graphics during the 1990s, made a change in direction and started using digital photos. Marks and Kass command the situation splendidly, by demonstrating an effective symbiosis of graphic art and photography,” Eha Komissarov wrote in 2000.
Black-and-white asceticism and the expressiveness of the human body – whether zoomed in or out, in close-ups or movement seen from a distance – captivated them both and still do. Time and again they return to difficult and meaningful messages, searching for simplicity and purity in the world order. “The rediscovered old seems new,” (Kreg A-Kristring about Jüri Kass’s paintings at the Sammas Gallery, 2001) and “Based on international experience, there is a fatiguing amount of mixing on the technical side of the global graphic picture. The high-quality command of classical graphic techniques is quite an elitist phenomenon,” (interview with Jüri Kass by Urve Eslas in the Postimees newspaper, 2007).

This exhibition of drawings called Vüüming denotes initiation and dedication. Be it the initiation into the skill and nature of drawing or being a man/woman – Jüri’s monumental resolute guards, who surround Ülle’s transparent figures brimming with vulnerable hesitation, are filled with a longing for order and values and the readiness to defend them.

Art Hall Gallery
17 December 2015 – 10 January 2016
Vabaduse väljak 6
Wed-Sun 12 noon to 6 p.m., free
www.kunstihoone.ee

More information:
Jüri Kass: jyrikass@hot.ee
Ülle Marks: ylle.marks@artun.ee

Press release compiled by:
Tamara Luuk
tamara@kunstihoone.ee

Tõnis Laanemaa – graphic artist and painter
The group of young artists called ANK-64 bears a resemblance to EKR (Group of Estonian Artists), and was also established in the modernism-keen decade. It lasted, despite the different individual traits of its members, for quite some time, gradually becoming a legend. It was not possible to register such a group in the 1960s, nor did it have a constitution, but the members were united in a certain closeness of aesthetic ideals. Compared to the previous generation, the ANK members, with their strikingly individual style and associative symbols-images, came closer to contemporary international art. The dominant trend in the latter was pop art, which expressed the mentality of urbanism, mass culture and the consumer era in a language influenced by advertising, comic strips, and the tabloid media. It was also affected by the radical manifestations of the early decades of the 20th namely collage and assemblage. Pop art had taken root in a different society from which young Estonian artists developed. Features typical of a Western society and way of life were only beginning to turn up here, and the postmodernist eclecticism and social context of pop art aesthetics became more comprehensible a bit later, which was reflected in the work of the group SOUP-69. The ANK-like reception of pop art was essentially aesthetic; searching for style was also influenced by the legacy of the past, namely Art Nouveau and rediscovering symbolism of the time, which blended with impulses received from the barely half-a-century-old surrealism as a reactivated modernist trend. Constructing your own “aesthetic universe”, as Elnara Taidre described the work of Tõnis Vint, characterised other ANK members as well. Tõnis Laanemaa also aspired towards this, although he was not as focused as some other young graphic artists. He studied graphic art at the State Art Institute from 1961 to 1966. His graduate work was a series of tourism posters. As early as in 1961 he was elected as Chairman of the Student Research Society. A year later he was replaced by Tõnis Vint. Through the Society, Laanemaa initiated student exhibitions in the Tartu University café and Tõravere Observatory. The student display in 1964 was the first of his numerous later exhibitions. The first individual exhibition at the Tallinn Art Salon took place in 1970, after which he was admitted to the Estonian Artists’ Association. He could be compared with the graphic artist Vello Vinn who did not belong to the ANK group. Both used the novel technique of etching in relief printing: Vinn – white lines against a black background (Crab, Cat), Laanemaa – red lines against a black or brown background (Spiral I-II). Vinn’s works displayed clarity of detail and rigid symmetry of composition that characterised his later style as well. These were in a tense relationship with the gloomy, ominous and anxiety-inducing emotional impact of his symbols. In Laanemaa’s etchings, the associative undercurrent could be perceived much more weakly, the emotional content was more on the surface, expressed directly via a dynamic confusion of lines where details tended to dissolve. This approach, that largely ignored details, was influenced by a wave of abstract work in Estonian art in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s. The artist presented similar works (Flight, Youth, Archers, all 1971) also at the 2nd produced one of his most successful posters for that exhibition.
The posters he displayed at his exhibition in 1975, clearly show the artist’s skill in the field that however remained secondary in his overall work. The relief print etchings he presented at the 3rd Two Clouds, 1974) reflected the increasing general interest in the surrounding reality in its specificity, or to be more precise – in urbanising milieux, mainly expressed by the generation of young artists who followed ANK. In rapidly changing contemporary art, generations follow one another after much shorter intervals than is normally estimated in human life.
In Laanemaa’s case too, it mattered that he was a few years older than the other ANK members, as he studied at the Tartu Art School between 1952 and 1957 where he acquired some home truths about composition. The latter did not make him exceptional in ANK: there were, after all, compositions of Jüri Arrak or Enno Ootsing in the 1970s (born in 1936 and 1940, respectively). Against the general image of ANK, Laanemaa’s “social sensitivity” stood out, a fact also mentioned by Riin Kübarsepp (Riin Kübarsepp, Anne Untera. Tõnis Laanemaa. Tallinn 2009). Besides the etching Wheels depicting rolling car wheels and the sheet To the Country showing parachutists, mention should be made of works by other young artists of the time tackling rather similar topics: Tiit Pääsuke’s painting In the Forest with a Car (1973), Kaisa Puustak’s sheets Flight and Railway with a Cloud (1974) in vernis mou-aquatint technique.
Tallinn Print Triennial. He Triennial (Wheels, To the Country, Between In the 1970s, artists aspired for photographic impression not only in traditional techniques, but photographs were used more directly as well. Laanemaa, too, was taken with this trend. Photo etching At the Dog Show (1976) secured him – together with etchings Race and Clouds – a purchase award at the 4th and the graphic artists really made an effort for these forums in their specialty. Laanemaa took part in the 5th Artists and a Super-excavator (1977). His enthusiasm for experimenting faded in the 1980s, and he produced works in line etching with more modest ambitions, such as Dance Party on St John’s Eve (1983) based on linear rhythms), Sunday on Horses (1983), Organ Concert in St Nicholas Church on 25 August 1991 (1991) and views of Tallinn.
Earlier, Tõnis Laanemaa had already begun cultivating vedutas. Some of his etchings resembling old vedutas became very popular, such as View of Tallinn with St Olaf’s Church and View of Tallinn with St Nicholas Church (1972), which were also displayed at exhibitions of Estonian graphic art abroad. Urban views were much in demand and to some extent this is still the case today. After graduating from the Art Institute, Laanemaa worked as a designer at the workshop called Ars and the Directory of Leisure Parks. In 1992 he became a freelance artist and had to adapt to the new requirements, as traditional vedutas are no longer much cultivated. This inspired him to display his urban views in the Helleman Tower in Tallinn in 2009. In the new century he has been actively exhibiting all across Estonia, involving his students at his drawing and painting studio. Selections of works often depend on the venue. For example at the exhibition in the Narva Museum’s Art Gallery in 2008 he presented large-format sheets about nature in eastern Virumaa county (Here, on the Northern Coast, The Valaste Fir, 2004, drypoint, relief print), and photo prints of the Kreenholm factory (Old Kreenholm Factory, 2007).The latter are the most successful he has done in the increasingly popular technique. On the occasion of his 70th displayed both gravures and drawings at the National Library. Besides teaching at his drawing and painting studio, he draws a lot, especially nudes. The current vigorous expressive manner of drawing brings to mind the earlier drawings from his ANK-period; like with many older artists, he can also be characterised by un retour à la jeunesse – a return to youth. Laanemaa is very fond of French and even writes poems in that language. In June 2012, together with Küllike Pihlap, he organised an exhibition of photographic prints in Triennial in 1977. The triennials had a stimulating impact triennial as well, with two outstanding etchings, Architecture (1980) and Alatskivi Castle titled Estonian and French Castles, thus marking his 75th “A return to youth” is also expressed in recent frequent displays of his paintings. After all, the artist studied painting at the Tartu Art School and showed one painting – Clouds – at his first personal exhibition. The main motif running through his newer paintings (series Timespace, and others) is the female nude, depicted in a poster-like manner, in intensive basic colours. Paintings, just like drawings, reflect the impact of Neo-expressionism and Neo-pop, demonstrating the artist’s ability to welcome modern trends, just as he did in the period of ANK.
Mai Levin

WIP – Work in Progress
27.11. – 13.12.2015 in Y Gallery (Jakobi 1, Tartu)

The title of the exhibition, from one hand, refers to the glam and elitism of movie industry – this is also supported by the spatial design (red carpet, red curtains). From the other hand it speaks of the controversy between completeness and finality in the context of the digital era. Animation as digital file is open to endless aftertreatment and changes – it is up to every animator to decide, when a new piece emerges from initial material, and when it is the case of correction of an old project.
The exhibition „Work in Progress“ is mostly comprised of works by artists who graduated the animation MA studies of Estonian Art Academy in the summer of 2015. Exposed are films, objects and materials that reflect the work process. In the context of art gallery raw materials, sketches and single frames have the effect of independent and completed works, although by nature they are subject to a greater whole. „Work in Progress“ gives an overview of the diversity of animation techniques and their emergence through personal differences. The exhibition is followed by workshops that enable the audience to see the making of animation films and try the most common animation techniques.
Ülo Pikkov has referred to the rituality of film watching in the spatial context of a movie theatre, where certain actions (focusing on the screen, following the plot, switching oneself out of everyday life, etc) are performed. Besides entertainment, a movie theatre plays great role in socializing and strengthening common values that are confirmed by the emotions that have been commonly experienced by the audience (Ülo Pikkov, Animasoofia. Tallinn: Eesti Kunstiakadeemia, 2010, p 147-148.). The gallery space, like also movie theatre, gives a time-space form to the experience of artworks, which also has a ritual dimension, while it still remains as something personal.
The animation films exposed in the show have been produced in several different techniques and created by artists, who have very different life experience and worldview:
Teemu Hotti, Kreeta Kanger-Käeri, Ülo Pikkov, Sven-Tõnis Puskar, Lilli-Krõõt Repnau, Francesco Rosso , Ave Taavet, Liis Viira.
The exhibition is opened in 27.11. at 7 PM
Opening hours Wed-Fri: 12-19, Sat-Sun: 12-17

Exhibition opening 12.11.2015 klo 18:00-20:00
12.11.-5.12.2015, Kallio Kunsthalle, Toinen linja 31, Helsinki
“My grandmother lived in a war zone in Lugansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine and she wasn’t safe there anymore. Since she is sick and needs care, my parents decided to bring her to Estonia to live with them. I have been documenting my grandmother’s life for about a year. While at first I was interested in the changes she would make in her new room, over time my focus changed. I tried to connect with her through the photos I was taking because I speak neither Ukrainian nor Russian. As I observed my grandmother, I realized she was not happy in her new home and that being with her family did not ease her longing for her real home where she had lived almost her whole life. I saw how her new surroundings seemed strange and uncomfortable to her and how she felt like she didn’t belong here. She spends her days watching TV, hoping to hear news that will allow her to finally go back home.”
Alissa Nirgi (b. 1993) is an Estonian visual artist living and working in Tallinn.
Curating: Laura Toots
Graphic design: Maria Muuk
Technical team: Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Kaspar Kiinvald
We would like to thank: Terje Nirgi, Sergei Randvere, Liina Siib, Marge Monko, Mari Armei, Anu Tehver, Fidelia Regina Randmäe

Supporters: EAA Photography Department, Lehe brewery, Megaluumen, Warm North, Espak, ArtPrint, Jaanihanso cider, Itek electronics
Daily exhibition visit inquiries from Elokolo (< 15 m left) Doors open daily 9-15 Information: www.kalliokunsthalle.fi Inquiries: info@kalliokunsthalle.fi Hotline 24h: 050 5975806 Address: Kallio Kunsthalle Taidehalli Toinen linja 31 00530 Helsinki Finland

The I year MA students of the Fine Art faculty will open an exhibition at the Estonian Museum of Contemporary Art on November 20th. The exhibition is titled PIND/SURFACE and it was born under the instruction of Anders Härm during his course.
Participants: Jenny Katri Helena Grönholm, Madlen Hirtentreu, Liisa Jugapuu, Anna Kaarma, Katrina Kolk, Eva-Lotta Künnap, Giulia Landonio, Keiu Maasik, Triin Marts, Johanna Greta Mölder, Johan Hendrik Pajupuu, Ann Pajuväli, Diana Paškovitš, Mari-Liis Rebane, Karl Saks, Karl-Erik Talvet, Margot Õunapuu

The exhibition opening will take place on November 20th, 2015 at 6 pm. All are welcome!
Open till Nov 23rd, 2015

On the 20th November Tartmus opens an exhibition about Estonian contemporary photography in the period 1991—2015. The exhibition From Explosion to Expanse is the first such large-scale exhibition focusing on contemporary camera-based art, and follows the evolution of photography into one of the most prominent and versatile mediums in Estonian art since the beginning of the nineties. Exhibition will be open until 28.02.2016.
Most global success stories of contemporary art are nowadays linked to photography and photographic education; camera-based work has advantage because of its contemporary, potent visual language. When making an overview of the last 25 years the aim, therefore, is to sketch a picture of camera-based art as a contemporary medium and its most important themes, while using the works of 45 artists as examples. The most significant themes are memory and the creation of memories, the creation and study of social and sexual roles, photography as a medium which carries political charge, and photography as a construer and presenter of the visual and aesthetic world.
In all the works the artist and the camera are active participants and self-conscious meddlers. „Contemporary photographic art is primarily related to people’s identities and self-presentation in social and political context. When creating an image, the artist ought to be bold and precise, because the photographic image has an ability to influence our perception of reality which seems ordinary, or how we imagine our ideals,“ explains curator Anneli Porri.
The period of 20-odd years covered by the exhibition has seen huge changes take place in both art and society. The beginning of the 1990s can be compared to an explosion: a sharp transition in public life brought with it rapid developments in unexpected directions also in art, including changes in the way exhibitions were organised and curated. Exiled from the art halls and galleries until then, photography was quickest to react to these changes and became the herald of a new aesthetic, restorer of discarded memories, mirror to the new society. Expanse, by contrast, is primarily a metaphor for the broadened horizons of our contemporary art scene, equal opportunities, and contemporary art’s global reach, which is now open to any artist.
„As a museum of art and an institution of memory we have a task to draw attention to significant shifts in the art scene, and the 1995 Saaremaa biennal Fabrique d’Histoire was something which undoubtedly caused one such shift. We decided to celebrate that spectacular event which in mid-nineties’ Estonia had an incredible scope, and which powerfully brought contemporary art in its modern sense to Estonia’s art scene, using predominantly the medium of photography. We would now like to offer the public an overview of what has been happening in photographic art in the last 20 years,“ Rael Artel clarifies.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an exhibition publication containing interviews and essays; it is edited by Anneli Porri and designed by Jaan Evart. Annika Toots writes about photography as a medium of memory; an interview with Eve Kiiler provides emotional and factual background for the artists and the context of the works in the last 30 years. Marge Monko and Hanno Soans talk about photography and the author’s position in contemporary photography.
Various lectures and study programmes for different age groups will be taking place at Tartu Art Museum during the exhibition.
Artists: Avangard (Sandra Jõgeva & Margus Tamm), DeStudio (Herkki-Erich Merila & Peeter Laurits), Dénes Farkas, F.F.F.F. (Kristi Paap, Kaire Rannik, Berit Teeäär, Ketli Tiitsar, Maria Valdma), JIM (Johannes Säre, Iti Connor, Maido Juss), Toomas Kalve, Eve Kiiler, Mari-Leen Kiipli, Paul Kuimet, Laura Kuusk, Mari Laanemets, Marco Laimre, Peeter Laurits, Ly Lestberg, Peeter Linnap & Jaanus Nõgisto, Arne Maasik, Herkki-Erich Merila & Arbo Tammiksaar, Marge Monko, Tanja Muravskaja, Krista Mölder, Katja Novitskova, Taavi Piibemann & Toomas Thetloff, Birgit Püve, Mark Raidpere, Piia Ruber, Piret Räni, Jaanus Samma & Alo Paistik, Liina Siib, Tiit Sokk, Andres Tali, Peeter Tooming & Carl Sarap, Laura Toots, Mare Tralla, Anna-Stina Treumund, Anu Vahtra & Na Kim, Tarvo Hanno Varres, Sigrid Viir, Mart Viljus, Toomas Volkmann, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo.
Curator: Anneli Porri.
The exhibition was designed by Neeme Külm, the exhibition publication by Jaan Evart. The exhibition publication was produced in co-operation with Liilia Buschmann, Indrek Grigor, Eve Kiiler, Katrin Kivimaa, Andrus Laansalu, Marge Monko, Sten Ojavee, Erik Prozes, Vahur Puik, Rebeka Põldsam, Hanno Soans, Jaak Tomberg, Annika Toots, Marie Vellevoog, and edited by Anneli Porri.
Exhibition team: Marika Agu, Nele Ambos, Karl Feigenbaum, Urmo Teekivi, Kristel Sibul, Sten Ojavee, Julia Polujanenkova.
The exhibition is part of the main programme of Tallinn Photomonth 2015.
We are grateful for the support of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Outset Estonia, Art Museum of Estonia, Contemporary Art Museum Estonia, Photo Museum of the Tallinn City Museum, TV 3, Karin Karindi, Margus Punab, Tiina Põllu, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, the Council of Gambling Tax, and all the supporters of the Hooandja campaign for Tallinn Photomonth 2015.
Repro: Mari-Leen Kiipli. The School of Dreams. Colour transparent in light box, 80 x 90 cm, 2015. Courtesy of the Artist
Further information:
Sten Ojavee
Coordinator of Exhibition´s Department
Tartmus
sten@tartmus.ee