Category: Contemporary Art

“To feel the pull of desire is to feel the presence of absence.”
-Anne Carson, “Eros The Bitterweet”

It was the gods’ punishment to separate the whole being into two, condemned to fit the chase of our ideal fullness into one lifetime — and pathetically, we turn back to gods to show us the ways we can be united again. Some say this love belongs only to gods themselves. Still, we defy that notion treacherously, and we face whatever form of divinity we believe in, to plea:
“I wish.”
To wish is to indulge in the lack. The lover does not only wish for the ephemeral sense of fulfillment, but eventually wishing itself serves to satisfy the lover’s hunger. The wish transforms into the sustenance and our appetite refuses to act as a form of weakness, but as devotion.
The exhibition “The Wishing Well” is simultaneously a practice ground and a receipt of reverence. Light a candle, throw a coin, count the petals and make your wish.

opening 05.03.2026 at 6PM

06.03. – 12.04.2026

open Wed-Sun 12.00-18.00

KETT gallery / Aparaaditehas, Kastani 42, Tartu

Irmak Semiz (b. 1997, Istanbul) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Tallinn, currently pursuing a master’s degree in contemporary art at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Working primarily through sculpture, installation, and animation, their practice focuses on expressing contradictory identities, decisions, and emotional states, processed through the lens of humor, connection, and myth-making.
Jana Ribkina (b. 1995, Riga) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Riga. Working primarily with ceramics, textiles, and illustration, she explores reflections from her daily life through a playful approach, while drawing inspiration from folklore and fantasy. Her work seeks to weave the personal and the mythical into one continuous thread.

Graphic design: Paul Graßler
The exhibition is supported by the City of Tartu and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

5–31 March 2026

On Wednesday, 4 March at 18:00, Katariin Mudist’s exhibition “Temporary Solution”(Ajutine lahendus) will open at ARS Showcase Gallery.

“Temporary Solution” brings together doorholders collected from various institutions, mainly from Estonia’s cultural field. Doorholders are born out of necessity: something needs to be held open for a moment, something needs to be let through. Yet a temporary solution tends to become permanent without anyone noticing. In this way, an accidental form and material can become surprisingly universal.

The exhibition focuses on small moments of annoyance: when your bike tyre is flat again; when you forget your towel, but discover it at the gym; when you have to return the shirt you ordered; when the internet keeps buffering during a film; when someone explains something you already know; when, at the grocery store, the line you chose is the slowest, or when the doorholder is missing. This annoyance is a minor disturbance that, through repetition, begins to shape attention, movement, and one’s attitude toward space. A door has been kept open for years with the help of an apparently insignificant piece of material. But one day, arms full of things, that familiar wooden block is no longer there. There is a brief delay and mild irritation: something else is quickly found as a substitute, the door is held open again, and work continues. The moment passes and is very likely forgotten immediately.

Over the course of a year, the collected doorholders have held open different kinds of doors (main entrances, side doors, back doors, etc.) and operate according to different principles: as a wedge, as a threshold stopper, or as weight. What unites these objects is that they come from institutions where doors are not merely architectural elements but tools of access and work organisation. Doorholders are small, unofficial spatial interventions that make movement smoother and signal for whom a space “works. ” Removing them and gathering them into one room reveals a layer of temporary solutions on which institutional space quietly depends.

The door to the exhibition is always (temporarily) open.

Katariin Mudist is an interdisciplinary Estonian artist who believes that the most telling things are often those that usually remain behind the door. She is interested in small annoyances that arise, for example, when a door refuses to cooperate- whether it’s an automatic door that won’t open or a missing doorstop. Humour and irony run through her practice. She examines social norms and the practices and meanings of being an artist within the context of the cultural field and its institutions, using material and process-based approaches. She is currently studying in the Fine Arts Studio programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts, searching for common ground between visual and material-centred art. Mudist holds an MA in Contemporary Art (EKA, 2022) and a BA in Media and Advertising Design (Pallas University of Applied Sciences, 2018). She has received the Adamson-Eric Scholarship (2025) and the Young Sculptor Award (2025). In 2026, together with Keithy Kuuspu, she received the main prize of the Visual and Applied Arts Endowment for the exhibition “Unfortunately, You Were Not Selected This Time” (2025) and the performative Awards Gala (2025).

Exhibition team:
Exhibition design and production assistance: Alden Jõgisuu
Graphic design: Katariin Mudist
Supporters: Punch Club, Põhjala, Estonian Artists’ Association
Special thanks: Alan Voodla, Johanna Mudist, Eva Nava, Keithy Kuuspu, Maria Elise
Remme, Helena Pass, and all the institutions from which the collected doorholders originate.

Exhibition open:
5–31 March 2026
Mon–Fri 12–18, Sat 12–16

WE NEED MORE INDOOR SPACES
Ground floor of EKA Gallery 9.01.–15.02.2026
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm, free entry
Opening: Thursday, January 8 at 6 pm

The group exhibition “We Need More Indoor Spaces” is catalysed by the moving process of Krulli Skate Hall, bringing together local and international artists from Tallinn’s skateboard scene, framing skateboarding as an art form. The makers of the exhibition want to draw attention to the availability of indoor skate parks in the inner city, in the hopes of opening more spaces for skaters.

Jaagup Mägi and Éric-Olivier Thériault, two artists studying installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts, came together with the idea of temporarily transforming the gallery space into a gathering hub in honour of the perseverant local skateboarding culture. Working within the constraints of the gallery, their aim is to demonstrate how skateboarding, as an artistic practice, parallels contemporary art in many ways: through experimentation, resilience, and a strong DIY ethos. The exhibition seeks to channel that energy into a broader conversation: What could happen if greater awareness of indoor skateparks was fostered? If these creative environments built by skateboarders for skateboarders were more actively supported?

As part of the exhibition, in collaboration with the interactive video game museum LVLup! and Camille Laurelli, there will be an opportunity to play skateboarding-themed video games in the video box area of ​​the EKA Gallery during the opening times of the gallery.

You are welcome to ride the course with your personal skateboard at your own risk until February 11 on Wednesdays from 6 to 9 pm and Sundays from 4 to 8 pm.

Artists: Frank Abner, Nicolas Bouvy, Maik Grüner, Daniil Južaninov, Andrew Kuus-Hill, Kaisa Maasik, Jaagup Mägi, Reigo Nahksepp, Éric-Olivier Thériault, Raul Ulberg
Curators: Jaagup Mägi & Éric-Olivier Thériault
Graphic design: Sunny Lei
Technical support: Ats Kruusing
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Sadolin Estonia.
Opening drinks from mirai™ and Põhjala Brewery.

EKA Contemporary Art MA program invites prospective students to join the online info session on Monday, January 19, 2026 at 17:00 EET (local Estonian time).

This will be an opportunity to hear more about the program, to meet and ask questions directly from the faculty.

The online info session will be hosted on Zoom, the link will be e-mailed to all registrants 2 hours before the start of the event.

If you would like to attend, please register online through the form below.

Register HERE

More information about the Contemporary Art MA programme:

• https://www.artun.ee/maca
• https://www.instagram.com/eka_maca/

Admissions period starts on the 1st of February 2026 and application deadline is 2nd of March 2026 at 3pm EET (local Estonian time).

Admissions information here

Sven Mantsik, a master’s student in Contemporary Art, has explored various disciplines such as installation, printmaking, self-publishing, animation and video games, while always nurturing his primary passion: drawing.

Sometimes fictional, sometimes autobiographical, his drawings present a social satire of an all-too-common daily life, blending melancholy, dreamlike elements, sharpness and humour. His exhibition “Timeline”, offers an in-depth look at his narrative and visual approach. The EKA Library’s showcase space features a selection of his graphic works.

The exhibition is open until December 19.

Artist and writer Duncan Wooldridge will hold an open artist talk “Encounters with Photographic Materialities: From the Infra-thin to the Stickiness of the Image” at 18:00 on Wednesday, November 5th, 2025 in room A501 at EKA.

Wooldridge is curating the group exhibition “Sensing Matter: From Infra-thin to Photographic Object” which opens on November 6 at the Punctum Gallery, Tallinn.
https://punctum.ee/exhibitions/sensing-matter-from-the-infra-thin-to-the-photographic-object

Duncan Wooldridge is an artist and writer, and is Reader in Photography in the School of Digital Arts, Manchester School of Art, MMU. His research spans photographic materiality, experimental photography and conceptual art, the photograph’s future tense, and the stickiness of images. He is the author of ‘To Be Determined: Photography and the Future’ (2021, SPBH/MACK), and the co-editor with Lucy Soutter of ‘The Routledge Companion to Global Photographies’ (2025, Routledge) and ‘Writer Conversations’ (2023, 1000 Words), as well as the editor with Ana Casas Broda and Anshika Varma of ‘Photobook Conversations’ (2025, 1000 Words) He is also the editor of the forthcoming ‘Written Up/Written Down: The Selected Writings of John Hilliard (2026, MACK).

Merike Estna’s solo exhibition “Ocean” in the large gallery of the Tartu Art House. The curator of the exhibition is Maria Arusoo.

At the core of the exhibition “Ocean” lies the existential coexistence of life and death, as seen through the perspective of motherhood. Merike Estna looks at the experience of motherhood in a complex and sensitive way. Alongside oceanic happiness and love, pain and loss are equally present, themes that are often brushed aside when talking about birth and motherhood but are very much present regardless. 

“Birth as a theme appeared in Estna’s work after her son was born and over the last four years it has become a central axis in her work. At first, it appeared as a prophetic ghost in a painting, created while the artist herself was not yet aware of her pregnancy and from there, it has grown and expanded. Estna is equally interested in the art historical view on the experience of motherhood. Another significant thematic thread running through the exhibition is the question of living painting – how to awaken painting, a rather static and hierarchical object, and make it communicate with the viewer – something Estna has been focusing on for more than a decade by now. At the Tartu Art House exhibition, visitors can witness the process of painting the five-part monumental work “Ocean” as the artist works on it every Tuesday. The painting is not intended to be completed but will be continuously added to during future exhibitions until the artist’s death, as Estna herself claims,” the curator explains.

Merike Estna (b. 1980) studied painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA, 2005) and at Goldsmiths, University of London (MFA, 2009). She also graduated from the Tartu Art School (2000). Since 2025, she is the visiting professor in Contemporary Art MA at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Estna has received several prestigious Estonian art awards, including the Hansapank Art Award (2004), the Eduard Wiiralt Scholarship (2005) and the Konrad Mägi Award (2014). From 2017 to 2023, she was an Associate Professor at the Painting Department at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Between 2020 and 2022, Estna was one of the recipients of the Estonian artist’s salary. In 2026, Merike Estna will represent Estonia at the 61st Venice Biennale.

Estna has participated in international exhibitions across Europe, the United States and Latin America, including at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Querétaro in Mexico, Fundación Casa Wabi in Mexico, Publics in Helsinki, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Galería Karen Huber in Mexico, Bosse & Baum in London, Kunstraum in London, Galerie Georg Kargl in Vienna and Temnikova & Kasela Gallery in Tallinn. Her most notable solo exhibitions have taken place at Kai Art Center in Tallinn (2022), Moderna Museet Malmö (2019–2020), Kim? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga (2018) and KUMU Art Museum in Tallinn (2014).

Graphic designer: Martina Gofman
Translator: Keiu Krikmann

Support: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art

Thank you: Evelyn Raudsepp, Jaime Lobato, Aime Estna, Kõu Fortino Lobato Estna, Lumi Marisol Lobato Estna, Alma Cardoso, Jaime L. Hernández, Aleksander Tsapov

HIDDEN RIVERS
Ground floor of EKA Gallery 1.–24.08.2025
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm
NB! EKA Gallery is closed on Wednesday, August 20
Opening: Thursday, July 31 at 6 pm

The body is a porous system in constant exchange with its environment – it excretes matter, absorbs substances, and is shaped by its surroundings as much as it shapes them. Digestion is not merely a linear passage but a generative process: the body organizes itself around the intestine, whose intricate folds allow for immense spatial capacity, concealed within the torso.

This principle of folding extends beyond the body to architecture and the subterranean infrastructure of cities. The digestive tract, building pipework and sewer systems form a continuous, obscured network of movement and transformation. At the thresholds where this flows cross – mouth, anus, toilet – conflicts arise. These are culturally charged, ritualized zones where the body meets architecture: highly coded, regulated, contested. The fold, with its spatial density and ambiguity, becomes a central motif for grasping these borderline structures of transition and control. The group exhibition “Hidden Rivers” is a site of excavation. Bodies are opened and buried systems are lifted to the surface. Infrastructures are disrupted and rerouted, landscapes reshaped, rivers diverted.

Over the course of ten months, artists Bob Bicknell-Knight, Giulio Cusinato, Fausta Noreikaitė, Rosa-Maria Nuutinen, Teresa RA and Denis Kudrjašov worked with curator and exhibition designer Theresa Roth in a collective process of uncovering and reflecting upon the organism of digestion. Their artistic positions – manifested in sculpture, installation, embroidery, text, sound, and video – trace the flows and frictions between body, space, and system.

The exhibition architecture, merging curatorial and artistic practice, acts as both mediator and memory. It holds the sediment of the shared process, an organic archive, and unfolds the sealed terrain of the EKA Gallery.

Participating artists: Bob Bicknell-Knight, Giulio Cusinato, Fausta Noreikaitė, Rosa-Maria Nuutinen, Teresa RA, Denis Kudrjašov
Curator and exhibition designer: Theresa Roth
Graphic design: Lukas Milkereit
Technical support: Ats Kruusing & Karel Koplimets
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Sadolin Estonia and Tallinn City.
Opening drinks from Pühaste Brewery.

This spring, 15 young artists are graduating from the MA Contemporary Art program at the Estonian Academy of Arts. 13 of them are exhibiting their MA thesis projects at TASE ‘25 graduation show at Rävala 8 and two at the community garden of Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Kursi 5.

Rävala 8, III floor:
KitKit Para: ‘Shrek and The Aphrodite Beans’, supervisor Anu Vahtra, reviewer Anna Jensen
Yuko Kinouchi: ‘embodiment – -> de-zombification’, supervisors Madis Kurss and Else Lagerspetz, reviewer Taavi Suisalu
Brit Kikas: ‘Touch’, supervisors Tõnis Jürgens and Else Lagerspetz, reviewer Piibe Kolka
Viktoria Martjanova: ‘Visit’, supervisors Anita Kremm and Anu Vahtra, reviewer Sten Saarits

Rävala 8, II floor:
Eleftheria Kofidou: ‘Rapprochement’, supervisors Laura Cemin and Else Lagerspetz, reviewer Evelyn Raudsepp
Tea Lemberpuu: ‘Impersonal self-portrait. The daily choice to be seen or to hide’, supervisors Anu Vahtra and Maris Karjatse, reviewer Hasso Krull
Gerda Hansen: ‘One Piece at a Time’, supervisors Tõnis Saadoja and Else Lagerspetz, reviewer Lilian Hiob-Küttis
Liza Tsindeliani: ‘Trauma Made Me Hot’, supervisors Paul Kuimet and Maris Karjatse, reviewer Anna Škodenko
Chloé Geinoz: ‘Water, fountains and witches’, supervisors Liina Siib and Maris Karjatse, reviewer Elo-Hanna Seljamaa
Mia Felić: ‘What Goes Around’, supervisors Piibe Kolka and Maris Karjatse, reviewer Tõnis Jürgens

Rävala 8, I floor:
Kristi Vendelin: ‘Põletab, närib, ronib’, supervisors Kaspar Tamsalu and Maris Karjatse, reviewer Hanna Piksarv

Rävala 8, basement floor:
Vitor Pascale: ‘Room for Play’, supervisors David Ross and Else Lagerspetz, reviewer Jaanus Samma
Joel Jõevee: ‘selfportrait’, ‘self portrait 2’, ‘birthing pains’, ‘intimate separation’, supervisors Holger Loodus and Taavi Varm, reviewer Peeter Laurits

Community garden of EKKM, Kursi 5:
Yvette Bathgate & Jake Shepherd: ‘a space to gather, a place to grow’, supervisors Yvonne Billimore and Joss Allen, reviewers Ann Mirjam Vaikla and Sandra Pihlapson (Kosorotova)

Also participating in TASE ´25 exhibition: Lara Brener, Eri Rääsk, Iryna Tanasiichuk, Aivar Tõnso, Paula Vool

This year the thesis committee consists of five members for the Estonian graduating group and of six members for the international group. The core members are: artist and filmmaker Ingel Vaikla, curator and head of CCA Estonia Maria Arusoo, artist and educator Taavet Jansen. For June 3, they are joined by two more Estonian speaking members: artists and educators Marge Monko and Mart Vainre. For June 4 & 5, they are joined by three international members: writer, editor, and independent researcher Eric Otieno Sumba, and artists and educators John Grzinich and Léann Herlihy.

Maria Arusoo is a curator and dramaturge. Since 2013, she has been the director of the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art and the commissioner of the Estonian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. She holds an MA in Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London, and has worked as an assistant to Martin Creed. Arusoo has curated numerous exhibitions and conferences, published widely, taught at the Estonian Academy of Arts and SAIC, and edited several art publications. Her current projects include a solo exhibition by Edith Karlson in Vilnius (2025) and the Estonian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026), featuring Merike Estna.

Taavet Jansen is an interdisciplinary artist whose work integrates movement, digital technologies, and interactive performance. His practice focuses on blurring the boundaries of art at the intersection of the viewer’s physical and digital presence. Jansen has situated his work in various environments, including theatre, galleries, and virtual spaces—his current focus lies in audience engagement in hybrid spaces and mixed reality. He is currently completing a PhD at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Ingel Vaikla is an artist and filmmaker based in Brussels. Her practice focuses on the representation of architecture in relation to communities, working with video, 16 mm film, and found footage. Rather than depicting architecture as sculptural form, she explores its existential and ideological dimensions. Vaikla has been a resident at HISK in Ghent and WIELS in Brussels, and is currently completing her doctoral studies at PXL-MAD/UHasselt. Her works have been shown internationally, including at IDFA, Kunsthalle Wien, EKKM, Bozar, Videonale, and Manifesta 13.

Marge Monko is an artist based in Tallinn, working with photography, video, and installation. Her work engages with historical events and is informed by psychoanalysis, feminist theory, and visual culture studies. Recent projects examine romantic discourse and its manifestations in advertising and commercial design. Monko has participated in the HISK program and artist residencies in New York, Vienna, Hong Kong, and São Paulo. Her works are held in several major collections, including MUMOK, Folkwang Museum, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, FRAC Lorraine, and the Art Museum of Estonia.

Mart Vainre is an artist living and working in Tallinn. He combines traditional painting techniques with digital tools such as image editing, 3D scanning, and modelling. His works explore the interplay between human and machine-generated visuals, reflecting on the interface between humanity and contemporary technology. Vainre holds a BA in painting and an MA in new media from the Estonian Academy of Arts and has exhibited in solo shows as well as curated exhibitions at KUMU and the Tallinn Art Hall.

John Grzinich (he/him) is an audio-visual artist based in Estonia. His work integrates sound, moving images and site-specific installations to explore perceptions of sound and space, seeking resonances between people and places. Grzinich’s recent focus questions our anthropocentric views through performative and fixed media works by combining earthly agencies, expanded listening practices and participatory engagement.

Léann Herlihy (they/them) is an artist, researcher, and educator based in Dublin. Their practice engages with trans*, queer ecological, feminist, and abolitionist theory, spanning performance, video, sculpture, text, and radical pedagogy. Herlihy critiques normative frameworks of identity, focusing on collective agency and resistance beyond binary categories. They lecture at the National College of Art and Design and are a recipient of multiple Arts Council of Ireland awards. Recent exhibitions include Precarious Joys (Toronto Biennial, 2024), The Salvage Agency (TULCA, 2024), and PLAYING GOD (Innsbruck International, 2026). Herlihy is a studio artist at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios and currently in residence at Fire Station Artists’ Studios.

Eric Otieno Sumba is a writer, editor, and researcher based in Berlin. His work draws on social theory, political economy, postcolonial studies, and art criticism. He is editor for publication practices at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW). Recent editorial projects include Destination Tashkent and Echos der Bruderländer (2024, HKW & Archive Books). As a curator, he co-developed Riverberi (2024) with Spazio Griot at Mattatoio in Rome. His writing has appeared in Contemporary And, Frieze, Camera Austria, Text zur Kunst, The Guardian, and others.

Here For Six Hours
A hybrid event of exhibition, performance and hanging out

05.06.2025 at 5pm–11pm
Ankru Studio (Ankru 6, Tallinn)
Artists
Anna Ovtšinnikova
Anumai Raska
Bob Bicknell-Knight
Clara Jantson-Köstner
Edvard Vellevoog
Fausta Noreikaite
Keithy Kuuspu
Liisbeth Horn
Mats Johan Soosaar
Nora Schmelter
Olev Kuma

Ricu and Anrku ateljee

On June 5, we invite you to Here for 6 Hours — a six-hour hybrid event that blends the concepts of an exhibition, performance and casual, unrushed hangout. The event begins at 17:00 and ends at 23:00, welcoming those who are curious and interested in the idea of slowing down time. To participate it is necessary to be present for the entire duration of the event, but fresh air breaks are possible on the balcony!

How can you stay in a space for six hours without feeling the need to rush?
Is it possible to look at art for longer than 30 seconds?

The space is filled with works by sixteen artists — installations, paintings, live broadcasts, sound pieces, performances and other interdisciplinary gestures. Some works are activated by the artists, whilst others only require the gaze of the participants.

Within the event being together is the content, reflecting on rapid consumption and hustle culture, capturing and streaming both the meaningful and meaningless moments of idling, live to EKA TV and via influencers’ Instagram feeds. How instagrammable is idling? How instagrammable is simply being present? Does loitering remain loitering when it is documented? Six hours is long enough for the unpredictable to unfold, to let go of all expectations and to settle into a relaxed, and perhaps boring, timeless state.

Curated by: MA Contemporary Art students, EKA

Location: Ankru Studio (Ankru 6, Tallinn)

Date & Time: 05.06.2025 | 17:00–23:00

Free entry, registration needed: https://forms.gle/NxWLLu3iqMsnGJHt9

Vegeterian food and drinks available on site

More info:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kuustundikohal/

EKA TV link: coming soon on facebook event and instagram