Category: Gallery

You are invited to the opening of the exhibition “This is not a labyrinth” on 11 March at 5 PM at the EKA Billboard Gallery. The gallery is located outside on the EKA building on Kotzebue street. The exhibition will remain open until 8 April.

Walking through the cities, they change into something else: it’s impossible to walk along the same street twice, the shadows and light are growing and shrinking on their own. We are lost since morning. Don’t let go. Don’t get lost. This is not anymore the place you came to.
Like in “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino, we show one city we visited together, but more so one city, we visited in our imaginations. “This is not a labyrinth” is a photo album about on day in a foggy dreamy place.

Graphic Art 3rd year students: Mark Hiir, Hanneleele Kaldmaa, Brit Kikas, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar, Riin Maide, Liis-Marleen Verilaskja

Supervisor: Liina Siib

Join us for the opening of the exhibition “Pretence” by Brenda Purtsak and Eero Alev on Tuesday, February 11 at 6 PM. The exhibition is curated by Holger Loodus.

With this exhibition, two young painters, Brenda Purtsak and Eero Alev portray a person through body and space. Right at the start of the project, the artists reached an agreement that they would not show the face of the person being portrayed. The challenge is to create tension – whether the viewer is able to follow the mystery put together by Purtsak and Alev. We get to know that the person being portrayed is a real human with his or her virtues and flaws. He or she has given artists permission to experiment, allowed them close and opened himself or herself up, as it is generally usual in a portrayal.
The viewers’ task is to be a detective and rebuild the whole from the pieces, so they invited to participate in the Hitchcock-like mystery of painting. The exhibition will remain open until March 7.

Brenda Purtsak (b. 1994) and Eero Alev (b. 1983) are studying painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Purtsak has participated in various joint exhibitions – “Let Me Breathe in My Own Way” (2018), “Common Dimension” (2019) and others.
Eero Alev has participated in several group exhibitions, at the Haapsalu City Gallery (“Common Dimension”, 2019) and the Estonian Art Museum (“Open Collections. The Artist Gets the Floor”, 2019). 

Holger Loodus (b. 1970) has graduated from the Department of Cultural Heritage and Conservation (BA, 2008) and the Department of Painting (MA, 2012) at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2012 Loodus was awarded the Young Artist Award. In 2018 he received the People’s Choice Award of the Köler Prize and the annual Award of the Estonian Cultural Endowment.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and A. Le Coq.

Join us for the opening of the exhibition “Maintenance Is a Drag (It Takes All the Fucking Time)” on Tuesday, 28 January at 6 pm. The exhibition will remain open until 8 February, Tue-Sat 12-6 pm.

Join us for the opening of the solo exhibition “Five Volumes” by Paul Kuimet on Friday, January 3 at 6 PM. The exhibition will remain open until January 25.

The exhibition, consisting of film projections, a slideshow, photos and an installation, was first exhibited at Narva Art Residency in 2018. In the accompanying catalogue, curator of the exhibition, Nico Anklam, explores the different meanings of the word volume – it can be a part of a series, the amplitude of sound, and, above all, a property of three-dimensional space: its capacity. The various meanings of the title and its subtleties open the contents of the works at a slow and meditative pace, similar to film projections.
Three 16 mm film projections depict the Pärnu KEK building complex, built in 1969. Golden Home (2017) deals with a block of flats forming part of the KEK complex, which according to Anklam “conjures two different eras and styles of architecture – Socialist and Capitalist – with their specific hopes and promises of advancement. Both seem, again, to be stuck in constant return. This motif slumbers already in the title of the exhibition: volume as a word derives from the Latin volvere – to roll or fold, and its recurrence, re-volvere informs the term revolution.”
Kuimet has been working with space since 2013. He is interested in the connection of architectural space to photography and film, and, in turn, their relationship to the architecture of exhibition space. He also pays great attention to the scenography and choreography of both the visitors and the artworks in the gallery. For Kuimet, the relocation of the exhibition content to a new space and context is important when presenting the works at EKA Gallery: “These five volumes or units, which were laid out in separate rooms in Narva and projected onto double-sided screens have been presented as a single volume at EKA Gallery. In Narva, Display for Optical C-Prints hosted two photographs, but at the current exhibition, it will be used as a kind of pavilion that contains all four projectors.”

Paul Kuimet (b. 1984) is an artist based in Tallinn, Estonia. His work has recently been exhibited and screened at Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; European Central Bank, Frankfurt; KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn; WNTRP, Berlin and BOZAR Center for Fine Arts, Brussels. In 2018 he participated in the residency programme at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels and will take part in the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York City.

www.paulkuimet.ee

Supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Muddis Brewery, A. Le Coq.

Graphic design 3rd years students present their project “Wack Dystopia” at EKA Billboard Gallery

On November 20 at 8 PM 3rd-year graphic design students will present their project “Wack Dystopia” at the EKA Billboard Gallery. The course is supervised by Norman Orro. EKA Billboard gallery is located outside on Kotzebue street. The exhibition will remain open until January 31.

In 2015, Mark Fisher coined the term “boring dystopia” to describe the mundane underbelly of the hypercapitalist London society. The first “Blade Runner” movie is already set in history, in November 2019.

Now on the brink of 2020, we live in a WACK DYSTOPIA where truth seems debatable and most news is underlined with the hashtag #notonion.

WACK DYSTOPIA is life in a glimmering technocracy, haunted by a medieval mindset.
WACK DYSTOPIA is a gut feeling, that nothing makes sense anymore.
WACK DYSTOPIA is not a forecast, but a critique of the present.

The metamodern condition finds us in limbo between utopias and dystopias. Both are simplistic caricatures and neither seem real or attainable. To move forward we first have to look truth in the eye. To get real we need to look to the absurd…

In the words of Aldous Huxley ”The trouble with fiction… is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense.”

Participating students: Adam Asztalos, Kersti Heile, Elisabeth Juusu, Roven Jõekäär, Karmo Järv, Anneli Kripsaar, Syret Kärt, Liisi Lasn, Sigrid Liira, Laura Martens, Mikk Tanel Oja, Aliz Stocker, and Johann Georg Villmann
Headline font: Aliz Stocker

Supervisor: Norman Orro

Vlog-performance “THE STORY: chatty get ready, what I eat, workouts (realistic day-in-a-life)” by Netti Nüganen on December 27 at 8 PM at EKA Gallery

A vlog-performance, “The Story…” follows a journey of a character who takes on a trip to ungraspable and alienating lands. Surrounded by the heat and landscapes of California, the protagonist shares with the audience her most banal, trivial and expectable everyday actions. But somehow, by highlighting this banality, something magical is created – a parallel universe where the experience of the known everyday is turned upside down into absurdity, becoming perhaps more relatable than the reality itself. Appearing both in the video and on stage, the character watches the audience watching her throughout these familiar, yet alienating situations.

Netti Nüganen has graduated from the choreography department in SNDO, Amsterdam. Through her video and stage works, she tells stories about characters like a weightlifter, a teenager vlogger, a detective or a cowboy, approaching their banal habits through mystification. While finding comfort in contradictions, displacement, and pluralism, she treats everything known with careful deconstruction and everything unknown with vigilant attention.

Video montage by Ando Naulainen and Netti Nüganen
The performance is in English

Doors: 8 pm
Performance: 8.30 pm
The entrance is from Kotzebue street

Mon-Fri at 3–7 PM

December brings an opportunity to experience, in an exhibition format, works produced by students in the Faculty of Fine Arts as their term projects: every day there will be a fresh crop of university students’ works on display in the gallery.
Works in contemporary art, prints, installation, sculpture and painting curricula will be on display. On each morning of the marathon, a new exhibition will be installed and in the evening the exhibit will give way to the next one. Hopefully, viewers will be able to keep up with the pace of the young artists. On December 21 at 3 pm, there will be an auction with artworks from the painting department.

03.12 – Scenography, supervisor Ene-Liis Semper

04.12 – Photography, supervisors Annika Haas and Tõnu Tunnel

05.12 – Installation and Sculpture, supervisors Kirke Kangro and Taavi Talve

06.12 – Painting, supervisors Kristi Kongi, Holger Loodus, Mihkel Maripuu, Merike Estna

09.12 – Installation and Sculpture, supervisors Art Allmägi and Jass Kaselaan

10–13.12 Contemporary Art: Studio, supervisors Liina Siib, Marge Monko, Raul Keller, Taavi Talve, Jaan ToomikHind

16.12 – Painting, supervisors Holger Loodus, Maiu Rõõmus, Raul Rajangu, Kaido Ole, Tiit Pääsuke, Aapo Pukk

17.12 – Painting, supervisors Jaan Toomik, Mihkel Ilus, Mihkel Maripuu, Heldur Lassi

18.12 – Graphic Art, supervisors Viktor Gurov, Ann Pajuväli, Oliver Laas

19.12 – Graphic Art, supervisors Liina Siib, Maria Erikson

21.12 – Painting auction, doors at 15 pm, auction at 16 pm

Join us for the opening of the solo exhibition and performance on Thursday, November 5 at 8 PM. The exhibition will remain open until November 30.

Vaarik’s sixth solo exhibition is a continuation of her solo exhibition “Possessed” (2017). The expressive, provocative, daring and heartfelt show is about being a woman, a mother, about saving the world, raising children and cuddling. The artist is observing her close relationships and is seeking for conclusions to save the world.

“Skin is our contact with the world. Scroll up to your sleeves and stroke your arm with your hand. This is a feeling. We feel and learn to feel our bodies through strokes, pamper and cuddles. Sometimes there’s no need to overthink! Weird feelings create weird thoughts. But if you know it’s only that–a feeling–and you stop forcing yourself to collaborate with your brain, you can only feel without attributing linguistic meaning. Things are simply as they are. If we start to over-explain something we can mess it up.
We can try to save the world, but if we grow our children to be empathetic, they are doing it naturally. All humans grow inside their moms! I am lucky I was held tight.” – Marta Vaarik

Marta Vaarik (b. 1986) is an artist, photographer and self-proclaimed blond trickster based in Tallinn, Estonia. She holds a BFA degree in painting from the Estonian Academy of Arts and is currently studying Contemporary Art in the same university. She did an exchange program in UDK studying under professor Josephine Pryde. The current solo show at EKA Gallery is her sixth and she has participated in group shows in Berlin and Estonia. She works in the mediums of painting, photography, performance, and video.

Thanks: Sandra Mäesepp, Rebecca Künnis, Ülle Vaarik, Aadam Taaksalu, Andrus Vaarik, Kelly Turk, Margit Lõhmus, Sveta Grigorjeva, Piret Karro, Rasmus Neljand, Krislin Ots, Big Boy, Gunnar Laal, Taavi Lepp, Pire Sova, Johannes Luik, Kersti Heile

Exhibition title: Sveta Grigorjeva

Graphic design: Kersti Heile

The exhibition is supported by A. Le Coq.

The rescue from destruction of Dolores Hoffmann’s fresco ’Morning’ at the Cinema ’Rahu’ (’Peace’) in Kopli, Tallinn.

The exhibition is open from August 6 at the Gallery of the Estonian Academy of Arts at Põhja pst 7. The theme of the exhibition is a 74 m² fresco by Dolores Hoffmann that she completed as her graduation project – no longer in one piece today.

In 1963 Dolores Hoffmann, a future renowned monumentalist, professor and famous stained glass artist, painted an enormous mural ’Hommik’ (’Morning’) at the newly opened cinema ’Rahu’ (’Peace’). The earliest known Soviet era monumental fresco was painted on the basis of a draft graduation project from the ESSR State Art Institute. The artist used her friends and peers as models, the brothers Arrak, Jüri Palm, Evi Sepp and many others. She also included Ernest Hemingway, an idol writer for the youth of that era.

In 2019 the dilapidated cinema building was demolished to be replaced by a modern shopping centre. The 74 m² monumental work of art by Dolores Hoffmann would have been demolished in the process had the Department of Cultural Heritage and Conservation of the Estonian Academy of Arts not made it its mission to rescue at least parts of the fresco – about half of the painting was dismantled and preserved and pieces of it are kept in the Estonian Academy of Arts Museum.

This exhibition in the Estonian Academy of Arts Gallery on 6.8.–7.9.2019 tells the story of the rescue of the fresco ‘Hommik’. The monumental mural will be shown as a projection with the rescued fragments ‘planted’ into it. The exposition gives another chance to look at the artwork as a conditional whole – something that no longer exists and to contemplate the preservation and appreciation of cultural heritage.

Exhibition team: Hilkka Hiiop, Reeli Kõiv, Frank Lukk, Andres Uueni, Taavi Tiidor, Maris Veeremäe

The exhibition is accompanied by a book under the same title, compiled by the Estonian Academy of Arts Cultural Heritage and Conservation Department and the Estonian Academy of Arts Museum.
The book gives a detailed and abundantly illustrated insight into the dismantling process of the giant fresco by Dolores Hoffmann in all its complexity. It also tells the story of this monumental painting including its historical context, the process of creation, an analysis of the painting, its critical reception, its afterlife etc, as well as the philosophy of conservation and the history of the dismantling of frescos. The book is supplemented by direct quotations from an interview with Dolores Hoffmann.

The texts were written by Hilkka Hiiop, Reeli Kõiv, Andrus Laansalu and Frank Lukk, and edited by Anneli Randla and Maris Veeremäe, designed by Villu Plink. Published in Estonian and in English by Tallinna Raamatutrükikoda, 64 pages.

For more information contact: Hilkka Hiiop – hilkka.hiiop@artun.ee, tel 56 577980