PRESS RELEASE

SVEN PARKER (1985) will open his personal exhibition Platform in Hobusepea gallery at 5pm on February 1st, 2012.

In essence, current exhibition Platform is about an identity of a young man – being in a nomadic and volatile state of flux due to the flow of financial capital, to the development of technology, to education system that always seems to become obsolete in contemporary circumstances, and to consumption of pop culture in today's globalized information society. Platform can be considered to be a pit stop in that constant flow of information and cash where the artist attempts to define his identity but constantly „failing“ to complete the task. Thus, artwork presented at the current exhibition serves as a stage setting or a backcloth for the artist in order to be able to pose questions on the location-specifics, speculating and cultural mystification. The exhibition becomes a stage where the egalitarian aesthetics of graffiti meets the elite aesthetics of the „white cube“; where the „Oriental“ Persian carpet meets „European“ artificial palm trees; where the artist's friends – painters – meet a photo robot; where Ian Curtis meets Werner Herzog and Iggy Pop. The very stage inevitably becomes the centerpiece for the young Estonian art intellectual studying the subject of one's identity and thus the author's position also turns into a starting platform. The gallery turns into a platform for public speech, and the exhibition turns into a platform as well.

Sven Parker has graduated from the department of painting at Estonian Academy of Arts with a BA degree in 2011. He is currently obtaining a MA degree in the department of fine arts at the same university. Since 2003, Parker works as a freelance illustrator and designer. He has been participating in group exhibitions since 2007. This is his debute personal exhibition in Hobusepea gallery.

Press release by Andreas Trossek

Exhibition will be open until February 13, 2012.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Thanks to: Kadri Villand, Külliki ja Olev Parker, Kelly Parker, Mikk Lilles, Silver Liiberg, Tanel Tänna, Taavi Rekkaro, Artprint, Shishi, Vaibagalerii, Artbook, SEB.