Events

Marta Vaarik’s solo exhibition “Hold me dearly” will open at 17:00 on 20 January at Vana-Võromaa Museum and Art Gallery. “Hold me dearly” is a visual interpretation on the theme of children’s mental health. It was preceded by a collaboration project between the Victim Support and Prevention Services Department of the Social Insurance Board and Marta Vaarik where the artist conducted painting and collage workshops and group discussions with children in closed children’s institutions (KLAT). The exhibition presents the children’s thoughts, feelings and experiences through art and a short documentary film.

On Friday, 20 January at 6 pm, Jenny Grönholm’s solo exhibition Future Memories will be opened at the Tallinn City Gallery. Going through her memories when searching for material for her paintings, the artist interweaves the associations from her inner world with imaginary time-spaces, presenting them to the viewer with evocative power. Her slightly melancholic works are characterised by muted earth tones that blend her depicted subjects with the background. Born in Finland where she also started her education, Jenny Grönholm later arrived in Tallinn as an Erasmus exchange student and obtained her Master of Arts degree in Estonia where she has now found a home and place of creation. Alongside experimenting with different media, she arrived at painting, following her own path as a determined self-taught artist. Characteristically of the Grönholm, Future Memories is a suggestive exhibition that looks both into the past and the future, standing firmly on the ground while having its head in the clouds at the same time.

On Friday, 20 January at 6:00 p.m. the group exhibition “Secret Garden” by Kadri Toomi, Külli Suitso, Kalli Kalde, Tuuli Puhvel and Anne Rudanovski will open in the large gallery of the Tartu Art House. The curator of the exhibition is Kalli Kalde. At the exhibition, the viewer can enjoy a walk down the untrodden paths of the secret garden in a safer cultural landscape. The isolation of the COVID period led us into the unknown labyrinths of the inner world of the soul. Unexpected meetings at the crossroads of the secret garden bring light to the fragile yet powerful world of feelings and instincts, revealing unexpected opportunities and connections. Some creatures have been banished by cultural false modesty to the darker recesses of the secret garden, where they will hopefully stay alive.

Maria-Kristiina Ulas will open her personal exhibition Clue whizzing from the Left in Hobusepea gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, January 11th, 2023. Exhibition will stay open until February 6th, 2023.

Maria Erikson's personal exhibition Soft Touch on the Deckle will be opened in Draakon gallery at 18:00 on Wednesday, January 11, 2023. Exhibition will stay open until February 4, 2023.  At her present exhibition Soft Touch on the Deckle, the artist observes her relationship with the process of graphic art, including the body of the artist and the lithographic stone. While comparing body and its surface to the one of the lithographic stone, one is looking for the parallels and contradictions. And while attributing the litographic stone the ability to memorize just like human skin, Erikson studies her personal artwork as a dialogue between two bodies – the one of the artist and the one of the lithographic stone. The contact between the two bodies results into new forms of co-existence and non-hierarchical ways of communication of the bodies through the similarities and differences. 

Taavi Rekkaro's solo exhibition thank you for everything will be opened in Draakon gallery at 18:00 on Tuesday, December 13th, 2022. Together with the exhibition opening there will be also a presentation of the artist book based on the current exhibition. Exhibition will be open until January 7, 2023. When a long-term relationship suddenly ends, the artist discovers himself in a complete emptiness. His partner takes all her things and when she leaves then all the meanings leave with her. Only the good-bye message "thank you for everything" left on the mirror reminds the artist of the fact that a certain world has existed somewhere at some time before. From the mirror, I am facing life that seems to have failed for good. I have studied a specialty that is now just a diploma for me and not my calling. My long-time loved one has found herself a better partner. My room is empty.

15.12.2022–09.01.2023 Opening 15.12.2022, 18.00 “I used to be so fragile… But now I am so wild. Crazy girl, do a twirl! Now I feel so much better.” In the dark, it's all a trick. And nobody knows. We are in the moment, in the moments. Our eyes throw a glance, we make you laugh, we are provocative, we dance, we drink. We pretend to have fun. We break our own hearts. And we do it again and again. Compelled by lyrics from the song Party Girl by Michelle Gurevich, Tammoja and Cox present contemporary jewellery pieces that depict, deny, define, and distort the images we hold of ourselves as women: of our vulnerabilities, of our strengths, of our fears and our desires — real or imagined. Of that girl: who you may know, who you might also be.

On Wednesday, 14.12. at 19:00 there will be a fireside chat evening between Evi Tihemets and Joonas Hellerma in the black-ceiling hall of the Writers House. During the discussion event, the large-format lithograph “Waves" printed in the 50s by Evi Tihemets will be presented in the black-ceiling hall of the Writers House within the exhibition format “One Picture Gallery”. Evi Tihemets (b. 1932 in Tapa) graduated from the Estonian National Art Institute in 1958 and then worked as a freelance artist. Tihemets has cultivated a wide variety of techniques, especially colour lithography, soft varnish and other gravure printing techniques, mixed techniques. She has created both small graphics, portraits and monumental large forms, illustrated books, and depicted both nature and industrial landscapes. Tihemets has received the Wiiralt Art Prize (2011) and the Kristjan Raua Prize (1992, 2013).

On Friday, 16 December at 6 p.m. the traditional annual exhibition of Tartu art will be opened in the Tartu Art House, designed by Enn Tegova. The selection was made by a jury consisting of Enn Tegova (chairman), Indrek Grigor, Tõnis Kriisa, Meiu Münt, Hando Tamm, Anita Trink and Martin Urb. A selection of the exhibited works is visible on the website NOBA.ac, where they can also be purchased. Altogether, 225 authors presented their works for the exhibition with 117 artists participating:

  Opening of Kursi Artists' Group XXXV birthday exhibition is on the 25th of November at 5 p.m in Vana-Võromaa Museum and Art Gallery. The colourful Kursi Artists' Group is travelling to Võru for the first time to celebrate their XXXV birthday with an exhibition. For this occasion, nine Kursi Artists' Group members and one guest artist have gathered their most interesting pieces. Several of these works have been hidden in their studios for years, but now they will meet again. Kursi Artists' Group was founded in 1988 in Tartu by Peeter Allik, Albert Gulk, Ilmar Kruusamäe and Peeter Pangsepp. Its purpose is and was to differ from Tallinn artists and artists who work with classical art in Tartu. The exhibition will show hyperrealistic, surrealistic and conceptual artworks. Kursi Artists' Group book published in 2015 will also be available at the museum.