Events

Opening on 24th January at 4 pm.   The project “Artist and Researcher in Collections” is a further development of “Artists in Collections”, an exhibition series that took place in 2018 and was one of the highlights of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Republic of Estonia. The University of Tartu Museum (UTM) wanted to invite an artist to research its collection with the aim of creating an exhibition in the university’s art museum, but with an important twist of adding to this dialogue also a scientist from the University of Tartu. The project managers of “Artists in Collections”, Maarin Ektermann and Mary-Ann Talvistu, selected the artist Taavi Suisalu who works with technology, sound and performance.   In autumn 2019, Suisalu visited many of the museum’s collections and found the starting point of the exhibition.

On Friday, 24 January at 6 p.m. Grisli Soppe-Kahar will open her personal exhibition “Mute Scream” in the monumental gallery of the Tartu Art House.   Grisli Soppe-Kahar is currently one of the most powerful Expressionists in Estonian art. The brush strokes of her large format works are always forceful but their tonality has lately become increasingly muted. This, however, does not seem to point to negative undertones. The grotesque beings seem to be participating in some ritual or a game but the precise nature of this activity remains hermetically sealed. At the same time it cannot be completely ruled out that the absurdity on the canvases does not hide a silent cry for help.   The artist adds: Communication where you are in the background, that is overpowering, starts to oppress. Answering with the same is not constructive.

On Friday, 24 January at 5.30 p.m. Piibe Arrak will open her 80th anniversary exhibition in the large gallery of the Tartu Art House.   Piibe Arrak is an artist from Tartu with a lengthy career. According to herself, she values “old school” artistic principles and wants to preserve the painterly traditions although she continues to develop her own artistic world view. Her greatest role models have been Arnold Akberg in high school, Alfred Kongo in the Tartu Art School, Erich and Melanie Arrak in the Veeriku Studio, Ann Audova, Linda Kits and Silvia Jõgever in the Nude Studio of the Tartu Art House, and, of course, her late husband Eevart Arrak. She is a member of both the Tartu Artists’ Union and Estonian Painters’ Association.   The present exhibition offers an overview of Piibe Arrak’s oeuvre from six decades. The 1960s are characterised by broad and dashing brush strokes and mute colouring.

On Friday, 24 January at 5 p.m. the artist Laura Põld and the poet Katrin Väli will open their joint exhibition “Denial” in the large gallery of the Tartu Art House.   This exhibition is a continuation of two earlier joint projects of Põld and Väli: “Natural Shelter” (2019, Fiskars Village Art and Design Biennial, curator Jenni Nurmenniemi) and “Burrows. Flights” (2019, Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn). The installation consists of Põld’s ceramic objects and sculptures, display cases containing supporting literature and Väli’s poems. Unlike the previous projects, the fragments from poems have a more organic appearance and therefore relate more closely with the rest of the exhibition. The Canadian artist Lou Sheppard has written: “Though wonderful and strange objects and ideas emerge from her studio, Põld’s practice is not, necessarily, about doing.

On Friday, January 24 at 7 pm, the international group show “Equilibrium Delay” will open at Kogo Gallery. The exhibition consists of various artist films and is centred on the idea of the act of balancing regarding personal challenges, both physical and emotional. Participating artists: Garrett Brown (US), Simon Faithfull (DE/UK), Gerda Nurk (EE) and Alex Reynolds (ES/UK). The characters and situations exhibited in the films all share a continuous aspiration toward balance. The focus is on body and movement, particularly the limbo between losing and finding one’s balance. The characters portrayed are bound in their states of pursuit, a lingering mood of uncertainty.

The Pärnu Fotofest, the new Pärnu art festival that was initiated by the City Gallery three years ago, has undertaken to enliven the art life of the city during the wintery off-season, and to reveal various facets of photographic art to the public. From late January to late February, thematic exhibitions that are part of the festival programme will be on display in most of the city’s exhibition spaces.  This year’s programme will take place simultaneously with the Pärnu Contemporary Music Days, and share the common theme of “Error in the System”, by searching for errors and dislocations in photographic art and music, and attempting to capture deviations in the content, form as well as interpretation of the works. The PCMD and Fotofest include seminars, workshops, concerts, the collective listening and viewing of works, and various exhibitions.  The exhibitions’ great opening rally will start at 4 p.m. on January 23rd.  

The exhibition “Is This the Museum We Wanted? The Narva Version” will open on Wednesday, January 22 at 5 pm at Narva Museum Art Gallery. “Is This the Museum We Wanted? The Narva Version” is adiscussion-oriented, participatory exhibition that allows everyone who cares about Narva’s art scene to experience a high-quality exhibition programme that includes both art heritage and contemporary art. The exhibition signals a new shift of emphasis for the Narva Museum Art Gallery, the goal being to spark broader discussion about what the function, role and target audience of a modern art institution should be in this border town.   The point of departure is Narva and the Narva Museum Art Gallery itself. On one hand, it’s a very subjective exhibi- tion, created with the eye of a non-local, reflecting the curator’s observations, experiences, and ideas.

Helena Keskküla will open her personal exhibition Blossoms and Boogeymen, Telenovelas are Stupid in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, December 18, 2019.   In her earlier artist practice, Helena Keskküla has repeatedly played with sentimentality combined with text and music, therefore having reached the genre of musical as a logical result. The artist is continuously interested in what happens when using songs, humour and plain language in order to speak about one's fears. A musical film Choral Reeds, also called as a horror-musical, is the centerpiece of the present exhibition. The piece is about a creative person who is diagnosed with an unusual yet harmless physiological anomaly. Facing the symptoms creates psychological stress manifesting both in personal and professional spheres.   Helena Keskküla lives, works and studies in Tallinn and Amsterdam, currently obtaining MA degree in Sandberg Institute.

Liina Siib will open her personal exhibition Huldufólk / Hidden People in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, January 15th, 2019.   The highlight of Liina Siib's installation “Huldufólk”, located on both floors of the gallery, lies in the silent tragicomical piece composed by photographs, a tragicomedy with derived words, a silent film and a comic strip.   The tragicomic strip is set in winter, in the surroundings of the back door of a 24-hour food store in Reykjavik. The geographical location does not really matter here much more than perhaps recognizing larger fish crates, longer lasting nights, rapid change of weather and temperatures; depicted activities and related attributes can be found anywhere in the world.

Rein Mägar will open his personal exhibition Facial Recognition in Draakon gallery at 5.30pm on Monday, January 13th, 2020.   “Facial recognition is a special purpose computer program or function used for identification or automatic verification or examination of a person.” (Wikipedia)   Current exhibition mainly consists of portraits while offering an amusing opportunity to search for common features between computer-based work and portrait painting, as also the title of the exhibition - “Facial Recognition” - is referring to. A computer program is able to spot a human face in a frame in a fraction of a second while comparing the face to thousands of other faces. Therewith the program uses 68 points for defining a face whereas the tip of the nose is always the point No.