Liisa Kruusmägi’s exhibition “Yokai Tea Party / 妖怪のお茶”

On Wednesday, July 2, at 6 p.m., Liisa Kruusmägi’s exhibition “Yokai Tea Party / 妖怪のお茶” will open at Draakon gallery. The exhibition will remain open until July 26, 2025.

Liisa Kruusmägi has been painting her thoughts and feelings, featuring people, animals, and the things around her in various environments. The bright colours of her paintings can make us breathe and rest in these anxious times.

This exhibition, which consists of new paintings and ceramics created based on her experiences staying in Japan in 2015 and 2023, began with her interest in the mysterious, weird, creepy, and sometimes humorous creatures that appear in Japanese folklore, known as Yokai, while observing her surroundings and searching for funny, new and strange things. Yokai has been brought into existence through the process of telling and passing on the strange phenomena born from people's fears, anxieties, and mysteries as a shared experience. Kruusmägi is open to different cultures and to such creatures that are beyond human control. Additionally, she does not immediately impose a simple judgment of good and evil on them. Yokai that enter the house through the window, that attend a tea ceremony, that eat ice cream, etc., look cute, humorous and somewhat familiar.

Hirohisa Koike

Liisa Kruusmägi (1988) is a freelance artist working primarily with painting, drawing, and ceramics. She holds a BA in Painting (2010) and an MA in Drawing (2013) from the Estonian Academy of Arts. Kruusmägi has undertaken further studies at the Rhode Island School of Design and participated in residency programs in Canada, Japan, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Brazil, Greece, Peru, and Portugal. She has held numerous solo exhibitions and taken part in a range of group shows. Her recent major exhibitions include Memories from Altai Krai at Tallinn City Gallery in 2024 and Cephalopods with Binoculars at Vaal Gallery in 2022. She has been a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association since 2013 and of the Estonian Painters’ Association since 2022.

Exhibitions at Draakon gallery are supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

Additional information:
Draakon Gallery
Tel:  +372 5645 1591
       +372 528 5324
       +372 6 276 777
E-mail: galerii@eaa.ee
Pikk 18, 10133 Tallinn
www.hobusepeadraakon.ee
Mon–Fri 11.00–18.00
Sat 11.00–17.0