Events

On 19 July at 6 pm, the group exhibition Hold Me Tender will open at Medūza gallery in Vilnius. The show deals with relationships, care, social roles and responsibility, language and ethnicity, vulnerability and violence. The exhibition will remain open until 31 August. The participating artists are Bas Jan Ader, Agnė Jokšė, Morta Jonynaitė, Sandra Kosorotova, Keiu Maasik, Maija Mustonen, Marko Mäetamm, Sarah Nõmm, Hanna Piksarv, Mark Raidpere and Elīna Vītola. The exhibition is curated by Siim Preiman.

On Friday, 12 July at 5 p.m. the exhibition “Homo Ludens” dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Ilmar Malin will be opened at the Gallery Pallas.   This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ilmar Malin (1924–2024). He is one of the most important painters from Estonia and especially from Tartu during the second half of the 20th century. Over the course of his diverse career, he managed to move from the compulsory socialist realism of his school years through in-depth explorations of surrealism to innovative installation art of the of the 1990s.   The exhibition at the Pallas Gallery will mainly focus on Malin’s non-surrealist oeuvre, thereby complementing the exhibition “Ilmar Malin. Glow of Eternity” at the Tartu Art Museum (open until July 21). The curators also wanted to focus on works which the audience has seen rarely if at all since they are in private collections or in difficult to access locations.  

On Wednesday, July 10, at 18.00, EAA Young Artist Award 2023 laureate Samuel Lehikoinen opens his exhibition Empty Calories at Hobusepea gallery. The exhibition will remain open until August 5, 2024.  The exhibition is about the ironies and dysfunction of our screen-centric existence, highlighting the cycle of instant gratification driven by our obsessive consumption of the “empty calorie” content found in social media feeds.

Today, 5 July at 6 p.m, a new group exhibition with the title “Look into my Ice” will open in the three galleries of the Tartu Art House as part of the main programme of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024. The curator of the exhibition is Liisi Kõuhkna. The purpose of the exhibition is to enhance empathy and raise awareness about the impact of melting glaciers and the effect it has on Estonia. We are the last generation able to save the earth from irreversible destruction in process. We need a sense of global responsibility because we are interdependent. 

Opening of the group exhibition “Compost of Joy” on July 13 at 4:00 PM at the Narva Art Residency. Often, depicting happiness or joy in art can come across as crude, tasteless, overly decorative, superficial… or KITSCH. Kitsch is an imitation of art aimed at mass-market appeal. But is that really the case? Should it be? Could we instead embrace kitsch, drawing inspiration from its aesthetics without shame, embracing clichés? Or should we strive to convey our joy subtly and with nuance, tastefully and elegantly? Is it even sensible to dismiss clichés? Can the aesthetics of kitsch be used as a serious art form capable of conveying the complexity of human nature? Each participating artist has their own answers to these questions, creating a large, colourful mixture—or perhaps compost—where we’ve tossed all our relevant thoughts for decomposition. Karolina Peterson's experimental film takes us on a journey through an ironically guided meditation, prompting us to reflect on our own lives.

Join us for the opening of Marleen Suvi’s solo exhibition “We’ve Never Lived in a House” at EKA Gallery on Friday, July 5, at 6 pm!  The exhibition will remain open until August 4. Curated by Aleksander Metsamärt Marleen Suvi's personal exhibition "We’ve Never Lived in a House" brings together 16 large-scale canvases to form a major installation, which concerns itself with the topics of memory and family.

You are welcome to the opening of “Souvenir of Haapsalu” by Liivia Leškin on July 3 at 5 pm. The exhibition will remain open until August 4. This exhibition is entirely and completely dedicated to Haapsalu - my hometown. To the light here and to people by my side. Liivia Leškin Lisainfo: Haapsalu City Gallery Posti 3, 90502 Haapsalu www.galerii.kultuurimaja.ee Wed–Sun 12.00–18.00

Estonian artist with Ukrainian roots Tanja Muravskaja works at KORDON as this year's invited artist. The Artist Talk with Tanja will take place on Wednesday, June 26 at 16:00 at the KORDON Art Residency Ranna 1, Kärdla. All interested are very welcome!

Exhibition opening on June 29.06 at 3pm. Jaan Elken: As an artist, I create worlds that make certain claims of visual comprehensiveness, that have intellectually oriented coordinates that have guided me in one way or another. The contrasts of metropolitan airports, where the human made futuristic emptiness of the terminals is followed by a different emptiness when you hit the runway, where the rush if speeding is replaced by transcendental ascension, when you no longer can feel the speed/space/time in an ordinary manner – emerging above the clouds.

On Thursday, June 20 at 6 p.m. painter Anne Parmasto opens her solo exhibition "Green Forms" at Vabaduse Gallery. Parmasto, who mainly works in abstract panel painting, brings to Vabaduse Gallery an expressive and colourful selection of paintings, one of the central and recurring motifs of which is the greenery of plants striving to grow and flourish.  Accompanying the exhibition of her most recent work, the artist describes painting as a journey towards the horizon – each step towards it taking it the same much further.