Events

As of 17 October, 5 pm, the Art Hall Gallery opens an overview exhibition of the graphic art of Vello Vinn. Titled "∞ & ○" (read: infinity and circle), the show gives an outline of the artist’s more than a half-century long career.   The thematic core of the exhibition is the developmental trajectory of one of the most innovative post-war Estonian graphic artists, starting from the 1960s up to this day. This also explains the cryptic, symbol-based title of the exhibition which, naturally, hints at the systematic symmetry principle governing much of Vello Vinn’s oeuvre.   Vello Vinn was born on 4 October 1939 in Saaremaa. He lives and works in Tallinn. After graduating from the State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR, i.e. today’s Estonian Academy of Arts, in 1968, he quickly gained recognition at graphic art exhibitions in Estonia as well as abroad.

The exhibition’s title, "Once I Had..." refers to the transience of possession, convenience of over-consumption and other self-destructive implications of human behavior on the future of Earth.   Once I Had.. is a conceptual continuation of Britta Benno recent solo exhibition „Dystopic Tallinn“. In this project the apocalyptic landscape scenery is site-specifically depicted with the Mustamäe district’s panel houses, as they are located in the vicinity of the artist-run space Kraam.   Benno invited American artist Heather Beardsley to this project, as they met while during an artist residency in Vienna, where they were coincidentally both depicting dystopian landscapes. The works relate not only through imagery, but also materially and technically. There are many common links between the two artists: Benno and Beardsley both use nostalgic found objects, collage-like layering, printmaking and transfer methods, and inconvenient materials combinations.