“Bright up” by Markus Kasemaa

On Friday, 31 January at 6 p.m., Markus Kasemaa will open his solo exhibition “Bright up” in the monumental gallery of the Tartu Art House.

In the opening exhibition, we can see the artist´s return to the world of colour.

Several long-standing directions, interests and plans are realised and mixed in this exhibition, which is grouped into series of works with the titles “Bright”, “Dark” and “Grey”. This arrangement can also be seen as a process: paintings in more or less sketchy grey tones, are works in their own right and evolve in either a light or dark direction. Most of the time, his works are born out of noticing or imagining something in the maze of automatic drawing and developing it further. Kasemaa avoids interpreting for himself or for the viewer, as this would limit the number of interpretations. For the same reason, there are no titles on the works. Such works can be described as “inkblot tests”, where everyone has the opportunity to find their own interpretations.

“I remember that colour did not interest me at all: I had no sense that it added anything. Design and content seemed more important. The accelerator for my return to colour about five years ago may have been, to put it in semi-sincere terms, coffee shop conversations with the art historian Krista Piirimäe, where, in the relaxed manner typical of our conversations, she chided me for the lack of colour, and thought that I probably couldn´t do it any more,” the artist recalls.

Markus Kasemaa (b. 1972) is an Estonian artist. He studied art at Tartu Art School, Department of Sculpture (1990-1991) and at Tartu University, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Painting (1991-1995). He is a member of Estonian Artists’ Union and Tartu Artist’s Union. Kasemaa has participated in numerous exhibitions both in Estonia and internationally, including approx  50 soloexhbitions in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, Malaysia, the USA, United Arab Emirates and Turkey. His works have also been featured on the covers of the scientific journals Nature and Cell and in the Estonian National Atlas.

The exhibition will be open until 2 March.

Additional information:
Maret Tamme
Producer of the Tartu Art House
E-post: produtsent@kunstimaja.ee
Tel: +372 5800 3882

www.kunstimaja.ee
facebook.com/kunstimaja

Tartu Art House (Vanemuise 26) is open Wed-Mon 12.00–18.00. All exhibitions are free of charge.
The exhibition activities in the Tartu Art House are supported by the Tartu city government and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.