From June 18th to August 28th, the exhibition Royal Visit to the Golden Waterfall by internationally-renowned artist Mery Crystal Ra, whose real name is Meeli Kõiva, will be open at Tokko & Arrak Gallery, within Tallinn Teachers’ House.
The exhibition takes you to springs, rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, waterfalls, rivers flowing in opposite directions, and waterfalls gushing up. The world tour in the US, Canada, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia continues. Artist Mery Crystal Ra paints the energy, vibrations, and light of energy fields of border rivers, border lakes, border seas, border oceans, waterfalls, streams. In addition to the main exhibition, two large-scale paintings from an earlier period have been added to the lobby along with two new paintings to the hall on the Town Hall side.
The exhibition opened to a large crowd on June 17th, with Tallinn Mayor Peeter Raudsepp, diplomatic, scientific, and cultural elite, and leaders of women's organizations also attending the opening.
Art historian and artist Kaire Nurk also gave a speech at the opening about the philosophy of Mery Crystal Ra’s paintings. Nurk analyzed the artist’s unique abstract, tense handwriting, colour scheme, and the energy fields in her paintings that have developed over the past forty-five years. Among other things, she said: “This occurrence in the paintings could be taken as a metaphor for the author’s inner (urgent, inevitable) need to contribute to the functioning of the world. This is extremely commendable, considering that there are more creative models in art that are oriented in the opposite direction, turned inward.”
Short films about Mery Crystal Ra's innovative, internationally recognized work were shown at the opening. Australian filmmaker Anthony Noack's short film WHITE SHIP, about the life of artist Mery Crystal Ra, was also screened in Estonia for the second time at the Tallinn TV Tower. The TV Tower also marked the beginning of the artist's international world tour, where the artist paints border waters in different countries and explores the energy fields, vibrations and oscillations that operate there in nature and in people. The paintings are also accompanied by interviews with locals and tourists.
At the exhibition, the artist presents her large-scale acrylic paintings and series of small watercolour paintings. The paintings have all been completed in the last two years. The general concept of the exhibition is hidden in the title: do only the visits of kings decide things in the world—who is at the table and who is on the menu—or are there other options left?
The watercolour paintings were completed over eight months while meditating and waiting for the “white ship” during the artist's previous exhibition at the Tallinn TV Tower. This year, observations of border lakes/seas/oceans and the horizon have been added in Tallinn, Helsinki, San Francisco and Portugal. The horizon is like a sign and an energetic boundary.
In her paintings, the artist discusses the topic of which colours could contribute to the arrival of world peace. “If yellow, white, pink, light purple and blue are the tones that make people happy, then these colours should be used to bring change to the world and I have used these colours in my paintings,” says Mery Crystal Ra.
Photo gallery
Photos by Viktor Burkivski, Endel Apsalon, ja Marie Maarand
Mery Crystal Ra’s stardom as a painter began at the gallery ART 54 in Manhattan, New York, in 1997. Artist Mery Crystal Ra is an internationally recognized innovator and pioneer of three-dimensional interdisciplinary light, glass, and video works. She has won numerous global competitions with her innovative, metamorphic works created in special spaces with special fields of meaning.
She has been repeatedly selected to represent Estonia, Finland, and the US in international competitions, at global exhibitions, and conferences. Her innovative light-glass sculptures were more than forty years ahead of their time.
She has also been invited to lecture to artists at the Rhode Island School Of Design (RISD) in the United States, the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Sweden, the Estonian Academy of Arts, and other universities. The artist’s first exhibition of light sculptures took place in 1991 when Mery Crystal Ra presented her light exhibition in Pavilion 1 of the Estonian Fair in Pirita, Tallinn, Estonia. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of this pioneering exhibition, an international hybrid conference with renowned speakers from among the world's top artists was also held at KUMU.
In 2016, Mery Crystal Ra was selected as a Nobel panelist for the UNESCO Year of Light closing ceremony in Mexico, with an interactive solo exhibition Light for Peace. For the scientific conference of the same event, she gave a presentation on her experimental light-glass painting creation. The artist was elected European Ambassador of Light in 2014. She has won the European light competition Light in the City/Northern Light three times. The glass-light sculpture Flying Sheets of Paper, created for the Finnish glass company Glaston, won the audience award at the global competition of the world’s leading public space/architectural art magazine CODAworx, based in the US.
Mery Crystal Ra’s exhibition Parasite Beach, at the Estonian Mining Museum, was selected as one of the five Cultural Works of the Year at the Estonian Cultural House competition of 2016. The artist has been nominated for the Kristjan Rau Award several times.
Her experimental paintings, glass, video, and light works have been selected several times among the world's twenty-five best works in the CODAworx magazine competition: the exhibition Reactive River in the main building of the European Parliament, the sculpture Flying Sheets of Paper in the main building of Glaston (Tampere, Finland), the work Golden Gate meets Golden Gateway in Mäetagus, and the interactive global video sculpture for Flying Sheets of Paper.
This year she was invited to the 35th anniversary of the Estonian National Cultural Foundation. Within three hours her painting Philosophy was completed at the venue in support of the sub-fund named after the leading Estonian philosopher Ene Grauberg.
Reviews:
Thomas Lawrence, Manhattan Arts art critic: “Mery Crystal Ra's creative philosophy is constantly transforming the glass environment through innovative glass and light art. Luminosity, spontaneity, and movement are the qualities that immediately come to mind when looking at Mery Crystal Ra's abstract creations. Water, shadow, reflections, and light are integral parts of the artist's works. A profound sense of freedom, flexibility, and depth. Mery Crystal Ra's glass sculptures often create the illusion that the space around them is constantly changing. This impression is achieved thanks to the vigorous use of innovative materials and technologies.”
Rosemarie Montague-Tiesler, art guru, art historian, and gallerist in Manhattan, USA: ” Mery Crystal Ra is one of our artists who we exhibited in our art gallery in Soho, New York in the 90s! She is the Tesla of the art world. She is the most talented and internationally renowned artist of our time!”
Eric Saarinen, Hollywood filmmaker, President of Eric Saarinen Films: “Mery Crystal Ra understands the human spirit. She uses light, sound, and colour to inspire us all to be better people and grow spiritually. She is both highly creative and technical – using modern technologies to tell stories. She is a true princess of light!”
The exhibition and world tour were supported by: Major Sponsor William O`Keeffe, Safti Ltd USA
Video of the opening, introduction of the works:
Trailer from the film The White Ship:
Works in the Tokko ja Arrak gallery can be viewed here: https://tokkoarrak.ee/naitus
Mery Crystal Ra's paintings and monumental works on Saatchi Art: https://www.saatchiart.com/en-ee/account/profile/96344?srsltid=AfmBOorvmCQqcXD4MKj8r4_HKAvcI4329sUGGHVEI3Gjx_DdmkkD7drz
A short film documenting the completion of Mery Crystal Ra's painting “Philosophy” for auction at the Estonian National Culture Foundation's 35 anniversary at the Open Air Museum in Tallinn:
