Even in an age where we can access nearly any artwork from any time period online, seeing it in person offers a different kind of understanding. You may notice individual brush strokes, the spots where the artist made a mistake and quickly covered it up, or how the light catches certain textures and colours—details that don’t quite translate through screen but make the picture whole. It’s a privilege to witness art this way, and even more so to have local galleries and exhibitions within reach.
If you happen to be in Estonia this spring, here are a few exhibitions you should visit, as recommended by Arterritory:
- The Mei Sisters: Avant-Garde and the Everyday Life at Kumu Art Museum
“The sisters Kristine (1895–1969), Lydia (1896–1965) and Natalie (1900–1975) Mei, daughters of a mariner from the island of Hiiumaa, entered the Estonian art life in the second half of the 1910s. They included in their works themes and viewpoints that were unusual for female creators, rising into the ranks of the classic masters of Estonian modernism by using marginal and less appreciated techniques… The exhibition contains drawings, watercolours, small sculptures and collages, as well as everyday items and unique handmade booklets authored under pseudonyms. The works reflect the times of the artistic sisters with immediacy and directness.” — Kumu Art Museum
- Uru Valter’s Solo Exhibition at Tallinn City Gallery
“Uru Valter is the name that artists Erik Hõim, Ats Kruusing, and Eke Ao Nettan have given to their shared creative entity… The only proof of its existence is found in the works that emerge from this current: sculptures, videos, photographs, paintings, and performances. Their collective practice is defined by a theatrical sensibility, an appreciation for simple values, a touch of national romanticism, and a commitment to craftsmanship…
… What can one hold on to in a time when traditional roles and hierarchies have lost their meaning? When even the things that once felt certain are no longer fixed? What path should a young man take – one who, in the past, would have been born and died in the same place, dedicating his life to hard physical labour, but who now has the freedom to pursue whatever his heart desires? In preparation for their exhibition at Tallinn City Gallery, Uru Valter immersed themselves in these questions – reading August Mälk, travelling across Estonia, touching the sea, smelling the wind, and reflecting deeply. The result is an exhibition structured like a spiral, coiling in on itself like a seashell. Facade becomes interior, and the work returns to the hands of its creator.” — Tallinn City Gallery
- Siiri Jüris “to melt into your soil and sprout as a flower” at Tütar gallery
“Siiri Jüris’ exhibition “to melt into your soil and sprout as a flower” focuses on coexistence in both the content and medium of her works…Her works are intuitively and slowly processed, taking on a life of their own. Surfaces, rhythms and layers emerge from the play of colours. The layers melt into each other, take shape and create shifts. Shifts occur also in the physical state of the works – the canvas melts into a sculptural form and the form flows back into the canvas. The frames of the paintings seem to breathe, absorbing surfaces and shapes, melting and transforming. Some have been made by hand, others modelled using 3D printing.
The title “to melt into your soil and sprout as a flower” expresses aptly how artificial intelligence and digital tools can merge into traditional painting and sprout from the seed as something completely new. They can be an aid and an experimental tool in the artist’s creative process. A visual dialogue occurs, where traditional and experimental or organic and artificial don’t oppose each other, but merge into a new whole.” — Kristlyn Liier and Siiri Jüris
