Portraits by Avo Päädam

The exhibition compiles portrait paintings created for a project “Avo 65” which depict notable persons from Rapla County and elsewhere that the artist has encountered.

Some of the participating authors have abandoned the two-dimensional space of the drawing, and explore depth in the form of tangible objects; others remain on paper, sketching the human being – he who gives names to everything.

The paper, the room, and the silence between us are all separate entities; yet, they are not closed systems. Sculptural objects and sketches bridge the abstract and the real, the singular and the plural. A coin has two faces; a person, many more. How to capture that which disappears upon appearing? What happens to an object when it’s not being observed, and where does vacuum find its place? What does a mirror look like when it decides to wear a human face? Sketching gets its limits set by time; an object – by space. Existence is enabled by a removal of those limitations.

Participants: Anne Aaspõllu, Mikk Allas, Jazmin Karp, Helena Lasner, Karin Polluks, Mari Põld, Kristiina Tali, Eteri Tõlgo, Marge Vonk.

Design: Eteri Tõlgo

You ar cordially invited to the opening of the exhibition
Pehmed kontrastid / Soft Contrasts

This year’s international exhibition comes from France, presenting personal projects of two Parisian artists. “Soft Contrasts” brings together Christian Prunello’s nuanced, classically painterly, large-scale works, and Kaia Kiik’s experimental paintings where the artist collaborates with the forces of Nature – salt, sunlight, pigments, ashes, clay, rain etc.
and resulting in novel moods and spaces, from delicate play of light to 3D sculptures.
While living and building their career in the same city, the artists’ backgrounds are highly divergent: Kaia Kiik comes from Saaremaa, Estonia, Christian Prunello from Argentina, South America.

Kaia Kiik
Born in 1973 in Estonia, on Saaremaa Island, Kaia Kiik lives and works in Paris, France, after spending several years in Los Angeles, USA. She has Master Phil. Degree and is deeply interested in sciences and their links with contemporary art. Since 2003, her innovative artworks have been widely exhibited in Europe, but also in the United States.

Kaia Kiik’s work questions the relationship between nature, culture and man. She uses several organic and mineral materials transforming them through meteorological and other natural forces. In her approach, Kaia Kiik highlights the different forms of coexistence from delightfulness to conflict, drawing inspiration, in particular, from the concept of mimicri.
She is concerned with the dualism of culture and nature, the relationship of wilderness to arts and and sciences, the effect of environment on humans and their creations.

Christian Prunello
Autodidact. He trained in individual workshops at the Ricardo Rojas Cultural Center with Alfredo Londaibere (painting), Alberto Goldestein (photography) and in the living models workshops of Estimulo de Bellas Artes with Fiels and Terribili (drawing), ( 1996-2000). Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Artist statement:
In my paintings, I am looking for an encounter, something unthinkable, which may never happen, so I wander.
From the formal point of view, I am interested in a half-human composition half-landscape, a nature formed by these two elements, the idea is to generate a psychological atmosphere, a vibration of color, an ideal.
Through the technique: oil on canvas, casein, coal, I seek to know the origin or meaning of the pigments / materials and give a metaphorical connotation to my work.
For “The memory of trees” charcoal and casein on wood, I try to write, as if I were a tree, my memories, using wood in three dimensions: 1) the final image (forest landscapes etc), 2) the wood support, 3) the charcoal. Casein as a medium is a fourth dimension since it comes from the milk of animals (we included), a work made of the same material in 3 different states.
Caput mortuum “dead head”: is the name of the pigment used to make “Foreign Land” and “That the fire burns”. This pigment apparently obtained from the ashes of the Egyptian mummies *, inspired me, by its name and by the weight of its history and its alchemical connotation, both “caput” to the backlight.

* Today, there is still a debate as to whether there is a relationship between mom brum and caput mortuum
.

Photos and photograms 1985-2017

A photogram is defined as a silhouette photo, taken without a camera. The object or subject is placed in front of photosensitive paper, exposed to light, and then developed similarly to the classical process. I got into this activity 30 years ago and rediscovered it in summer 2017. A push came from a visit to the storage of the Järvakandi Glass Museum. A vision of light passing through inkwells and lab glass was reinforced by the light that reached the rods and cones of my retina through glass objects. My heart couldn’t rest until this play of light was immortalised on paper. Glass, a solidified substance, is playful, but so is man. But, to be put on paper, a person has to solidify – nay, vitrify – too.

Compositions made up of relics offered enough scope for play; yet I chose to occasionally include plants and toys, so as to bring some life into the nature morte (as reflected in the movies A Night at the Museum and Toy Story). My intention wasn’t a pun, rather an ironic reminder of the human condition.

The series LAB LIFE chronicles humanity’s attempts to interfere with Creation through genetic manipulation and testing of live subjects. SAFARI takes us to the battlefields of politicians. EDEN and EXILE recount a biblical story of falling from grace; both of these also have their contemporary, e-versions, on display.

Aurelius Augustinus has said: “Who is Man, any man, if he is but a man? What are men to me? Why should they hear my confessions, as if it were up to them to remedy my errors? That folk who, while curious of the life of others, do nothing to rectify their own? Why do they want to hear who I am, if they don’t want you to tell them who they are? And how do they know if I’m telling the truth about myself, if none but Man’s own spirit knows what’s inside him? I cannot prove my truthfulness to them, bu I will be heard by those whose ears have been opened by love.”

I cannot prove the truthfulness of my images, but hope to be believed by those whose eyes have been opened by love.

Fotod Tiina Kõrtsini

PAINTINGS FROM TARTU
11.24 – 12.14, 2012
The Centre’s second major overview of contemporary Estonian painting focused on young painters from Tartu. More than 20 paintings by 11 authors took the audience on a journey through the realm of canvas and paint; from the enchanted harmony of a single moment, to a shocking larger-than-life portrait gallery of Tartu’s intellectual creme. Participants: Kalli Kalde, Peeter Krosmann, Ilmar Kruusamäe, Juka Käärmann, Margus Meinart, Rauno Thomas Moss, Sven Saag, Imat Suumann, Nadezda Tsernobai, Alar Tuul and Maris Tuuling. Peeter Krosmann helped us put the show together.

RAPLAMAA ART VOL.2
10.29 – 11.10, 2012
The second exhibition in this series presented paintings, installations, drawings and objects by 8 artists: Anne Aaspõllu, Mikk Allas, Kristi Kongi, Kairi Orgusaar, Marin Ploomipuu, Avo Päädam, Liisimari Randjärv and Märt Vaidla.

STUDIES OF MAN AND LINE SINCE 1971: ESTONIAN ANIMATION 100
10.05 – 10.19, 2012

The jubilee exhibition of Estonian animation showed us how animators have, through decades, been depicting men, women, children, animals, crowds, relationships and everything in between. Key authors from past and present were represented – Rein Raamat, Avo Paistik, Priit and Olga Pärn, Heiki Ernits, Janno Põldma, Priit Tender, Ülo Pikkov and Kaspar Jancis. A film program was presented along with a gallery of celluloids. The exhibition was compiled by Valter Uusberg and designed by Erkki Vaader.

CONTEMPORARY ESTONIAN LITHOGRAPHY
05.09 – 05.20, 2012
The exhibition was put together from 30 works by well-known Estonian printmakers: Kadri Alesmaa, Toomas Altnurme, Merike Estna, Laurentsius, Kaido Ole, Marko Mäetamm, Jaak Visnap and others. The show was organized in cooperation with the Estonian Lithography Centre and featured mostly works from the ELC albums, the last of which was titled “Love in the 21st Century.”