Uudised

Sirja-Liisa Eelma’s personal exhibition at the Tartu Art House

Tartu Art House

This is the most complete exhibition of the painting series “Appetizer” to date. Previously the works have been partially displayed at the exhibitions “Appetizer” in Hop gallery, Tallinn (2017 January) and “Sinking [In]” at the Evald Okas’ Museum, Haapsalu (2017 July-August, with Krista Mölder). The repeating motif of the paintings comes from the Art Deco floor tiles of the Hop gallery. This ornament is well suited for Eelma’s interest in visually minimalist but conceptually substantial structures.

The works focus on delineating the visible and the invisible. It is a situation where tiny and tenuous steps create a gradual transformation from one to the other. Numerous repetitions make you see and carry out these minuscule changes. The title of the present exhibition comes from French writer George Perec’s novel “Life a User’s Manual”.

Eelma describes her process in the following manner: “The idea of the exhibition is often formulated through the intermingling of the temporal factor of painting and the spatial context of the exhibition space. I wish that the hours spent painting in the studio would accumulate on the canvas in a manner that the viewers could experience a large amount of time in a short moment. I like to work slowly, to spend a long time with my works, mixing the various tones only in small amounts. A clear vision for the finished painting is the best way to quell the doubts that a slow working process inevitably creates.”

The exhibition will remain open until 12 November 2017.

Thanks: Kaarel Eelma, Elnara Taidre and Centre for the Contemporary Arts Estonia.
Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Artists' Association.

Sirja-Liisa Eelma (b 1973) has graduated in 1996 from the painting department of the Estonian Academy of Arts. Her space-specific exhibition projects are trying to create the appearance of visual void that focuses on painting as a technology with its own inevitable materiality. She has participated in many group exhibitions in Estonia and abroad but amongst the dozen personal exhibitions the present one is the first in Tartu. In 2016, Eelma was awarded the Konrad Mägi prize.

Attached: Sirja-Liisa Eelma. Appetizer. 2017. Oil, canvas.

Additional information:

Indrek Grigor
Tartu Art House gallerist
[email protected]
5559 1425
www.kunstimaja.ee

Tartu Art House (Vanemuise 26, Tartu, Estonia) is open Wed–Mon 12–18. Exhibitions are free of charge.
The exhibitions of the Tartu Art House are supported by the Tartu Town Government and the Cultural Capital of Estonia.

Viimati muudetud 17.10.2017