Gallery: Tallinn Old Town art space windows come alive with three new shows
An Estonian, a New Yorker, and a Finn bring fresh perspectives on jewelry to Tallinn's A-Galerii with a trio of new shows in the windows on Hobusepea tänav.
On September 5, A-Galerii opened exhibitions by Estonian artist Kadi Veesaar, New York jeweler Nathaniel Lake and Finnish artist Maria Kiialainen in its large, street-facing windows.
In her solo show "Portal," Kadi Veesaar continues to explore the boundary between jewelry and sculpture. Having previously worked mainly with metal, Veesaar's latest show features works in stone, highlighting the fragility and tactility of a seemingly strong material.
This is also her first show to feature her jewelry and photography together, allowing the viewer to journey to places no one else can reach.
Veesaar (b. 1976) is an Estonian artist whose work includes photography, jewelry and objects. As a photographer she captures emotion, and as a jewellery artist she materializes it, expressing herself mainly through metal and stone. For her, the relationship between jewelry and its wearer is essential; she encourages her jewelry to be touched, sensed, noticed and felt.
Nathaniel Lake (b. 1994) is a goldsmith from New York and now based permanently in Tallinn, best known for custom wedding and engagement rings that merge modern, minimalist aesthetics with traditional techniques.
His first contemporary jewelry art exhibition, "The Weight of Nothing," features a minimalist series that explores the burden of form and memory in the absence of meaning.
For "Ornaments of the Forest Floor," Finnish artist Maria Kiialainen draws on childhood memories of foraging for wild mushrooms as well as the endangered Stansvik Forest in Helsinki, inspired by her ongoing exploration of wearable sculpture and the fragile balance between humans and nature.
Her installation features three textile panels depicting grasslands, deciduous forests and decayed wood, and hidden within them are small mushroom figures — wearable sculptures crafted from natural materials, combined with experimental enameling techniques, that connect the scale of the body with the scale of the forest.
With a background as a glass artisan, Kiialainen works with contemporary jewelry, sculpture and installation, often blending copper, enamel, textiles and natural materials in her work.
"Portal," "The Weight of Nothing" and "Ornaments of the Forest Floor" runs at A-Galerii in Tallinn's Old Town through Sunday, November 30.
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Editor: Annika Remmel, Aili Vahtla
