Alexei Gordin's self-fashioned, forthrightly stated artist persona is grounded above all in his painting – a practice steeped in grotesque, tongue-in-cheek critique.

To get a more complete picture of the artist's life and artistic sensibility, "This Land is Your Land," features a selection of his social media posts, where phone snapshots and video clips open onto worlds filled with harmony, beauty and balance.

The exhibition focuses specifically on Gordin's Instagram stories and the millions of phone pictures taken every day, which appear and disappear in a constant stream, accessible to everyone, without the need to buy a museum ticket or gallery rental fee.

Among his thousands of snaps, which capture the decorous and the less decorous moments of everyday life, one finds images of surprising beauty. Taken by someone with a trained eye and a ready sense of wonder, they are mostly landscapes and cityscapes, shot locally and on the road.

If we set aside the graffiti that accompanies the memory, decay, and dereliction of human-made buildings and interiors, there is little grotesque or irony here; instead, there is the beauty of color, light, and form – an aesthetic neither singled out by critics nor emphasized by the artist himself. Without seeking to stake a claim in the art world, these snapshots teach us to love the life we too easily lose sight of while busy criticizing ourselves and others.

"This Land is Your Land," by Alexei Gordin will be on display at Tallinn City Gallery until January 11, 2026.

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