Elo-Mai Mikelsaar and Maarja Nõmmik Exhibition "(Still Human)"
OPENING on FEBRUARY14 at 17:00
Centre for Arts Gallery in the Old Anatomical Theatre at Lossi str. 38.
Exhibition is open on work days from 9:00 to 17:00 till the end of March.
The exhibition in the Centre for Arts gallery on two floors of the Old Anatomical Theatre brings back the unending questions about being human. These were born from the mindset that developed in this building (and in some part were put into physical form here). It is paradoxical that although human is our only form of existence, there is nothing unquestionable about humanity. We remain generally indecisive choosing between becoming superhuman/supernatural and embracing the ultimately natural. Part of our mind obeys our uncontrollable animal nature, part of it tries to resist the primal urges while our thoughts are occupied by the perpetual question “What is fundamentally human?”.
Elo-Mai Mikelsaar (b. 1989) graduated from the University of Tartu in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in semiotics and painting, additionally studied painting, multimedia graphics design and textile printing in Strzemiński Academy of Art Łódź, Poland as part of the ERASMUS+ programme in the autumn semester of 2014. Graduated from the University of Tartu with a master’s degree in painting in 2016. Her main medium is oil and acrylic painting. She is interested in and inspired by philosophy and psychology, she often paints psychological (self)portraits and figure paintings, in recent years also landscape art. Currently sharing a studio with Maarja Nõmmik in Tartu.
Maarja Nõmmik (b. 1991) has a bachelor’s degree (graduated in 2013) and master’s degree (graduated in 2016) in painting from the University of Tartu. She spent a semester in Strzemiński Academy of Art Łódź (Poland) studying painting, multimedia graphics design and conceptual textile design. Her works are mostly realistic oil paintings (sometimes with surrealistic tendencies) but she has also tried her hand in abstract acrylic painting, video art and installation art. Nõmmik often concentrates on the nature and meaning of human emotions and perception, the concept of reality and fiddling with it.