On Friday, 7 March at 5 p.m., Sirje Eelma and Rait Prääts will open their joint exhibition, “Same House 16./50”, in the large gallery of the Tartu Art House.

The exhibition was born out of the artists’ desire to continue a series of joint exhibitions, to celebrate in their own way a milestone anniversary of their life together, to exhibit recent works, to identify the common ground of their partnership and to affirm their continued creative potential. The exhibition mainly features work from recent years, but there are also references to earlier layers.

Sirje Eelma and Rait Prääts have lived in the same house for 50 years. For the same length of time, the couple have been active on the art scene: Sirje as a graphic artist, Rait at first mainly as a stained-glass artist, later moving increasingly to sculpture. Since 1999, they have had a total of 15 joint exhibitions in Estonia and Finland under the title “In the same house”. Each exhibition is put together according to time and place, and the fact that the artists do not compete with each other in terms of technique or space has always helped to keep the union together. It has been 10 years since the last joint exhibition.

“The common element of the exhibition at the Tartu Art House is a meditation on the passage of time. There are references to the past and, through the stones and sculptures, to the future. Both of us will be presenting our own themes and established handwriting, but our intertwined lives and time in its various layers will also be highlighted,” the artists explain.

Sirje Eelma (b. 1950) graduated from the Estonian State Institute of Art as a fashion designer. She worked as a costume designer at Tallinnfilm from 1975-1983 and since then has worked as a freelance artist. She has been a member of Estonian Artists’ Association since 1983 and has exhibited since the mid-1970s. She has exhibited both in Estonia and abroad, in solo and group exhibitions. Eelma has been awarded prizes in international printmaking exhibitions on several occasions, in Japan, South Korea, Latvia etc.

Rait Prääts (b. 1952) studied at the Estonian State Art Institute from 1970 to 1975. He has participated in exhibitions since 1975 and has been a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association since 1984. From 1993 to 2003 he worked as a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts and from 1995 to 2008 he organised the festival KUNSTISUVI. Since 2003 he has been a freelance artist.

Graphic design: Laura Prääts and Ülar Linnuste (Joonstuudio)
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Estonian Artists’ Association.

“ Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony but would simply live in it.”
/ Andrei Tarkovsky /

The author says:
“I’m trying to find the recipe for harmony. For this purpose, I’ve developed a world made up of fantastic creatures, swinging in beams of light, casting shadows and reflections. These entities have but one language to express their emotions – that of colours. Joy, pain or arousal get projected as hues and shades of their skin.
Since glass is the medium giving them form, they’re partially transparent, seemingly immaterial, submerged in water – as if they’ve been transported from some lost continent, like Lemuria.”

Kairi Orgusaar graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts, painting department (B-A. 1995) and glass department (M.A. 2002). She’s been participating in exhibitions home and abroad since 1996. She’s a triple laureate of the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s regional award. Her works can be found in the Ernsting Stiftung Alter of Herdingi collection, Germany, in the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, and in private collections. In 2002, she founded her studio OÜ Kunivorm, and is the founder and board member of the Rapla County Centre for Contemporary Art since 2010.

Kairi Orgusaar is an artist working primarily with painting and glass. Her powerful sculptural glass forms and installations take on a poetic, delicate appearance with the addition of light. She is mostly intrigued by topics both intimate and timeless, but won’t turn her back on simple play and fantasy. She keeps returning to the theme of environment, and its interaction with the subject; harmony and dissonance, connections and influences.

Design: Kati Kerstna
Thank you for assistance:
Cultural endowment of Estonia and its Rapla County Experts’ Group, Tartu Art Hall, Merle Kannus, Herbert Orgusaar, Tiina Kõrtsini

Recently decorated Appreciated Glass Artist 2022-2023, Sofi Aršas opened her solo exhibition “See through the Fog” Feb 8, 2025, at.l 16.00 at the Rapla County Centre for COntemporary Art.

Layers: Baltic Contemporary Glass Art
15.02.2025. – 18.05.2025.
Museum of Decorative Arts and Design

From 15 February to 18 May 2025, the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Riga (Skārņu iela 10) invites to visit an impressive Baltic contemporary glass art exhibition entitled Layers, embracing the work of 24 talented artists from Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania.

The Baltic glass art exhibition focuses attention on the modern application of glass – the ways how the traditional properties of this material can be used in a contemporary and conceptually ideological context. The atmosphere and mood of the show will immerse the viewer into a beautiful, fragile, and at the same time powerful world expressed through the poetic and slightly mysterious medium.

The title of the project is based on the idea of multidimensionality, uncovering the nature of objects and phenomena from different perspectives. Multilayering can be observed in the earth’s crust, in the atmosphere, and in the perception of any thing. History is also shaped by the layering of events. Nothing has ever been clear-cut; the secret nature is always ambiguous – it can be perceived either in context or subtext.

The exhibition brings together 24 diverse professional artists from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, whose primary medium of self-expression is glass. At the same time, it provides an overview of the current possibilities within the field of glass art and poses a question: what defines the value of a glass artwork – is it the visually irresistible beauty or the conceptual message?

The objects represented at the Baltic contemporary glass art exhibition were judged and selected through a competition by a panel of curators – Kati Kerstna (Estonia), Dalia Truskaitė (Lithuania), Bārbala Gulbe, and Marta Ģibiete (Latvia). The jury also included other local and international experts of the field. Finally, the exposition demonstrates 23 individual and collaborative artworks by 9 artists from Latvia, 7 from Lithuania, and 7 from Estonia.

The show offers a rich spectrum of art – from intricately crafted paintings and glass graphics on paper to large-scale installations, monumental glass piles, and molten glass sculptures. The Baltic dimension of the exhibition allows us to discern the kindred and at the same time assess the differences of perception while viewing the artworks from the neighbouring countries. It helps us to rediscover our own perspectives on glass – the material common to us all – and see how the shared history and related identity of the Baltic States are in an artistic way echoed in it. It is the same Baltic Sea and shores, the same forests, the same grey rain and fog, the long months of darkness, and the closer to the North, the greater the hunger for light.

Maret Sarapu has completed her monumental work Carbon and Kevlar for the Kilingi-Nõmme Emergency Services building.

Info and photos: https://rkas.ee/et/uudised/kilingi-nomme-uhishoonet-ehib-maret-sarapu-klaaspannoo

Sigrid Maria Luitsaluäs work “Gender is Doing” has been selected for the European Prize for Applied Arts. Exhibition of works is open 23.11.2024 – 16.2.2025, in Belgium, Mons Anciens Abbatoirs’.

Info: https://www.becraft.org/event/maestria
Catalogue of works:
https://www.becraft.org/…/eyJfcmFpbHMiOns…/Catalogue.pdf

IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Glass installation, sound, ligh, movement
VANA-VÕROMAA KULTUURIKODA
6.12.2024 – 2.02.2025

Artists: Sofi Aršas, Kairi Orgusaar, Kati Kerstna
Guest: Erki Kannus

Several members of the EGAU participated at solo and group shows at the Tartu Festival of Light:

Birgit Pählapuu with her solo exhibition “Rebellion of the Flies” at the Botanical Garden

Group exhibition “Flying” at the Botanical Garden-  Kati Kerstna, Kairi Orgusaar, Sofi Aršas

Group exhibition “Inherited Light” at the Pallas Gallery – Rait Prääts

Eili Soon and Elo Sein
TRIACA
Design and Architecture Gallery, Tallinn
11 – 23.11.2024

TRIACA – the force of glassblowing. A mental and emotional antidote to daily pressures and challenges. Glass is more than amaterial; it is a medium to express human dreams, collisions and amendments. Each object becomes a symbol to a journey, a quest for balance. We invite the audience to find their own activities and moments which purify the soul, bring you back to your essence. This exhibition reminds us that everyone is capable of creating their personal antidote.