Aasta Graafik 2023 on Maria Erikson ja Uus Tulija Graafikas Maria Izabella Lehtsaar!
Aasta Graafik 2023 MARIA ERIKSON pälvis tiitli näituste eest, mis mõtestavad graafika olemust. Erikson tegeleb oma näitustel graafikaga kui protsessi ja elu olemuse uurimise meetodiga. Sellesse aastasse mahub Eriksonil lausa neli isiknäitust. Aasta alguses lõppenud näitus "Märkmeid piiriruumist" ARS Kunstilinnakus eksperimenteeris inimkeha kui matriitsiga, mis muljub paberimassi. Käsitsi tehtud paber sisaldas ka kiude, karvu ja nahka.
Näitus "Pehme puudutuse äärel" Draakoni galeriis on loodud klassikalises litograafiatehnikas. Erikson on litograafia olemust uurinud ning tehnikat katsetanud ja õpetanud juba pikka aega. Sellel näitusel said kokku iidne trükitehnika ja inimkeha jälg. Mõlematel näitustel on kunstniku füüsiline kohalolu tugevalt tuntav, võiks öelda, et ta on oma loomingus kõrvuni sees.
Eriksonil olid 2023. aastal näitused veel ka Jyväskyläs Ratamo galeriis ja Rootsis Litograafia Muuseumis Sundby´s. Maria Erikson õpetab graafikat Oslo Riiklikus Kunstiakadeemias Norras ja Eesti Kunstiakadeemias.
Aasta Uus Tulija Graafikas 2023 Maria Izabella Lehtsaar pälvis tiitli aktiivse tegutsemise ja omanäolise lähenemisnurga eest loomingus.
Draakoni galeriis toimus tema isiknäitus "Kaunitar koletise kõhus" koos Sarah Nõmmega. Näitus kõneles vastanditest intiimsuhetes - armastusest ja vägivallast.
Lehtsaar esines ka 2023 aasta suurematel graafika grupinäitustel: "Lendlehed ja monumendid" Pärnus Uue Kunsti Muuseumis ning näitusel "Pindadest, piiridest ja omaruumidest" Raplamaa Kaasaegse Kunsti Keskuses. Lehtsaar katsetab erinevaid graafikatehnikaid, samuti laseb ta vaatajal leida lihtsatele vormidele erinevaid kontekste.
Esimest korda anname välja ka eripreemia Ly Lestbergile tundliku ja sügava teksti- ja pildikasutuse eest isiknäitusel "Alati on olevik" Metropoli galeriis ja väljapaneku eest näitusel "Lendlehed ja monumendid" Pärnu Uue Kunsti Muuseumis.
Tiitliga kaasneb eelneva aasta tiitli saaja poolt loodud diplom. Selle aasta diplomid on loonud Maria-Kristiina Ulas Aasta Graafik 2022 ja Riin Maide Uus Tulija Graafikas 2022.
Auhinna žüriisse kuulusid: Maria-Kristiina Ulas, Riin Maide, Vappu Thurlow, Inga Heamägi, Kaija Kesa, Lembe Ruben, Kadri Toom ja Loit Jõekalda.
Eesti Vabagraafikute Ühendus on preemiat välja andnud alates 1999. aastast.
Aasta Graafiku tiitli on pälvinud : Kai Kuusing, Leonhard Lapin, Evi Tihemets, Benjamin Vasserman, Silvi Liiva, Vive Tolli, Inga Heamägi, Ülle Marks, Tõnis Vint, Sirje Eelma, Vello Vinn, Marje Üksine, Avo Keerend, Kelli Valk, Toomas Kuusing, Herald Eelma, Maret Olvet, Aarne Mesikäpp, Mare Vint, Raul Meel (2018), Kalli Kalde (2019) ja Ove Maidla (2020), Kadri Toom (2021), Maria-Kristiina Ulas (2022)
Uued Tulijad Graafikas: Hannah Harkes (2015), Regina-Mareta Soonsein (2018), Mark Antonius Puhkan (2019), Ann Pajuväli (2020) ja Anna Mari Liivrand (2021), Riin Maide (2022)
Auhindadega on meid toetanud AS Vunder.
Näitus "Pindadest, piiridest, omaruumidest"
Raplamaa Kaasaegse Kunsti Keskuses, (Tallinna mnt.3b, Rapla, 3. korrusel) avanes reedel 20. oktoobril kaasaegse graafikakunsti näitus "Pindadest, piiridest, omaruumidest"
Graafikatehnikates kihiliselt töötamine kujundab mõtlemise viisi, see on jutustamise keel. Seitse kunstnikku võtavad graafikakunsti tööriistad ning liiguvad siis nendega edasi – paberipinnalt ruumi. Mäestikuna kerkivad küsimused, kas trükigraafika saab olla ruumiline? Millised on graafikakunsti ruumilised omadused? Milliseid maastikke moodustavad graafikakunstnikud erinevates tehnikates ja omaruumides? Žestid, töökojad ja materjalid on siin kahtlemata kohal, omavad häält ja osalevad otsustusprotsessides. Kivi, paber, käärid, puit ja kangad - need on vaid mõned materjalid, millel on siinsetes teostes sama suur teovõime ja sõnaõigus kui autoril. Avame kunstipraktika töövõtete sisulised või tunnetuslikud küsimused ning nihutame graafika piire ja potentsiaale kaasaegse kunsti väljal. Iga kunstnik keskendub ühele trükitehnikale, millele nad ühtaegu kaasaegselt kontseptualiseerides ja samas traditsiooniliste käsitöö oskustega meisterlikult lähenevad. Ruumi on kerkinud terve sügav-, kõrg- kui ka lametrükitehnikate kosmos: litograafia, serigraafia, linoollõige, käsiladu, kuivnõel, fotopolümeer, söövituse sügav- ja reljeeftrükk.
Pindadest moodustuvad maastikud, mis pole enam tasapinnalised, sest ka paberi soojus ja poorsus, matriitsist surutud jälg ning trükivärvid loovad taktiilsed, faktuursete omaduste kihistused. Piiridest võib siin näituse kontekstis rääkida nii trükigraafika klassikalisest vormistusest väljumisest kui ka joontest kui graafilisuse olemuslikust osast. Mitmest etapist, materjalist, plaanipärastest ja juhuslikest sündmustest moodustub üks graafiline tervikteos või teoste seeria – omaruum. Omaruumidest leiab kunstniku psüühilise ja füüsilise ruumi isikupärase tõlgenduse ning eneserefleksiooni. See on rohkem kui kunstniku looming, sisaldades endas subjektiivset kogemuste pagasit, maailmavaadet ja loome käigus tekkinud uut maailma. Rullime graafika mikrokosmosed lahti, head rännakut!
Kunstnikud: Britta Benno, Maria Erikson, Maria Izabella Lehtsaar, Mari Prekup, Lilli-Krõõt Repnau, Helen Tago ja Kadri Toom
Kuraator: Britta Benno
Graafiline disain: Nelli Viisimaa
Soft Touch on the Deckle in The Museum of Lithography (Litografiska Museet)
Maria Erikson's solo exhibition Soft Touch on the Deckle opens in The Museum of Lithography (Litografiska Museet) on April 23rd, 2023, opening reception at 12–3 pm. Exhibition is open until May 14th, 2023.
With the body of work Soft Touch on the Deckle, the artist focuses on the process and the materiality of print, emphasizing small movements of water and oil, as well as the meeting points between surfaces of the stone, paper and the body of the artist. Erikson has produced her own lithographic tusche, a drawing material that is diluted with solvents brushed on the stone in its liquid form. Dried coatings of tusche washes on the surface of the stone result in reticulation, that can be seen as an abstract landscape. In the printing process both matter and meaning are compressed on the paper by the pressure of the press. In this way, the paper becomes a site of communication where touch between the artist and the material as well as the stone´s geological strata are intertwined. Through these interactions and contact events new forms of co-existence and non-hierarchical ways of communication emerge.
Soft Touch on the Deckle is a three-part exhibition project – the first part took place at Draakon gallery in Tallinn (January 2023), the second one is exhibited in Ratamo gallery, and the third part is held in the Museum of Lithography in Sweden in April 2023.
Engagement and contact are central in Maria Erikson's artistic practice. With the focus on materiality and materials as sets of relationships, she investigates visible and non-visible relations that are produced by the gestures between them. In new structural arrangements she investigates their jointness and indifferences, bodiliness and ability to inhabit shared space. Maria Erikson has completed two-year studies as a collaborative lithography printer and holds a Master Printer certificate from Tamarind Institute (USA) and obtained MA degree in the printmaking study area at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. In 2019, Maria Erikson received the Eduard Wiiralt grant and in 2021 she was awarded with Ann-Margret Lindell Grant for Printmaking (Sweden). Among her recent exhibitions are Notes from Borderspace (ARS Project Space, 2022); Grafik (Gallery Sander, Norrköping, Sweden, 2021), Ideal Landscapes, Göteborgs Konstförening, Lilla Galleriet, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2020).
Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Sveriges Konstföreningar (The National Association of Swedish Art Societies)
The artist thanks: Liina Siib, Paul Rannik, Caroline Pajusaar, department of graphic art at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Helena Nordlander Terud, Linda Samuelsson.
On the Edge of Materiality →
Lilli-Krõõt Repnau is interviewing Maria Erikson in Estonian newspaper Sirp in connection to her current exhibition Soft Touch On the Deckle at gallery Draakon in Tallinn. Click on the post title or the image to read the article online.
sole exhibition Soft Touch on the Deckle →
Dialogue between Maria Erikson and the lithographic stone in Draakon gallery
Maria Erikson's solo exhibition Soft Touch on the Deckle opens in Draakon gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, January 11, 2023. Exhibition will stay open until February 4, 2023.
At her present exhibition Soft Touch on the Deckle, the artist observes her relationship with the process of graphic art involving the body of the artist and the lithographic limestone. Seeking parallels and contradictions between them a comparison is made between a body and its surface to the one of the stone. While attributing limestone with human skin-like ability to memorize, Erikson explores her personal artwork as a dialogue between the two bodies – the one of the artist and the one of the stone. Through material interactions and contact events new forms of co-existence and non-hierarchical ways of communication between them emerge.
The surface of lithographic stone is smooth and porous. Similarly, to skin it records the touch that stratifies over time. Lithographic liquid tusche is commonly used in Erikson's artistic practice. Its dried coatings on the surface of the litho stone result in reticulation that can be seen as an abstract landscape. In this way the touch between the artist and the material as well as the stone´s geological strata are interwtined.
Soft Touch on the Deckle is a three-part exhibition project – the first part is being exhibited here in Draakon gallery, the second one will be displayed in Ratamo gallery, Jyväskylä in March 2023 and the third part will be held in the Museum of Lithography in Sweden in April 2023.
Engagement and contact are central in Maria Erikson's artistic practice. With the focus on materiality and materials as sets of relationships, she investigates visible and non-visible relations that are produced by the gestures between them. In new structural arrangements she investigates their jointness and indifferences, bodiliness and ability to inhabit shared space. Maria Erikson has completed two-year studies as a collaborative lithography printer and holds a Master Printer certificate from Tamarind Institute (USA), obtained MA degree in the printmaking study area at the Academy of Fine Arts/Uniarts Helsinki (Finland). In 2019, Maria Erikson received the Eduard Wiiralt grant and in 2021 she was awarded with Ann-Margret Lindell Grant for Printmaking (Sweden). Among her recent exhibitions are Notes from Borderspace (ARS Project Space, 2022); Taidegrafiikan tapa olla – materiality, collaboration and agency (Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki, 2021); Grafik (Gallery Sander, Norrköping, Sweden, 2021).
Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
The artist expresses her gratitude to: Liina Siib, Paul Rannik, Mart Saarepuu, department of graphic art at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.
solo exhibition Notes from Borderspace at ARS Project space in Tallinn, Estonia →
Maria Erikson Notes from Borderspace
ARS project space 16.12.2022 – 07.01.2023
Pärnu mnt 154, Tallinn
Opening reception on Thursday, December 15th 6pm
With the body of work "Notes from borderspace", Erikson explores notions of matrix, reproduction and communication in the context of materiality and time. Seeking to re-think the subject and object in printmaking, she investigates transformations of material through wear and contact, the methodology of craft and the process of artmaking, and the ephemeral nature of material itself.
Maria Erikson lives and works in Tallinn. Engagement and contact are central in her works, With the focus on materiality and material entanglement as sets of relationships, she investigates visible and non-visble relations that are produced by the gestures between them. Through wear, pressure, and re-use, Erikson explores their jointness and indifferences, bodiliness and ability inhabit shared space.
The exhibition "Notes from borderspace" is an installation that fills the entire space as one of the possible ways of exhibiting the artist's master's thesis "Borderspace" (The Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, Finland). This body of works was first exhibited at the Project Room gallery in February 2020.
Exhibition is supported by the Estonian Artists' Association
Artist thanks: Liina Siib, Paul Rannik, Nana Schilf, Mart Saarepuu, EKA graphic art
Maria Erikson is one of the recipients of Ann-Margret Lindell scholarship 2021 →
Bolaget Vardagsbilder: GRAFIK
Taidegrafiikan tapa olla – materiality, collaboration and agency
Taidegrafiikan tapa olla – materiality, collaboration and agency
15.1.–7.2.2021
Exhibition Laboratory, Merimiehenkatu 36, Helsinki
Free entrance
Opening hours 11–18
“Taidegrafiikan tapa olla – materiality, collaboration, and agency” is an exhibition that investigates both the essence of printmaking and themes that are perceived as novel, current, and fundamental from the perspective of the entire field.
When one approaches art from the perspective of new materialism, the questions examined make a gradual transition from one’s personal practice to more general, ethical, and ecological themes, and then back again to the materiality of the medium. What does it mean to say that the material becomes both a topic and an active agent together with the artist?
The theme of cooperation is made visible in the exhibition through examples that are topical in different ways.
The participating artists are alumni and students of the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts Helsinki.
www.exhibitionlaboratory.fi/info
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Printmaking Symposium on Saturday, February 6th, 2021 at 10-16
A Symposium open to everyone will be held on Saturday, February 6th, 2021 from 10 am to 4 pm in connection with the Taidegrafiikan tapa olla - materiality, collaboration and agency -exhibition at the Exhibition Laboratory.
The symposium raises current themes in contemporary art in general as well as in printmaking - materiality, co-operation, as well as remarks on the nature and special quality of printmaking art. The symposium offers a series of lectures as well as speeches from various actors in the field of contemporary art and printmaking. At the end of the day, a new publication in the Academy of Fine Arts' Publication Series will be released: Printed matter – Merkitysten kerroksia.
The event is carried out entirely remotely via Zoom. You need to register to participate the event. After registration you will get a personal link and password to attend the Symposium to your email from the host. The language of the symposium is Finnish. English interpretation is available. Please indicate the need for interpretation in the Comments & Questions field when registering!
Register for the event: https://uniarts.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_WAalAn2FSNGXsLxscbFhXQ
Read more about the exhibition: https://www.exhibitionlaboratory.fi/.../printmaking-exhibit
exhibition Resemblance Through Contact. Grammar of Imprint
Tartu Art House
03.07.–26.07.2020
kunstimaja.ee
EKA Gallery
28.08.–30.09.2020
www.artun.ee/eka-naitused/
Resemblance Through Contact. Grammar of Imprint
The exhibition focuses on printmaking as a process that is cultivated through contacts between forms and counterforms (negative space), and by the tension produced by these interactions. We are not so much interested in specific images, proofs, shapes or manners as in printed matter’s ability to introduce the new space that emerges between matrix and multiplicity. We focus on forms, and their dissemination through various statements and manifestations of printmaking in the post-disciplinary era. We define material as a subject, while the predicate denotes what the material does. We wish to return to the beginning of the functions of imprint and investigate its points of contacts with other disciplines. The exhibition takes its name from Georges Didi-Huberman’s book La ressemblance par contact: archéologie, anachronisme et modernité de l'empreinte, 2008.
The exhibitions which are curated by Liina Siib and Maria Erikson from the Department of Graphic Art at the Estonian Academy of Arts, feature artists from Europe and the Americas, and are accompanied by film programs.
Artists: Ann Pajuväli (EE), Ari Pelkonen (FI), Augustas Serapinas (LT), Cecilia Mandrile (US/UK), Claire Hannicq (FR), Elena Loson (AR), Dénes Kalev Farkas (EE/HU), Inka Bell (FI), Inma Herrera (ES/FI), Liis-Marleen Verilaskja (EE), Lina Nordenström (SE), Maria Erikson (EE/FI), Maria Izabella Lehtsaar (EE), Maria Valkeavuolle (FI), Riin Maide (EE), Tatu Tuominen (FI), Viktor Gurov (EE).
Curators: Liina Siib, Maria Erikson (Department of Graphic Art, EKA)
Exhibition design: Kaire Rannik
Graphic design: Viktor Gurov
Translators: Tiina Randviir, Richard Adang
Risograph printing: Pärtel Eelmere
We thank: Estonian Academy of Arts, Department of Graphic Art and Department of Graphic Design; Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Tartu Art House, EKA Gallery, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Tanel Asmer, Pire Sova, Kaido Kruusamets, Mart Saarepuu, Hans-Gunter Lock.
Craphica Creativa 2019 – Hereafter
Graphica Creativa 2019 - Hereafter features works from invited art universities in four major cities: Helsinki, Oslo, Tokyo and Alberta. The main focus is on printmaking students who present projects on themes important to them, accompanied by works by professors and teachers of printmaking.
IN A STATE OF FLUX: WHAT NOW? WHERE ARE WE?
Uncertainty and instability, as a starting point, is a challenging position to be in. The state of the world mirrors the theme Flux: What now? Where are we? and has been a departure point for thinking about resources, materials, waste, climate change, and the structures of the natural world. As a group, we see our collective works as dynamic and interacting with one another, bound by references of earth and its byproducts. As individuals and as artists, we investigate change and are involved in it.
We consider directions in printmaking and our agency in the reproduction of the world’s realities. In the process of making our individual works, much is based on sight, observation, and materials. Emilia Tanner’s laser cut works explore the creation of art through light and sight: from light generated by a laser, to computer screens and digital devices, and the human eye while viewing. She reminds us of the many transformations and processes imagery undergoes before it reaches the viewer’s eyes. Through a window of a boat, Linda Ciesielski, observes the ice changing. A sea of patterns in the Baltic opens up questions of uncertainty and perception: ice as land, and land turning into water. She wonders how to comprehend nature during times of rapid change, and see local phenomena as a shared global experience. While walking her dogs in the forest, Aura Kotkavirta discovers an unexpectedly large hill illuminated by spring light, but covered in black sand, strange bushes, and a sheen of purple. Her dogs wonder why they cannot drink the water from the nearby puddles. She listens to the birds filling the forest with song, struck by the romantic surrealness of this foreign site: a mountain of displaced urban snow, melting.
Emma Peura and Maria Erikson think with their hands and about materials that surround them: water and paper. Emma Peura holds a stack of paper she made from industrial hemp and cotton, and is drawn into thoughts of freshwater, both of Finland’s abundance – a privilege – and of the world’s limited supply. To Emma, the printmaking process gives her time to think with her hands. By interacting with materials, she gains insights on her life and the world around her. In Maria Erikson’s work, she explores water and handmade paper in the context of materiality and time. Seeking to reconsider the subject and object in printmaking, she explores transformations of material through wear and contact, the process of art-making, and the ephemeral nature of material itself. One material that is not ephemeral in nature is plastic. Annele Lahti thinks about the abundance and persistence of plastic in our lives and the environment: a convenient, flexible material with high-costs for the planet. Annele questions how waste is handled, and thinks about her own contributions of making waste in the process of making art, seeking to work as ecologically as possible.
Together, we are in flux. We find ourselves as individuals considering transformation and change at an observed level and at a larger one: how to comprehend issues at scales beyond the individual, but rooted in individual choices and cumulative impacts? Does the artist represent these issues, educate themselves and others through doing and showing, or deal with them directly through their own life-practice? Printmaking is about reproduction, representation and resources. We are participating in change, observing it, and seeking to bring new perspectives to it.
Linda Ciesielski, Maria Erikson, Annele Lahti, Aura Kotkavirta, Emma Peura, Emilia Tanner
Viscosity: Women of Print
Viscosity, a term often used in the print studio, refers to the degree of ink's resistance to flow, or its ability to adhere to a surface. In this exhibition, the term functioned as a metaphor for the shifting status of women in printmaking. The increase of women in print has not yielded an equitable space for the female voice within this arena. Viscosity is a declaration against marginalization.
Viscosity was a visual art exhibition featuring hand pulled prints by self identified female artists of varying ethnic backgrounds from around the United States, Canada and Finland. The exhibition originated at the Noise Gallery in Bloomington, IN, and was curated by Kristin Sarette and Candice Corgan.
Participating artists:
Judith Baumann, Pendleton, OR
Katherine Brimberry, Austin, TX
Marissa Cartagena, Philadelphia, PA
Deborah Chaney, Brooklyn, NYVeronica Ceci, Austin, TXCandice Corgan, Syracuse, NY
Ana Cortez, DeKalb, IL
Maria Erikson, Helsinki, Finland
Jill Graham, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Rachel Heberling, NJ
Maggie Lomeli, Los Angeles, CA
Elizabeth Melnyczuk, Manchester, NH
Jack Michael, Atlanta, GA
Ashley Ortiz-Dias, Gainesville, FL
Angela Pilgrim, Newark, NJ
Kathryn Polk, Solsberry, IN
Jessica Robles, Visalia, CA
Zeinab Saab, Chicago, IL
Kristin Sarette, Bloomington, IN
Beth Sheehan, Philadelphia, PA
Lyla Shon, Baltimore, MD
Klaire Smith, Rio GRande,OH
Bryn Sumner, Brooklyn, NY
Ashley Taylor, Orlando, FL
Ericka Walker, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada