PRESS RELEASE

LIISI EELMAA (1982) will open her personal exhibition Gently in the Air in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on Wednesday, June 13th, 2018.

Liisi Eelmaa has obtained BA degree in the department of scenography (2004) and MA degree in the faculty of fine arts (2017) at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Eelmaa has participated in exhibitions since 2003, since 2005 she has been collaborated as a freelance artist with various theatres. While her previous exhibitions have involved mainly video works then during the recent years the artist has been focusing on creating the pieces that study the specifics of the art of painting.

Gently in the Air continues the series Photo + Painting = Copy + Original that was exhibited at TASE'17, the graduation show of the Estonian Academy of Arts in Noblessner Shipyard. With both series the artists contemplates three phenomena through the abstract image: matter, form and imagination.

Liisi Eelmaa: “The paint on the desk is still a vague mass of colourant, pigment, binder and filler soon to be transformed into an image. I am intrigued by the moment the transformation is happening. Paint may still seem arbitrary without having the status of an image; however, what already exists is the decision and attempt to do something with it. The beginning of any painting is abstract if looking at the first patch of colour. My purpose is emphasizing the endeavour to make something out of a paint blotch that in itself is abstract – it can be viewed as abstract art. This, in turn, provides a chance to enter a free figural space where the viewer as an active receiver equalizes the artist as an image-maker – both of them thus contributing while using their imagination.
Since the times of cave paintings people have depicted better life – better than the one at hand. Creating an image was supposed to fulfill a wish. While observing the timeline between the cave era and today's world, we can see imagination coming to life to the fullest. Everything that we have now has been gained thanks to the imagination of our ancestors. What will come in the future is created right now.”

Exhibition will be open until July 9, 2018.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions in Hobusepea gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Estonian Ministry of Culture.