You are welcome to the opening of Virve Albri’s jubilee exhibition The Sea and The Sky. Seascapes in Vabaduse gallery at 17:00 on Friday, February 2nd, 2024. Exhibition will be open until February 28, 2024.
Virve Albri: “The sea is like a perpetuum mobile. It keeps changing every day. I have become friends with the sea while watching it and always getting good emotions or intriguing observations that can be conveyed into painting.”
Virve Albri celebrates her 80th birthday this year. The majority of the artist’s work consists of landscapes from Northern Norway and Lapland. Albri’s watercolour landscapes leave a monumental impression, led by the expanse and light of Nordic landscape. The artist’s compositions with plant motifs and flower paintings are more colourful and playful than her landscapes. At the present jubilee exhibition, Albri introduces a selection of freshly completed painted seascapes. According to the artist, the sea and the sky are inseparable and belong together. The sky and clouds reflect in the sea; the reflection of heavy storm clouds makes the surface of the sea gloomy and dark. However, the sunlight makes the water sparkle in kaleidoscopic flamboyancy. Reflection of the sun in water is intriguing, yet the artist believes that it s complicated to paint such a scene. For Albri, everything that is related to the sea and water is important – and wind that makes water move is also important. The concurrence of the sun and wind allows the sea catch the light and be in motion.
Graphic artist and watercolorist Virve Albri was born in Tartu on January 26, 1944. In 1965–1971 she studied in the department of graphic art at the Estonian State Art Institute. She worked as a lab assistant at the Tallinn Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology, Microbiology and Hygiene in 1963–1964 and as a lab assistant at the Estonian Institute of Scientific Research and Clinical Medicine. In 1977–1981, Albri worked as an artist in the bureau of Construction and Technology at the Ministry of Food Products Industry and in the experimental industry “Mehis” in 1982–1984; as a lab assistant at the Institute of Cybernetics at the Academy of Sciences in 1984–1986; and as an artist at the Tallinn Perfumery and Edible Fats Factory in 1987–1993. Since 1993, Virve Albri has worked as a freelance artist. She has been a member of the youth league of the Estonian Artists’ Association and a member of Estonian Artists’ Association since 2006, also a member of the Estonian Watercolorists’ Association since 2003.
Virve Albri started participating in exhibitions in 1970. Throughout the years, Albri has taken part in the annual exhibitions of the Estonian Watercolorists’ Association; watercolour festivals of the European Confederation of Watercolour Societies in Genua (2012), Cordoba (2014) and Salamanca (2017); the Watercolour Biennale in Harjavaltaa, Finland (2014); Voipaala Art Centre in Finland (2015); Spring Exhibition of the Estonian Artists’ Association (2015); watercolour biennials in St. Petersburg (2013, 2015); watercolour festivals FabrianoInArte in Italy (2016, 2017). She has also held solo exhibitions in Nõmme gallery (1998), Haabersti Day Care Centre (2004), Castellan House gallery (2004), Laagri Culture Centre (2006), Tallinn Botanical Gardens (2009), Tallinn Central Library (2010) and Würth Art Gallery (2013).
Vabaduse gallery are supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture, Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Liviko Ltd.