Exhibitions
„People and Other Creatures“
Artra Gallery, curated by Raffaele Quattrone, Milan. Italy
13 October, 2022 – 5 December, 2022
Jaan Toomik is one of the best known Estonian international artists, probably the best known. His artwork embraces diverse disciplines such as painting, performance art, video art, and film direction. The core of his poetics is “a metaphysical, biocentric and shamanic vision of the world”. His work, for the most part naturalistic and autobiographical, is focused on the age-old subjects of life and death, religion and spirituality, that bind the human body to the cyclic processes of nature.
While researching Toomik’s work it occurred to me that it seemed like a journey not unlike that of Dante, who rises from Inferno toward Paradise. A journey that represents the life path of every human being. It is an autobiographical journey in which we can recognize everyone, and which leads us to look into our intimacy, into the depths of our souls, into the dark forest in which we have lost ourselves and in which we feel alone in the search for a guide, in the search for the other. We recognize everyone in the Dante who wishes to climb the shining hill alone. But it is in sociality, thanks to relationships and to the collaboration and help of others, that we are able to climb the hill.
After the first Italian retrospective dedicated to the Estonian artist and produced in collaboration with the The Center for Contemporary Art of Estonia in Tallin, Jaan Toomik returns with a new oeuvre that includes a piece of sculpture, some videos and a series of paintings created ad hoc for the exhibition. The human being remains central, personified by Toomik himself who is able to be, in an original and personal way, both subject and precarious object, post-modern and globalized, without ever losing his playfulness and self-irony.
For more information: www.artragalleria.it
Solo exhibitions
2022
People and Other Creatures
Artra Gallery, Milan. Italy
2021
In yellow and green
Haapsalu City Gallery. Haapsalu, Estonia
Jaan Toomik in Viljandi
Rüki Gallery. Viljandi, Estonia
2020
Selfie as a Seagull
ARS project space. Tallinn, Estonia
2019
My End Is My Beginning. And My Beginning Is My End.
Moscow Museum of Modern Art, by Viktor Misiano, Moskow, Russia
Theatre of Gestures
Mūkusala Art Salon, curated by Andris Brinkmanis, Riga, Latvia
Astrid Svangren / Jaan Toomik
Kohta Gallery, curated by Anders Kreuger, Helsinki, Finland
Jaan Toomik: Oleg
Kunsthaus Dresden. Dresden, Germany
Selected group exhibitions, actions, performances
2021
Suizid – Let’s Talk About It
Museum for Sepulchral Culture, Kassel. Germany
Towards a New Community
curated by Avi Lubin, Tel Aviv
Dreams of Freedom. Romanticism in Russia and Germany 6+
Albertinum, Dresden. Germany
Estonian Energies. The Power of Practice
Tartu Art Museum, Tartu. Estonia
MEMENTO – The Force Field of Memories
The Museum for Sepulchral Culture, Kassel. Germany
Dreams of Freedom. Romanticism in Russia and Germany 6+
New Tretjakov gallery, Moscow. Russia
2020
Roots and Ruins 2019 , curated by Rael Artel
Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn. Estonia
17th International Vilnius Painting Triennial
Vilnius, Lithuania
2019
Fajr International Film Festival
Teheran, Iraan
FREIRAUM in Berlin – On the State of Freedom in Europe
Berlin, Germany
„in situ”
Duktus-Bau, Buderus Park, Hirzenhain. Germany
Reviving Europe from the bottom up
Freinaum, Berlin. Saksamaa
Situ-Exhibiton
Oberhessen, Saksamaa
TRE, Snehta Gallery
Athens, Kreeka
AVANT 19 – AVANT goes Baltic
Kristinehamn Art Museum, Kristinehamn. Sweden
Estonian Energies
Izevsk National Art Museum. Russia
The Price of Boredom
Rauma Triennale, Rauma
Blood and Soil
CAC, Vilnius. Lithuania
2018
There and Back Again
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki
Freedom is Recognized Necessity
curated by Hripsimé Visser, Frank van Lamoen, Carolien Glazenburg, Amsterdam. Netherlands
The Explorers, Part One
V-A-C Foundation, Palazzo delle Zattere, Venice. Italy
Performance – The Body as a Continuum in Art
Gabriele Senn Galerie, Vienna. Austria
Video Europe for all
curated by Iara Boubnova, Sofia. Bulgaria
Freiheit zur Freiheit II
Schloss Albrechtsberg, Dresden. Germany
Dimitria Festival 2018
Artis Causa Gallery, Thessaloniki. Greece
Eurasia International Film Festival
Astana. Kazakhstan
3. Jagran Film Festival
New Delhi. India
The X-Files [Registry of the Nineties]
Kumu art museum, Tallinn