For purchasing, commissioning and more info please feel free to contact Tel: (+372) 51 17 148, m@art.ee, DM: markus.kasemaa
The exhibition consists of selection from series: “Bright” (m.art.ee/bright), “Dark” (m.art.ee/dark) and “Grey” (m.art.ee/gray)
About the exhibition
Most of the time, my works are born out of noticing or imagining something in the maze of automatic
drawing and developing it further. I avoid interpreting for myself or for the viewer, as this would limit
the number of interpretations. For the same reason, there are no titles on the works. Such works can
be described as “inkblot tests”, where everyone has the opportunity to find their own interpretations.
In terms of artistic technique, several long-standing directions, interests and plans are realised and
mixed in this exhibition, which is grouped into series of works with the titles “Bright”
(m.art.ee/bright), “Dark” (m.art.ee/dark) and “Grey” (m.art.ee/gray). This arrangement can also be
seen as a process: on the right wall are the original paintings in more or less sketchy grey tones, which
are works in their own right and evolve in either a light or dark direction.
History
Although both my diploma thesis in painting and the period that followed were quite colourful and
three-dimensional (e.g. m.art.ee/f0), after that I limited myself for quite a long time to acrylics and
pencil drawings in grey tones (e.g. “Figures 1” (m.art.ee/f1) and “Figures 2” (m.art.ee/f2)). Content and
shape seemed more interesting than colour. They were the basis for a number of exhibitions in
Estonia and abroad. In the framework of these exhibitions, I also experimented with the conceptual
side of art creation and process by organising exhibitions primarily in public spaces: schools, offices,
urban spaces, shopping malls, the virtual world Secondlife etc. Among other things, the experiments
focused on how, where and if art reaches viewers, the role of art, etc. Thoughts and experiences were
channelled into presentations I gave in schools, institutions and companies: the most original of them
perhaps at the largest economic conference in the Arab world, Innovation Arabia 8 in Dubai. As a
result, my presentations in “regular galleries” were deliberately rare, but I did a few in various
exhibition spaces in museums and the like. Perhaps the culmination, in 2022, was a large solo
exhibition of about 40 works at the CerModern Museum of Modern Art in Ankara.
About 10 years ago, I dived with excitement into the genre of ink drawing at m.art.ee/ink, creating
hundreds of works on paper and canvas, some of them with a touch of colour but still in a purely
colouring function. I remember that colour did not interest me at all: I had no sense that it added
anything. A number of thematic series and projects also occurred in this period, as well as various
collaborative projects that continue to this day, e.g. with scientists and doctors (m.art.ee/medicine), a
series on roots (m.art.ee/law), which has a permanent exhibition at the Estonian Supreme Court, a
series of improvised maps (m.art.ee/maps), and a series of improvised portraits
(m.art.ee/improportraits). The works have been published, e.g. on the covers of the journals Nature
and Cell, in the Estonian Research Council etc.
The impetus or accelerator for my return to colour about five years ago may have been, to put it in
semi-sincere terms, coffee shop conversations with the art historian Krista Piirimäe, where, in the
relaxed manner typical of our conversations, she chided me for the lack of colour, and thought that I
probably couldn’t do it any more. Perhaps out of defiance, but more out of amusement, I started
experimenting again with ink, gouache and watercolours on paper (m.art.ee/inkvarv) and on canvas
(m.art.ee/inkvarvlouend), and then again with oils. The results are on display in this exhibition.
CV
Markus Kasemaa is a 3rd generation artist from well-known Estonian art family (kasemaa.ee/family).
Born in Tallinn in 1972. Living in Tartu since 1974. Member of Estonian Artists’ Union and Tartu Artist’s
Union since 1997. Studied art at Tartu Art School, Department of Sculpture (1990-1991) and at Tartu
University, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Painting (1991-1995). His works have been exhibited
in dozens of countries including cyber world Secondlife. His artworks have also been printed on
covers of “Nature” and “Cell” journals. He has summoned his artistic experience and experiments into
an art-talk “Buying art is a crime / games with art” that has been held at schools, institutions,
companies but also at an economics conference “Innovation Arabia 8” in Dubai.
50+ solo exhibitions and projects in Ankara Modern Art Museum CerModern; Estonian Supreme
Court; Skype office, Estonia; Fujitsu office, Estonia; Transferwise offices in Tallinn and London;
Playtech office, Estonia; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia; Nõo Lutheran Church, Estonia
Tartu Salem Baptist Church, Estonia; Dataran Undrgrnd @KL Independence square with Kuala
Lumpur City Government; Ministry of Economic Affairs of Estonia; Kelmė Regional Museum, Kelmė,
Lithuania; Communication History Museum, Kaunas, Lithuania; Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Film
Museum, Vilnius; Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, by Estonian embassy; University of
Southern Denmark in Odense, by Estonian embassy; Estonian Aviation Academy; Baltic Defence
College, Estonia; Project space Kunstraum B “Estonian month”, Kiel, Germany; Biocenter, Tartu (For
opening of Genome Center new building), Estonia; Fields Trade Center, Kopenhagen, Denmark, by
Estonian embassy; Palácio das Artes – Fábrica de Talentos, Porto, Portugal, by Estonian embassy;
Nordic Council of Ministers office in Estonia; Camoes Institute, Lisbon, Portugal; Pico Marine Museum
Art Center, Azore islands; Ribeira Grande City Theatre, Ponta Delgada, Azore Islands, for the event of
opening Estonian honorary consulate; Solaris Shopping Centre – “Drive in” exhibition, Tallinn; Viru
Shopping Center, Tallinn; Narva Art Museum, Narva
Selected group exhibitions and projects
“Arte Laguna Prize” finale, Venice Arsenale, Vilnius Town Hall; Limerick City Hall, Merchants Quay,
Ireland; “Longing for Freedom”, Oxford Castle Prison, Oxford; Lüneburg HanseArtWorks, as
representative of Tartu; Interdisciplinary festival “Crazy Tartu”, “Ukrainian Art Week” by Ukrainian Art
Union, “Festive Art Summer in Viinistu”, Viinistu Art Museum; Exhibition of Tartu Art Union in Porvoo,
Finland ; Tallinn International Graphic Triennale, 2007; NORD ART – Büdelsdorf, Germany
Selected recognition/awards:
1st award by Tampere Modern Art Museum and Tampere City government.
Diploma of I Baltic Biennale, Manege Art Centre, St. Petersburg, 2008.
3rd price in experimental graphics at “Ukrainian Art Week”, Kiev, Ukraine, 2009.