In the Contemporary Art Gallery, Alo Valge exhibits ten oil paintings based on images that people have uploaded to social media. What is the intersection of digital and traditional art?
Social media provides a platform where people can capture moments, emotions, and stories; converting screen captures into paintings. In this way, art becomes a bridge between the virtual and the tangible. Each painting symbolizes a unique connection between the digital world and reality. Social media influences the way we remember and perceive things. A photo can be quickly removed and lost, but by converting pixels into a painting, it will be captured forever. Each painting tells one story.
These are not just reproductions of arbitrary digital images, but interpretations through the artist’s views and style. In the digital age, people must process a huge number of images daily. With the development of technology, it has become a part of people’s everyday lives that has become inescapable. With Alos paintings, we slow down this process, and instead of 10,000 images, we look at a fraction of them. Alo Valge (b. 1991) has a bachelors degree in painting from the University of Tartu and a master’s degree in painting from the Estonian Academy of Arts. In addition, he has studied at the University of Maiz in Germany. Alo has presented his artworks at several exhibitions such as the exhibition of the Estonian Painters’ Association “Expressive!”, the exhibition “Cold Gaze: Hyperrealism in Estonian Art” at the Tartu Art Museum, the exhibition of the finalists of the Baltic “Young Painter’s Prize” in Vilnius and the exhibition in the gallery of the Latvian Artists’ Union. His works are in various private collections of several European countries.
NB! Contemporary Art Gallery is closed for the Christmas and New Year break from
23/12. 23 – 6/01.24
