Jaan Luik “The garden of stretching figures (and other forms of metamorphosis)”

The artist moves with a modernist approach through the notion of form and the potential of form. He combines this with research on semiotics, cultural heritage and the process of pictographic representations. Luik’s sculptures deal with the original meaning of a sign, interpretations and relationships to the abstract art object. How far can a sign be manipulated, abstracted or transformed while staying true to its original meaning? And how much of the independent, three-dimensional art object still stands on its own, autonomously, when relating to a sign? The exhibition moves through a wide variety of material, and shows how the artist’s practice moves from the depiction of a body to semi-abstract signs, and slowly morphs back to the figure again.  

It is accompanied by his first monograph, “Jaan Luik: Practice”, illustrating Luik’s position in the Estonian sculptural field.

Jaan Luik (b. 1953) is an Estonian sculptor. He has been exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions since 1979, with recent solo exhibitions in the Pärnu City Gallery (2017), the Võru Town Gallery (2018) and the Vabaduse gallery in Tallinn (2019). The works on display are from the collection of the Tartu Art Museum and private collections. He received the Anton Starkopf prize in 2006. Luik taught in the Tartu Art School, University of Tartu and Imatra Art School (Finland). From 1995 to 1997, he was the chairman of the Tartu artist union.

Graphic Design: Henri Kutsar

Special thanks to the Tartu Art Museum.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.