Opening: Wednesday, July 22 at 5 PM
On Friday, July 31 at 4.30 PM artist Maria Kallau and curator Kirke Kits will hold a tour of the exhibition as part of the open doors day at the Artists’ House.
You’re welcome to join!
The human body is akin to a litmus test of existential digestion processes. A quarrel, which began innocently enough, traces the first unchildlike lines of the face. Gestures meant to comfort may scrape the skin bleeding again. The more absurd the situation, the more desperately the body reacts, finally contorting into a handstand out of the sheer shame of existing. Although at times illuminated by the faint glow of a hopeful horizon, psychological murkyness persists. The meaning of the memory appears afterwards.
The exhibition of paintings by Hanna Vinter and Maria Kallau is charged with an awareness of one’s own condition – tension has not dissolved but reached a substation, yet to be transformed into a satisfactory conclusion. Whether triggered by youth’s coarse encounters with its surrounds or a ceaseless existential discomfort, the artists turn their attention to psychological states of tension and its expressions in the physical body.
Maria Kallau (2001, Pärnu) is an Estonian artist currently based in Berlin. In 2025, Kallau graduated the Estonian Academy of Arts with a bachelor’s degree in painting. Working primarily in figurative oil painting, her practice draws on personal experiences, contemporary youth culture, and the emotional intensity of adolescence.
Kallau recently participated in the group exhibition Labour of Love, curated by Bettina Semmer at roam project space in Berlin and in June had a solo show Borderline in Berlin, Werkschule. Since 2025, she has been working in Berlin with roam projects e.V. and the German-Estonian Society in Berlin, helping to foster cultural events and exchange between Estonia and Germany.
Hanna Vinter (2003, Kuressaare) is an artist living and working in Tallinn. She received her bachelor’s degree in painting from the Estonian Academy Arts last year and started in the Contemporary Art MA programme of the same institution. In 2025, she was rewarded with the Astrid and Arnold Kalmus Memorial Fund scholarship.
Vinter’s paintings have been exhibited in various group shows, including at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Kreenholm Manufacturing in Narva and Kuressaare Town Hall gallery. Her work has been presented in Copenhagen and 2026 fall will be included in an international group exhibition in Helsinki.
Curator Kirke Kits (2003, Tallinn) is currently studying at the painting department of the Estonian Academy of Arts and recently spent an exchange semester at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Whilst abstract oil painting is her primary medium, Kits is also interested in the intersection of text and visual art. In April, a selection of her poems was published in the literary magazine Looming.
Graphic design: Indrek Mikk
Thank you: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Pärnu City Gallery.
Contact:
mkallau8@gmail.com
hannavinter12@gmail.com
Instagram: @maria_kallau, @hanna_vinter
Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/6vYMSW5R2
Admission to all Pärnu City Gallery exhibitions is free.
Pärnu City Gallery opening hours: Tue–Sat 11–18 (closed on public holidays)
