“Balti Uus Maal” creates a dialogue between artists from three countries, highlighting both regional commonalities and specific cultural shifts. Generational experience – growing up in a globalized, information-dense environment – unites the artists more than national differences divide them. The works intertwine personal narratives and broader social strata, often simultaneously intimate and distanced, as if they were abbreviated messages that point to something larger.
Although painting has a long and institutionally strong tradition in the Baltic States, the younger generation does not treat it as a closed authority, but as a flexible starting point. Painting is a dynamic practice – a medium that can slow down the gaze, create dense and quickly conveyed messages.
The aim of the exhibition is not to define a new “Baltic painting”, but to open up a multi-layered view of how painting works today. It is a space where tradition and experimentation do not oppose each other, but exist in parallel. Like the abbreviations of the title, the meaning here is condensed, mobile and shared – but never completely fixed.
Exhibition curators: Reigo Kuivjõgi and Bianka Soe
Assistant: Adele Kuivjõgi
Catalog designer: Anastassia Musakko
Production: Viscosa Culture Factory
REIGO KUIVJÕGI
Reigo Kuivjõgi has been curating art exhibitions since 2005. He has initiated and led a number of art projects and auctions, including the Tartu Young Art Auction (lead organiser since 2014), the Tartu Art Auction (co-founder with the Tartu Artists’ Association since 2019), the Osta Noort Kunsti (Buy Young Art) Auction (founder since 2021), and he organised the Estonian Academy of Arts anniversary auctions in 2022–2023.
Kuivjõgi is the founder of Art&Tonic (established in 2019), a gallery dedicated to promoting and selling the work of young artists. Through Art&Tonic he has curated over 40 exhibitions, featuring the work of more than 60 artists. featuring the work of more than 60 artists.
In addition, she has organized exhibitions at several art institutions, including Tallinn City Gallery, Tartu Art House, Viimsi Artium’s Barrel Gallery, the exhibition hall of Kuressaare Castle, the gallery of the Türi Cultural Centre, Gallery Pallas, the Gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro in Podgorica, and Estonian House Stockholm.
He has published art-related articles in Estonian periodicals and has given public lectures at several organizations, including the Pallas Art School and he has also compiled and published art books on artists Avo Paistik and Alar Tuul.
BIANKA SOE
Bianka Soe is an Estonian art historian, curator, and cultural producer whose work focuses on connecting contemporary art with communities and public space.
She worked for seven years as content director at Telliskivi Creative City in Tallinn and was the lead organiser and curator of the year-round art festival “Ma ei saa aru” (I Don’t Get It) .
Soe has curated dozens of exhibitions both in Estonia and internationally, including the Baltic illustration and animation exhibition “Baltic Island” at Spiral Gallery in Tokyo, exhibitions in Bologna, and several in Tallinn, among them the joint exhibition “MIЯЯOЯERROR” by Kiwa and Toomas Volkmann. She has also curated “Pinnamood” at Võrumaa Museum and “Võileivad suve ja tuulega” (Sandwiches with Summer and Wind).
She writes art criticism and cultural essays for publications such as Sirp, Edasi and Estonian World, and is an active public voice on the role of art in public space. Soe compiled the community book “Õhus on Kalamaja” (Kalamaja in the Air), which brought together over 100 contributors, and is the founder of the Kalamaja Book Club.
She holds a background in art history and cultural anthropology.
