„In the world we live in, there is no longer a universally accepted truth, nor any basis to distinguish between what is real and what is imagined. The balance between reality and fiction has changed. We live in an enormous image. The artist has less and less need to invent content for their work. Fiction already exists.”
With the exhibition at Pärnu Artists House, the artist presents a selection of his most recent graphic art and paintings. Under this title, the works conceptually continue central themes that have been present in his work for nearly twenty years.
The scenes depicted in Kuusing’s works are usually imaginative stagings. At first they may seem like visual absurdities, but for the artist, the expressed themes are serious, topical or even worrying in both character and content. However, to prevent the pieces from becoming overly dark, they’ve been spiced with humor, ranging from jokey naivism to sharp grotesque, irony and social critique.
Toomas Kuusing (b. 1976) graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the fine arts department of the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2005. In addition to painting and graphics, performative art also holds an important place in Kuusing’s work. Since 2001 he has been a member of the Non Grata art group, with whom he has participated in performances and exhibitions across Europe, Asia, North and South America. Kuusing has held solo exhibitions (graphic art and oil paintings) since 2002 in Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Germany, France, England, the United States, Chile, Australia and South Korea. His work has also been featured in numerous international group exhibitions in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Rumenia, Armenia, Georgia, France, England, China, the United States, Chile, South Korea, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates.
Kuusing’s work is featured in the collections of the Kumu Art Museum, Tartu Art Museum, the Rothko Museum (Daugavpils, Latvia), Modern Art Museum of Yerevan (Armenia), Santiago Museum of Contemporary Art (Chile), the Guanlan Printmaking Museum (Shenzhen, China) as well as other museums and galleries. Kuusing has also created illustrations for books, received several local art prizes and most recently, in 2023, was awarded 3rd place at the Kaunas International Printmaking Biennial, „Mammoths of Printmaking”.
The exhibition is supported by Eesti Kultuurkapital and Valgeranna Veinitall.
