EXHIBITIONS

24.05. - 29.08.2021

The exhibition "Magistically Mogul" by Syrian artist ADIB FATTAL 

Adib Fattal`s style is a combination of primitive art and fantasy. Some paintings look like miniatures in Persian art, others recall Palestinian embroidery or mosaics in a mosque.

His new series „Magistically Mogul” consists of 35 felt-pen drawings. „I have always been fascinated by the Mogul Empire because of its vastness and diversity. Spanning across modern day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, the Mogul Empire left behind a large number of stunning and unique architectural jewels. From the best known Taj Mahal in Agra, India to the lesser known Shahi Eidgah Mosque in the Panjab, every structure is gorgeously designed with the intent and desire to please which you can see with the smallest attention to detail. The Moguls combined Islamic, Persian, Turkic and Indian architecture in intricate and delicate ways to construct stunning palaces, mosques, forts, mausoleums, gardens and bridges. Ornately decorated heritage has a way of capturing my imagination and allows me to go back centuries to reinterpret what I see in colorful and vivid ways. I enjoy reconstructing and applying my own interpretation of the Mogul Empire and I like to imagine how people engaged with the both the built space and the nature that surrounded them. In this presentation, but also in all my other work, I imagine people receiving great satisfaction and joy from beautiful structures”, he says.

Adib Fattal was born in 1962 in Washington D.C. He spent most of his life in Europe, the United States and the Middle East. He graduated with a B.B.A in International Marketing from the City University of New York. He began his career in business but soon abandoned it to dedicate his life to graphic art. Since 2001, Adib has exhibited his work in many places around the world. Adib's work has been cited by the International Exhibition of Self-Taught Art (INISTA) in 2010, produced by theSlovak National Gallery and chosen by an international jury. His work was shown in 2012 at the Museum of Everything, curated by James Brett, at the Mardin Biennial.

Adib Fattal is an eternal optimist. He is a dreamer who guides us back to the age of innocence. In his search for beauty, he evokes only joyful images of the world. Many of the places he draws are imaginary, others are real places transformed into richer and more intricate locales. His paintings are ablaze with color and movement: cities and villages are inhabited by happy people engaged in their daily lives and living in harmony with each other and their surroundings. There are fishermen, farmers and women, men and children picking oranges, planting trees, praying and playing soccer against a historical building of elaborate design. All these scenes are depicted with an absolute conviction that all is well under the sun. Adib believes in a better and more harmonious world and is confident that this better place can exist if only people were given a chance.

At present, Adib lives in a town outside Damascus, where he paints and looks after his family, which includes his baby son, Dia, a dog, cat, and a large collection of birds, including a clever parrot. While the situation in Syria continues to pose difficult living conditions for Adib and his family, his incessant optimism has not stopped him from pursuing his passion for art and for believing in a better and sunnier future.

7.06. - 12.09.2021

Naive paintings, silk works, sculptures and  polyptichons by Debora Gutman 

Debora was born in West Berlin, Germany in 1957. After finishing school, she studied music at the Berlin "Hochschule der Künste". For many years she taught singing and piano and gave many performances in Germany, Israel, Hungary and France with a repertoire ranging from Bach to Berg. After the birth of her daughter Arnina in 1988 she concentrated more in the field of art. The first solo exhibition of her “Graphical Artwork” was held in 1992.

She became a member of the group "Künstlergruppe Steglitz", where her teachers, Bernd Beck and Ebrahim Ehrari were already members. They held a joint exhibition at the "Freie Berliner Kunstausstellung" in Berlin.

She finally found her new expression and style with beautiful and colourful naive paintings, in which very often nude women pose, dance and jump. In 2011 she became a member of the group of "Naive Artists" in Israel: Debora has taught both children and adults in her studio "Kreativer Bypass" and has participated in many projects for charity including WIZO. Nowadays she travels between Berlin and Tel-Aviv where, when not occupied with dancing the Argentinian Tango, she works in her studio.

One can find echoes of her music in her works of art. She works mainly on the principle of improvisation, using the spectrum of fine art to produce works which resonate with sound while being full of intense light and colour. Debora works on canvas, paper and wood. In her polyptichons Debora Gutman is combining figurative and abstract images with unencumbered ease. Her artworks depict scenes of human experience, animals and objects, that while fragmental and seemingly unconnected, the imagery creates a cohesive mosaic, that stimulate all kinds of fantasies, inviting viewers to imagine their own stories. Gutman uses wood as the basic material, combined with a very bright, colorful and shining palette, her paintings have a mediterranean athmospere, that invites you to relax, to allow your soul to take flight in her colorful and rich imagery and unique sense of humour.

The exhibition is supported by Estonian Cultural Endowment.

24.05. - 29.08.2021

Self-taught artist Juris Mihels from Latvia

Juris, or Juritis, Mihels lives in Skujene parish, Amata municipality in Latvia. He spends his days doing farm work in the middle of the forests and recently helping out with the construction of local church.

Juritis was born on 31 August 1961. He was the eldest of the six children in his family. When Juritis was still a young child, his stepfather once injured him so badly that he needed intensive care for months. In his own words, he was forced to study at different boarding schools due to the difficult family situation. From that period, Juritis can proudly present numerous diplomas for various sports events.

Painting came to Juris’ life 25 years ago, when he was baptised as an Orthodox Christian in the name of the Apostle Andrew and settled down in the village near the Orthodox church. Juris mainly paints churches, and occasionally adds his other favourites – boats, horses, and off-road vehicles.

Juris can be happy or get offended like a child. He likes to observe nature, birds, and animals, and listen to fairy tales on the radio every evening. After the fairy tale, there are children’s songs on the radio, and he always sings along. He is delighted when he sees churches, and he dreams of them. When he is painting a new picture, he often says it is the kind of church he had seen in his dream the night before. This way, what he sees in real life and what appears in his dreams combine into unique works of art, in which the variability of similar scenes and the abundance of works is amazing. To make art, he uses all the available materials like, for example, household packaging waste – he paints on the other side of these. In his home his cheerful paintings decorate the walls at the fireplace, the edges of walls, and doors. Juritis says that as soon as he picks up his brush, his headaches and anxiety are gone.

In addition to paints and brushes, Juritis also has a checked notebook, in which he writes poems in pencil or ball-point pen. He says he can also read poems without the notebook – just like that, right away, about anything, anytime and anywhere.

Mari Vallikivi

The exhibition is supported by Estonian Cultural Endowment.