Laos has said that she feels like a child or a god, taking materials apart and rearranging the details to create her own worlds. With DREAMWALK, she is putting the emphasis on her materials of choice – silver, mother of pearl, precious stones and pearls.
“DREAMWALK has two origins. From one end, the splendour and spirituality of Seto brooches, from the other, the utterly irresistible materials such as mother of pearl, rock crystal quartz, silver and steel. Their unison is inviting. The moonlight, woman and the moon are tied for eternity – both carrying fluidity and mystery as their birthright. DREAMWALK is the feeling that moonlight can be pinned to the chest.” – Krista Laos
Krista Laos is a jewellery designer. She has graduated from metalworking at the Estonian Academy of Arts (1978), is a member of the Estonian Artists Association and works at the jewellery design studio Ehtedisain at Katariina Guild since 2000. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, most notably in Limoges (1990), Cincinnati (1991), Washington (1995), Moscow (1989 and 1993), Beijing (2004) and Berlin (2015). She has taken part of the nomadic exhibition Baltic and Nordic Jewellery Art (Denmark-Finland-Sweden, 1991) and the exhibition Baltic Jewel in Madrid (2004). In 1999, she received the Ede Kurrel prize of the The Estonian Association of Jewellery and Blacksmiths. Her works are part of the collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art And Design.
Igor BalašovIgor BalašovAndrei BalašovTea VellerindKertu VellerindKatarina ja Kalle Kotselainen
BALAŠOV x VELLERIND x KOTSELAINEN creates an insight into the transmission of the spirit of metal art between generations on the example of three families. Mother and daughter Tea and Kertu Vellerind, father and son Andrei and Igor Balašov and brother and sister Katarina and Kalle Kotselainen will participate in the exhibition.
“You can’t pass on your knowledge more heartily or passionately than by growing together, playing at the grassroots level. There is something sincere, joyful and reverent in this unconscious transmission of the metal spirit, which infects the following generations with knowledge and creativity,” says A-Gallery gallerist and jewellery artist Marita Lumi about the exhibition.
RELIQUARY Andrei Balašov
“The mini sculptures in the exhibition are made with a principle inspired by the Middle Ages. A reliquary is a thing, a box or an unfolding storage in which very sacred and valuable things are stored. Reliquaries can be found, for example, in Catholic and Orthodox churches. The exhibition presents four silver figures, three of which are reliquaries. The figure of a woman is LILY, or woman as a temptress, the second is WAITING FOR THE SUN with a red stone, and the third is SAINT SEBASTIAN pierced with arrows.”
Andrei Balašov (b. 1965) graduated from Tallinn Art University and improved his education at the Lahti Design Institute. His works have been shown, among others, at the Tallinn Applied Art Triennale, in galleries SOFA (Chicago), Sienna Gallery (Lenox, USA), Galerie Beeld Aambeeld (Enschede, Netherlands), Gallery Chic Choc (Berlin), Gallery Stockgard (Siuntio, Finland) and Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design.
BORDER POSTS Igor Balašov
“Our understanding of the structure of the world is sometimes beautiful illusion. The metaphor of the cornerstone as an unshakable boundary loses its meaning.
The year was 1990. These works are like a relationship between two countries. Like border posts.
One of the posts has the symbols of one country and graphic details are used, for example, Orthodox symbols and the time of the council. On the other, the Estonian coat of arms and crown – symbols of the republic. “
Igor Balašov (b. 1940 in Russia) is a meritorious Estonian sculptor and member of Estonian Artists’ Association, studied at Estonian Applied Art Institute in 1959-1965. Perhaps his most famous artwork is TELESILM (TV-eye), which decorates the building of Estonian Television. Balašov has also created monumental sculptures elsewhere – his works are in Osaka, Japan, Moscow, Russia, Ukraine and the Netherlands. He has participated in prestigious art fairs and exhibitions all over the world, and his works belong to the collections of prestigious foundations and museums (Estonian Art Museum, Tretyakov Gallery, Pushkin Museum, etc.).
BALANCE Tea Vellerind
“The idea of my works is balance. Since I once wanted to become an architect, I am still interested in the balance of spatial volumes, simplicity and conciseness. Everyone has their golden ratio, and I’m looking for mine.”
Tea Vellerind(b. 1939 in Rakvere) graduated from Estonian Applied Art Institute with a specialization in metal construction. From 1966, she worked as an artist at the Ars-Juveel factory. Tea has participated in numerous individual and group exhibitions both at home and abroad, among others at the Art Salon (today’s Art Building Gallery), Tallinn City Museum, Tampere Art Building Gallery, A-Gallery and Riga Old Town Gallery. She is a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association and a founding member of the jewellery company OÜ Kuldgraal. In 2017, Tea was the laureate of the Ede Kurrel annual award of the Estonian Metal Artists’ Association.
BLOCKHEAD Kertu Vellerind
“My works always have specific titles, because the message in the jewellery is important to me. I enjoy the game with the Estonian language. I interpret this exhibition as a haiku:
vinguv tuul kõle / whining wind desolate sasides aju mõtted peas /ruffle brain thoughts in head mängin keelega / I play with tongue.“
Kertu Vellerind (b. 1967) studied at Estonian Academy of Arts in Metal Department (BA and MA) , at the Lahti Design Institute in Finland and the Drawing Academy of Hanau on the Main in Germany. Kertu has participated in exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. Since 2016, together with Urve Küttner, she has been a laureate of the Ede Kurrel annual award. In the same year, she was awarded the 3rd place at the Biennale of International Enamel Art in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2017, Kertu was a nominee of the jewellery competition “Eesti Ehe 2017 – EV 100” organized by the Estonian Gold and Watchmakers’ Union and the laureate of the best annual exhibition 2017 of the A-Gallery.
A LITTLE LUXURY II Katarina Kotselainen, Kalle Kotselainen
“We were born into a family where we have always been good at doing things with our hands. Family-wise, I am surrounded by the jewellery mafia, as I jokingly sayto myself, because my boyfriend, father, brother and sister-in-law also make jewellery. I grew up in different cities in Finland, and although traveling is in my blood, I am driven primarily by sentimentality to make jewellery. For me, jewellery is something very personal and associated with memories of people, places and feelings. If my works also evoke positive feelings in the viewer, then I am happy that I have been able to make someone’s day a little bit better.”- Katarina
Katarina Kotselainen (b. 1982 in Tartu) studied at Estonian Academy of Arts (2006 EKA BA, 2010 EKA MA) and improved her education repeatedly in Germany and Norway. Since 2002, Katarina has participated in exhibitions in different parts of the world.
Kalle Kotselainen (b. 1981 in Tartu): “I like the appreciation of the material in damask. By forging different metals together, a unique pattern is born every time. Damascus steel goes well with other metals.” Kalle Kotselainen has been designing and making precious metal jewellery for over ten years. He graduated from Vana-Vigala Technical and Service School blacksmith specialty in 2019.
The exhibition follows the path of Federica Cogliandro’s artistic research that originates from the study of the sign, with a dual and simultaneous development – graphic and material – seeking her own vocabulary and language.
The sign is creator. It is the primogenium element of cosmogonic visions, a condensation of energy and form in gestation. It contains the dynamism of the gesture that determines it. The succession of small marks – traced, engraved, pressed – features the slow unfolding of form creating atmospheric textures and alternating light and shadow, solids and voids, compressions and rarefactions, illusory or tangible.
The project aims of creating a new cosmogony. Every piece is a microcosm within a universal macrocosm (the installation). The vibrant particles of signs, like primordial matter in eternal movement, modulated in a myriad of rhythmic variations and stratified in a continuous flow, create a texture of which matter and light are the warp and weft.
Federica Cogliandro is an Italian artist, interested on the interaction between different disciplines, materials and techniques and how to combine them to enrich her artistic research. Born in Rome, she is currently based in Tallinn, Estonia. She holds a BFA with an emphasis on drawing and printmaking from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and in June, 2019 she completed her MA in Jewellery and Blacksmithing at the Estonian Academy of Arts under the supervision of Kadri Mälk. During her studies she did a traineeship at the Atelier of the master goldsmith Giovanni Corvaja for nearly a year. Her works have been exhibited in Italy, Spain and Estonia.
