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Author Archives: A-galerii
OPEN CALL 2027
Open Call for Exhibitions in A-Galerii’s VAULT and WINDOWS
A-Galerii, the most important local exhibition space for contemporary jewellery and blacksmithing art, announces an open call for its 2027 program for VAULT and WINDOWS. We welcome exhibition proposals from jewellery artists as well as projects that boldly experiment and combine jewellery and blacksmithing art with other artistic disciplines. The open call runs from 13th of april until 01.06.2026.
EXHIBITION SPACES
VAULT is A-Galerii’s exhibition space primarily dedicated to showcasing new work by professional jewellery artists and blacksmiths. It also serves as a historical reference point, connecting the original function of the building as a goldsmith’s shop with its current role as the key local exhibition space for contemporary jewellery and blacksmithing art.
VAULT welcomes artists, writers, and researchers whose work stems from contemporary jewellery, craft practices, and their broader connections to visual culture.
VAULT’s height is 315 cm, with a floor area of 5.2 m². Works can be displayed using cables and magnets. Painting or drilling into the walls is not allowed. Exhibitions in VAULT typically run for about 5 weeks.
WINDOWS were originally created in 1891 as display windows for a goldsmith’s shop. Since 2019, they have become a significant exhibition platform for A-Gallery, offering contemporary jewellery artists the opportunity to present new or rediscovered work in a compact format and to extend the gallery space into the public urban environment.
WINDOWS are equally made for looking in and out. Therefore, they also welcome creations that take jewellery art as a starting point but are created in collaboration with other creative fields—such as sound, video, painting, design, literature, fashion, visual and performing arts, or architecture. Both group and solo projects that address contemporary jewellery and craft practices within the context of visual culture are welcome.
Curator-led projects are especially encouraged, particularly those that bring together several artists to create a unified and thoughtfully developed window exhibition. Proposals based on ideas still in development are also welcome—A-Gallery can collaborate in combining artists’ ideas into a coherent exhibition. Submitting artists do not need to plan to fill all windows.
There are five windows:
Two on Hobusepea Street:
One large (220 x 300 x 85 cm)
One small (220 x 140 x 48 cm)
Three on Pikk Street:
All three are 220 x 140 x 48 cm
The windows have ceiling hooks for hanging, lighting, and electrical sockets.
Exhibitions in the WINDOWS typically last around 10 weeks.
Costs related to the installation, deinstallation, production, and opening of the exhibition are covered by the artist.
A-Gallery can issue a confirmation letter to support funding applications.
Due to complex customs procedures, artists applying from outside the European Union should note that they are responsible for bringing in and later removing all exhibition works and materials (backgrounds, bases, etc.).
TO APPLY
Please submit the following materials (either work-in-progress or finalized):
Project title
Description of the project and works (2,000–2,500 characters)
Visual material related to the project (sketches, photos and/or drawings of the planned installation)
Technical equipment and/or special conditions required for exhibiting the work
Preferred exhibition time (month/quarter) and preferred exhibition space (SEIF / WINDOWS)
Also include:
Participating artist(s) and contact information
CV(s) and portfolio(s) of the participant(s)
Application deadline: Monday, June 1, 2026
Send applications to info@agalerii.ee either as a zipped folder attachment or a Google Drive link.
Please name your files clearly to reflect their content and the author’s name.
An application is considered submitted if it is sent on time and includes all the required information and materials.
The A-Galerii’s board, composed of jewellery artists, and exhibition coordinator Sille Luiga will evaluate and confirm the SEIF and WINDOWS program selections.
Applicants will be notified of the results in July 2026.
More information:
Sille Luiga
📧 info@agalerii.ee
📞 +372 51 05 036
NATURE’S UPRISING: Insects and Flowers in Jewellery Art
…
*a moment before the end of silence*
…
And beauty is born. In the midst of brown mud, slush and mire: a hum, a tremor, germination, multiplication, flourishing. This is the force of nature, lower than the grass, taking root in dark depths, reaching toward the tender warmth of light to bloom. And it cannot be held back, and spring awakens, and summer bends in abundance… once, and always, and forever.
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The NATURE’S UPRISING exhibition can be visited from March 20 in the A-Gallery showroom and will remain open until June 30, 2026.
Participating artists:
Anneli Tammik, Ene Valter, Erle Nemvalts, Ester Faiman, Guntis Lauders, Harry Tensing, Henry Mardisalu, Hyrv, Katrin Kosenkranius, Keesi Kapsta, Keiu Koppel, Kertu Tuberg, Krista Laos, Krista Lehari, Liisbeth Kirss, Lisa Kröber, Margit Paulin, Mari Pärtelpoeg, Merike Balod, Michael Schoorl, Robert Idvani, Riin Somelar, Tanel Veenre, Urve Küttner, Viktorija Lillemets, Ülle Voosalu
Curator: Sille Luiga
Graphic design: Rasmus Lukas
Supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment
Jewellery can also be found in our e-store under the NEW JEWELLERY or EXHIBITION WORKS categories.
A-Galerii has chosen the best vault exhibition of the 2025
Estonian jewellery artists have selected the best A-Galerii safe exhibition of 2025.
At the A-Galerii VAULT, the most important exhibition space for local jewellery art, ten exhibitions took place last year. The best of these was selected as COMPOST by Kertu Tuberg.
Kertu Tuberg graduated from Tartu Art School in 1999 with a degree in graphic design and in 2008 she obtained a master’s degree in jewellery and blacksmithing from the Estonian Academy of Arts. She works in Tartu, in the studio Cirrus, which she founded with her colleagues in 2018. Tuberg has repeatedly improved her skills abroad and has been active in her profession for over 15 years. She has taught professional subjects at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Viljandi Culture Academy and Pallas University of Applied Sciences. She has participated in international exhibitions since 2001. Her work can be found in the collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Arts and Design and in private collections.
The best safe exhibition has been selected at A-Galerii since 2007, with the aim of recognising artists’ mastery in their creative work. A-Galerii is a jewellery gallery representing the work of professional metal artists and organising exhibitions. The SAFE (SEIF) is a historical link between the building constructed in 1891 as the goldsmith workshop of jeweller Joseph Kopf and the exhibition space. Exhibition activities in the SAFE have been taking place since 2005.
You can view previous acclaimed exhibitions here.
A-Galerii has chosen the best vault exhibition of the 2024
Estonian jewellery artists have selected the best A-Galerii safe exhibition of 2024.
At the A-Galerii SAFE (SEIF), the most important exhibition space for local jewellery art, nine exhibitions took place last year. The best of these was selected as MOURNING CLOAK BUTTERFLY. by Ülle Voosalu. Congratulations!
Ülle Voosalu graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in metalwork in 1980 and began her exhibition activities in 1981. She has worked as an artist at Tartu ARS and as a lecturer at the Tartu Higher Art School Pallas. Since 2001, she has been working as a freelance jewellery artist. Voosalu is a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association
The artist creates jewellery using a distinctive personal technique, combining silver wire and gemstones. Her pieces embody joy of life and a love of nature. She crafts her jewellery with the best wishes for the wearer.
The best safe exhibition has been selected at A-Galerii since 2007, with the aim of recognising artists’ mastery in their creative work. A-Galerii is a jewellery gallery representing the work of professional metal artists and organising exhibitions. The SAFE (SEIF) is a historical link between the building constructed in 1891 as the goldsmith workshop of jeweller Joseph Kopf and the exhibition space. Exhibition activities in the SAFE have been taking place since 2005.
You can view previous acclaimed exhibitions here.
CHRISTOPH VON ROHDEN (GER)/ ŠTĚPÁN HÁLA (CZE)
REET SALONEN/ ELIS LIIVO
05.06. – 30.08.2026 on the WINDOWS of A-Galerii. All exhibitions in A-Galerii are supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.
Reet Salonen
DOWN UNDER
The exhibition DOWN UNDER stems from jewelry artist Reet Salonen’s long-standing fascination with Oceania. Over the course of her travels during the past six years, she has drawn inspiration from the landscapes of New Zealand, the “great red land” of Australia, and the exoticism of Samoa, as well as from the unique cultures and people of these places. Her most recent works were completed this year, immediately following a trip in February to Melbourne and Western Australia. The exhibition brings together the essence of these distant continents in a direct dialogue with chosen materials. In Salonen’s words:
“In creating these works, I have drawn impulses from flights across the oceans and the Great Barrier Reef, from the underwater world there, and from long road trips through Australia, New Zealand, and Samoa. Subterranean themes also played an important role: mineral resources, copper mines, gemstones, and Australian gold. The exhibition also features the brooch Half of My Heart, which incorporates a rare zebra stone purchased in Perth, found naturally only in the Kimberley region of Western Australia near Kununurra.
My travel memories have settled into a holistic symbiosis of experiences, into a creative practice in which I do not seek to produce a direct copy of a specific object, but rather to convey an intuitive reflection of accumulated impressions.
All of the jewelry pieces in the exhibition are unique works. In them, I have used materials found, purchased, or received as gifts during my travels, and primarily silver, copper, and brass as metals. To me, Australia is best characterized by copper, it is reddish like the earth there itself.”
Reet Salonen (Mängel-Juuse) is a jewelry artist, designer, gallerist, and painter born in Pärnu and currently based in Helsinki. She holds a degree in industrial design from the Estonian Academy of Arts. As a metal artist, she is a bold experimenter whose creative method is rooted in direct engagement with materials. Salonen has participated in numerous international solo and group exhibitions and has received significant professional recognition for her work. Her pieces are included, among others, in the Finnish National Art Collection, and she is a member of both the Estonian Association of Metal Artists and the Finnish Jewellery Art Association. This exhibition marks the artist’s first solo jewelry exhibition in Estonia.
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Elis Liivo
SUBSTANTIAL STRENGTH – SACRIFICE
“Something hidden within us lays the foundation for both what is desired and what is unwanted. How often do we stop to think about what this force is and why it was created? Yet without it, none of our good deeds or less noble acts, considered decisions or foolish mistakes, would ever come to pass.
We are born with this something, a substantial force, that often resists conscious control. And perhaps that is for the best, because when inner balance exists, this force sustains everything essential in life: love, care, the desire to surpass oneself, and the search for meaning beyond mere existence. The possibility of sacrificing oneself for something greater, something that outlives our physical condition. Through this, we remain connected to our ancestors and future generations, giving existence both power and purpose. To be connected to another, to be understood, to be influenced by something higher, to exist and simply be in this world as a creator and, when necessary, also a destroyer.
But where does this force truly come from? The power to create from embryonic nothingness and, in the end, to dissolve all that has existed only to rise again, endure, and hopefully continue into infinity.
Everything that exists belongs to everyone and originates from within ourselves, and because of this, life becomes a chain reaction of something none of us can rationally put into words. Yet change can begin by directing one’s will toward something better and more enduring, sacrificing for it the strength bestowed upon us from above. Human greatness lies in the ability to direct one’s life force where it serves both oneself and others alike. Every strength is eventually exhausted, yet what remains is a trace of what once existed, measured against the transience of time.”
The works in the exhibition SUBSTANTIAL STRENGTH – SACRIFICE are dedicated to labour and perseverance. The ancient-style women’s jewelry created by Elis Liivo draws from old beliefs according to which jewelry empowered its wearer through the clinking and chiming sounds it produced when worn. The artist has empowered the works with her own hair, seeing it as an energetic material that maintains both a conceptual and physical connection to the pieces even after her death. Also presented are rings from the collection Erosion, illustrating the coexistence of what exists and what disappears, forces that simultaneously create and undermine.
Elis Liivo (1990) is a conceptual jewelry artist originally from Hiiumaa, a small Estonian island. Through themes of identity and heritage, Liivo explores emotions and personal experiences, examining the often invisible layers of human existence, their fragility and strength alike. She studied in the Department of Jewelry and Blacksmithing at the Estonian Academy of Arts from 2021 to 2025 and furthered her studies at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, as well as through an internship at the Spanish company Crisopeya. Liivo is the founder of the jewelry brand ZYLELY. She has participated in several international exhibitions, including the Lisbon Jewellery Biennial, Munich Jewellery Week, and the Transylvania Jewelry Festival. In 2026, her solo exhibition at A-Galerii’s WINDOWS and the group exhibition Genius Loci 7 at Reigi Pastoraat will take place.
MAIA HELLMAN (SWE)/ ANNE REINBERG
ACTIVATED BY LIGHT
Three materials, one process. Each disperses differently.
The tiles on show have been subjected to sandblasting, a process that accelerates what time does slowly. The abrasion strips back the surface, revealing how different materials yield at different rates: glass becomes thinner and thinner with each stroke, growing more transparent as it weakens; ceramics, seemingly solid, remains porous and receptive; iron holds its ground longest.
Among them, clay occupies a particular position. Unlike metal, which can be melted down and reborn, fired clay cannot return. It has no second life as raw material. Once transformed by heat, it exists only as what it is, accumulating damage, holding memory, moving in one direction only. Ceramic is perhaps the most honest of materials: irreversible in the truest sense.
Sandblasting does not destroy these objects so much as hasten their becoming, pushing each material further along a path it was already on. Corrosion is not an ending, it is a process that was always already underway.
Maia Hellman is a Swedish-Portuguese maker working across ceramics, metal, and glass. She holds a BFA in Metal Art from the University of Gothenburg and is currently completing a master’s degree in Craft Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Her artistic practice focuses on moments when materials reveal their true nature through wear, time, and processes of transformation. Influenced by both Scandinavian and Baltic contexts, her work is grounded in careful observation and hands-on making.
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FOLDS AND TRACES
The jewellery in the exhibition FOLDS AND TRACES is shaped through folding, marking, and the application of heat, both working methods that generate surface relief and structure. Departing from strict repetition, the emphasis shifts toward the material’s own response within the process of making. The exhibition considers the point at which control meets chance, and how their interplay gives rise to form. The works are not cast, but folded and formed entirely by hand.
Anne Reinberg is an Estonian jewellery artist. She graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2005 with a BA in jewellery and blacksmithing. With an earlier background in computer graphics, she has been exhibiting since 1996. Her work combines silver, wood, and crystals, revealing the patterns embedded in natural structures and the mathematical principles that shape them. Reinberg is a member of the Estonian Metal Artists’ Association.
Exhibitions in A-Galerii are supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment
KEIU KOPPEL (EST)/ MICHAEL SCHOORL (NLD)
On Friday, January 23 at 6 p.m., exhibitions by Keiu Koppel (EST) and Michael Schoorl (NLD) opened in the windows of A-Gallery.
ON THE VERGE
Jewellery artist Keiu Koppel’s new works are inspired by houses of cards. Through poetic, masterfully crafted objects, the exhibition raises the question of how long the more and less real constructions created by people can endure. In the exhibition ON THE VERGE, the notions of instability, longing, and tension take form.
Value and a sense of safety last
as long as nothing unexpected happens.
As long as the table is level.
As long as no one breathes too deeply.
Collapse is not a bang.
It is the moment a hand hesitates in mid-air.
When everyone understands,
but no one wants to believe yet.
How long does what we call real life hold?
And what happens when we stop playing along?
Could the same hunger arise—
the one we have avoided at all costs?
Keiu Koppel (1988) is an Estonian jewellery artist who graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts, specializing in jewellery and blacksmithing. Her work is marked by a versatile use of materials and a distinctive visual language that brings together poetic ideas and the form of wearable jewellery. Koppel’s pieces combine traditional craftsmanship with a contemporary artistic approach. She lives and works in Tallinn, creating both wearable author jewellery and conceptual works.
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FOLDING FACADES
In FOLDING FACADES, Michael Schoorl presents a series of sculptural house-like forms installed in the windows of A-Galerii. Like a second skin, houses shape how we live, how we withdraw, and how we allow others in. Schoorl treats architecture as a language through which individuals and societies speak to the world, using domestic structures to reflect ideas of freedom, intimacy, and belonging.
The works that fold with precision into nearly solid blocks of metal function as interactive conversation starters. At first glance they resemble architectural miniatures, yet their shifting scale and weight quickly disrupts that assumption. The sculptures are forged from steel sheets, brazed together and connected by carefully crafted hinges. Schoorl draws an analogy to books: objects that can contain endless stories, conceal or reveal meaning, and are often judged by the cover. Each piece is designed to be taken from the shelf, explored, and folded back into a compact form. Layers of paint and patina create tactile surfaces that support the narrative of each piece.
Schoorl uses material and technique not to present fixed truths but to move between fiction and reality, much like memory shifts through retelling. By embedding stories into everyday-like objects, Folding Facades proposes emotional value as an alternative to disposability, encouraging care, repair, and attentiveness to the objects and built environments.
Michael Schoorl (1997) is a Dutch artist working with metal, wood, and architectural-scale sculptural forms. His recent work centers around houses and depictions of buildings that explore how craft, memory, and narratives can create emotional attachment to environments. Schoorl studied metal art at HDK–Valand, University of Gothenburg. In 2024 he additionally took a course in the Estonian Academy of Arts and soon will return there for a residency. He has exhibited across Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany. Alongside his artistic practice, he runs De Nietsfabriek, a studio dedicated to sculptural fabrication, restoration, and custom work in wood and metal.
Exhibitions in A-Galerii are supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.