Uru Valter’s Solo Exhibition
Curator: Siim Preiman
On Friday, 14 February, Tallinn City Gallery will open Uru Valter’s Solo Exhibition, showcasing works by Erik Hõim, Ats Kruusing, and Eke Ao Nettan. Featuring installations, paintings, video, and performance, the exhibition is both nationally romantic and detachedly cynical. In today’s world, is there anything truly timeless – something without shadows, something inherently pure and good?
The exhibition is curated by Siim Preiman.
Uru Valter is the name that artists Erik Hõim, Ats Kruusing, and Eke Ao Nettan have given to their shared creative entity – one that primarily comes to life through process and a collective state of flow. The only proof of its existence is found in the works that emerge from this current: sculptures, videos, photographs, paintings, and performances. Their collective practice is defined by a theatrical sensibility, an appreciation for simple values, a touch of national romanticism, and a commitment to craftsmanship. There is also a distinct youthful lightness – a way of articulating ideas without fully binding them to definition.
What can one hold on to in a time when traditional roles and hierarchies have lost their meaning? When even the things that once felt certain are no longer fixed? What path should a young man take – one who, in the past, would have been born and died in the same place, dedicating his life to hard physical labour, but who now has the freedom to pursue whatever his heart desires? In preparation for their exhibition at Tallinn City Gallery, Uru Valter immersed themselves in these questions – reading August Mälk, travelling across Estonia, touching the sea, smelling the wind, and reflecting deeply. The result is an exhibition structured like a spiral, coiling in on itself like a seashell. Facade becomes interior, and the work returns to the hands of its creator.
“Sometimes I feel like I am a little bit Uru Valter myself,” says Siim Preiman, curator of the exhibition. “At the very least, I resonate with that longing – for something deeply felt, yet impossible to define. There is a paradoxical nostalgia for a time you never lived, a sentiment that seems common today. In my view, Uru Valter engages with folklore and archetypes not as an act of escapism or disillusionment, but with a distinct sense of purpose. Their work embodies a kind of unspoken ‘poetry of labour’ – a benevolent reworking of eras and mediums, reminiscent of the practices of Neeme Külm or Jass Kaselaan.”
The exhibition will be on view at Tallinn City Gallery from 15 February to 27 April 2025.
Thanks to: Tiit Pruuli, Estonian Maritime Museum, Laura Jamsja, Mattias Veller, orchestra Pritsu Brass, Meel Paliale, Martin Mänd, Johanna Vaiksoo, Sonja Sutt, Siim Nettan, Anumai Raska, Johannes Luik, Eleftheria Eirini Kofidou, Rein Nettan
Uru Valter (formed in 2023) is an artist collective that emerged at the Estonian Academy of Arts, consisting of Ats Kruusing, Eke Ao Nettan, and Erik Hõim. Their first public appearance as a group took place at the Pražské kreativní centrum, where they presented the durational performance Fields in May, later re-enacted at Tallinn Art Hall’s Lasnamäe Pavilion during the finissage of the exhibition Hold Me Tender. The collective draws inspiration from its immediate surroundings, driven by self-initiated practices, post-irony, and sample culture. In their collaborative creation, each member brings their own individual artistic foundations to the table – only to let them go in the process of making the work.