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Angela Maasalu

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August Sai

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Helen Tago

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Johannes Luik

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Katrin Piile

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Kärt Hammer

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Liis Tedre

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Liis Vares

Mihkel Maripuu artist portrait

Mihkel Maripuu

Neeme Kulm Annika Haas

Neeme Külm

Portree Juris

Siiri Jüris

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Simon Sebastian Laumann

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Tõnis Saadoja

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Urmas Lüüs

On Thursday, September 10th at 7 pm, August Sai will open his solo exhibition “In the Skin of Paint” at Tütar gallery.Art historian Triin Metsla notes in the exhibition text: “I looked at August’s paintings on the wall and realised that I am completely saturated with different semiotic codes. /…/ August, on the other hand, emphasised that content and art-historical references are not important. They are source material to be manipulated and worked with further. What matters is the formal aspect and technical mastery: to learn from the masters, but then to move beyond them.This is where painting begins for him: the technical process itself becomes the concept. With sufficient humility before history, faith, and morality, he moves onto the technical plane. Through the right pigment, light, magnification, fear, and personal effort, he gets close enough to an old master. Then, suddenly, he stops and destroys it. Pure imitation would be naïve, uncritical, and dull, like academic painting.Perhaps what matters is getting close enough in order to then move away. To get beneath the skin of the painting and then choose one’s own path."August Sai (1983) is a painter whose work is in constant dialogue with the Western pictorial tradition. His paintings often form series that bring together visual references to recurring patterns and conventions in visual culture, which Sai reworks in new ways. Through his particular use of paint and its material qualities, personal experience becomes layered into the work.Sai chooses his subjects primarily for their formal qualities, drawing on images from art history, film stills and staged photographs. He contrasts the illusion of a meticulously painted image with the materiality of the painted surface or the structure of its visual language. This reflects the ambiguity of seeing and the conflict between two pairs of eyes. One pair seems to belong to him alone, while the other looks through the lens of culture and inevitably sees not what is there, but what it believes to be there.August Sai graduated with a BA in Painting from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2010 and took part in the FLACC Workplace for Visual Artists residency programme in Belgium that same year. His recent solo exhibitions include “The Story of Paint” at Hobusepea Gallery (2020) and “Twenty Cases” at Draakon Gallery (2018).

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Exhibition by August Sai will open in Tütar gallery

In July and August, we will only be open to visitors by prior arrangement.
For enquiries and private visit arrangements, please contact us at +372 5623 7001 or <a href="mailto:info@tutar.ee">info@tutar.ee</a>
We will be back with our autumn programme and regular visiting hours in September. For the latest updates, please visit our website and follow us on social media.

From 2 to 5 July, Tütar gallery will be participating in the second edition of Riga Contemporary, presenting works by Mihkel Maripuu.
Booth: 1.15

From 9 to 12 July, Tütar gallery will present works by Angela Maasalu, Kärt Hammer, and Urmas Lüüs at the KiKuMu Festival in Jäneda. We warmly invite you to experience the artworks and enjoy a summer weekend with family and friends.

Tutar front Roman Sten Tonissoo

Summer break

Tütar gallery is pleased to participate in the second edition of Riga Contemporary, an international contemporary art fair taking place from 2–5 July 2026 at Hanzas Perons in Riga, Latvia.  Organised by Kim? Contemporary Art Centre in collaboration with Riga City Council, Riga Contemporary brings together more than 40 galleries from over 15 countries and presents works by more than 100 artists from across Europe, Asia, and North America.  Under the curatorial direction of Kim? Contemporary Art Centre and Jeffrey Rosen (MISAKO &amp;amp; ROSEN, Tokyo; NADA), the fair fosters dialogue between emerging and established galleries while prioritising collaboration, accessibility, and international cultural exchange. Alongside gallery presentations, visitors can explore an extensive public programme. Admission is free with prior registration.  Tütar gallery will present works by Mihkel Maripuu. Booth 1.15  See you in Riga!

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Riga Contemporary 2026

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matter that (em)bodies XIII (2020/2026)

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one again after the fall I (2026)

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In the Skin of Paint #8 (2026)

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In the Skin of Paint #9 (2026)

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March. Pale Purple (2022)

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October. Silver Grey (2021)

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E6 A3133 Mihkel Mariupuu Tutar galerii 2026 photo Paul Kuimet

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VEXARIS (2026)

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Jumping in (2025)

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2025 12 20 Neeme Kulm Joosep Kivimae 7 scaled

Self-portrait with two birds (2025)

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2025 12 20 Neeme Kulm Joosep Kivimae 22 scaled

PIN / location on the map (2025)

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Nothing Blooms Always – After Still Life No.2 (2025)

Katrin piile tutar gallery sept 2025 photography alana proosa 89 scaled

Katrin piile tutar gallery sept 2025 photography alana proosa 90 scaled

Katrin piile tutar gallery sept 2025 photography alana proosa 94 scaled

Katrin piile tutar gallery sept 2025 photography alana proosa 93 scaled

Traces from series “The Life and Death of Mr. N: Bourgeois Spaces by Urmas Lüüs” (2024)

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Stupidity and meaning are so difficult to tell apart. – Toomas Paul When I met August last week, I was certain that I was the least suitable person to write an accompanying text for his exhibition. There was a book by Peter Sloterdijk on top of his cupboard, he told me about Flannery O’Connor – whose admirer I have been for a long time – and followed it with David Foster Wallace’s famous fish anecdote. Yet he avoided the relationship to religion and Western Christian philosophy, which I had hoped would form the basis of our entire conversation and of this text. August repeatedly stressed the importance of seeing through the neutral eye of nature rather than the eye of culture, without (over)interpreting every symbol, icon, and index. I found myself wondering where one could possibly find a writer without the “cultural” eye. I looked at August’s paintings on the wall and realised that I am completely saturated with different semiotic codes – my undergraduate obsession with the Northern Renaissance, religion, being a quarter-believer, and so on. All that ran through my mind were Christian narratives: Dürer, Luther, Memling, Sittow, etc. August, on the other hand, emphasised that content and art-historical references are secondary, serving primarily as material for further exploration and transformation. His focus lies instead on form and technical mastery: learning from the masters and then moving beyond them. Above all, he is interested in the process itself. August showed me countless pigment tests stored in boxes, along with screens and lighting setups he had developed to study old paintings more closely. I began to see these experiments as a kind of search for truth. Perhaps, before allowing himself to play with historical material, he first needed to pay his respects to it, to quite literally get under its skin. As the conversation went on, however, I began to suspect that he had already resolved the narrative side of his work for himself and simply wasn’t sharing it with me. I trusted my own instincts enough to know that techne could not be the only thing at work here. That same evening, he sent me something by Flannery O’Connor, and I remembered her once describing herself in words to this effect: “I am a Catholic peculiarly possessed of the modern consciousness.” I found myself thinking something similar about August. And skin, somehow, holds it all together. This is where painting begins for him, with the technical process itself becoming the concept. With a certain humility towards history, faith, and morality, he turns to technique. With the right pigment, light, magnification, fear, and his own effort, he gets close enough to an old master. Then, suddenly, he stops and destroys it. Mere imitation would be naïve, uncritical, and dull, like academic painting. Perhaps what matters is getting close enough to then pull away. Getting beneath the skin of the painting before going your own way. But perhaps I am completely wrong. I left in a light drizzle, thinking that I would probably write this text and then let it go. Let the author die, let the text live a life of its own. The main thing is not to do injustice to the artist’s honest method with some elaborate curatorial burst of words that revels in its own beauty, only to wilt by the end of the day like a ditch flower in an elegant designer vase. 18 August 2026 somewhere high above Central Europe Accompanying text: Triin Metsla Graphic design: Ott Metusala

August Sai "In the Skin of Paint"

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