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).