On Thursday, October 23rd at 6 pm, Tõnis Saadoja will open his solo exhibition “Present Continuous” at Tütar gallery.
Writer Aare Pilv remarks in the exhibition’s accompanying text: “Tõnis Saadoja’s previous exhibitions have explored the mediation of light perception and the density of memory – how to distill the lights that reside in memory through multiple filters, as well as how different painting techniques both enable and embody this concentration.
Tõnis Saadoja’s new exhibition, “Present Continuous”, in a sense continues the theme of light and time while also making an experimental, decisive turn. This series was painted en plein air, directly from nature under the open sky, each work constrained by the shifting natural light within a few hours. Consequently, these paintings are exercises in concentrating on the moment – investigations into how long a moment can last, and what the equivalent of a sustained moment looks like on canvas.
On one level, these paintings document a performative artistic act; on another – and more essential – level, they are meditations on what the present means and how long it endures, or, in other words, when the present becomes complete.”
Tõnis Saadoja (1980) is a painter whose work explores various facets of realism and seeks connections between historical and contemporary painting. His main themes revolve around the relationships between memory, place, and meaning. His works are characterized by a conceptual structure and a pursuit of a technically distinctive form tailored to the imagery. Saadoja’s practice primarily consists of cohesive series, where a chosen motif is varied across a sequence of paintings.
Accompanying text: Aare Pilv
Graphic design: Ott Metusala
Tõnis Saadoja’s exhibition at Tütar gallery will be open until December 7th and is free to the public.
