Angela Maasalu "Happy House"
Angela Maasalu
Happy House
08.03.-20.04.2024
Opening 7 March at 5pm!
Happy House
08.03.-20.04.2024
Opening 7 March at 5pm!
We have the pleasure of inviting you to the opening of Angela Maasalu's exhibition "Happy House" on Thursday, 7 March at 5 PM. The paintings in the exhibition were mostly made during her three-week residency in Viljandi.
The exhibition centres around an earlier work from 2020 called "Take Take Everything!", which depicts a female figure with a cut up chest, representing situations where verbal communication and language fail us, where it feels like it would almost be easier to literally somehow physically express our feelings and worries – to open up, cut up the body.
Maasalu has been living in London since 2013, and an artist residency in Estonia immediately meant working around her relationship with the homeland. Thinking about various things, worries and concerns she has escaped from and why. It feels quite strange to physically be in-between places in increasingly polarising world. Estonia is multifaceted – containing happiness as well as misery that often gets brushed under the carpet; stories of national pride and xenophobia, worries about our birth rates whilst being in the top for intimate partner violence reports in Europe.
''Happy House'' consists of stories about happiness as well as great fear, home and homesickness. Individual sorrows and joys get more clarity through conversations with other people. "Happy House" is an image of Estonia in a twisted mirror, but also happy reflection at the same time. It tells stories about the variety of what happiness can mean to us, fears big and small to hide in from.
On the opening night of the exhibition there will be an artist tour at 5.30 PM.
Angela Maasalu (b. 1990) is an Estonian painter living and working in London. She studied painting and art history at the University of Tartu (BA 2012), painting at Estonian Academy of Arts (MA 2015) and has also completed a course at UAL Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (2013-2014). She has had solo exhibitions in Estonia, the UK and Greece.
Thanks: Lilian Hiob, Marten Esko, Gerda Sülla, Anu Raud, Viljandi Art School, Sakala Centre, Rüki Residency, Rüki Raam
Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Viljandi Town Council
The exhibition will remain open until 20 April.
The exhibition centres around an earlier work from 2020 called "Take Take Everything!", which depicts a female figure with a cut up chest, representing situations where verbal communication and language fail us, where it feels like it would almost be easier to literally somehow physically express our feelings and worries – to open up, cut up the body.
Maasalu has been living in London since 2013, and an artist residency in Estonia immediately meant working around her relationship with the homeland. Thinking about various things, worries and concerns she has escaped from and why. It feels quite strange to physically be in-between places in increasingly polarising world. Estonia is multifaceted – containing happiness as well as misery that often gets brushed under the carpet; stories of national pride and xenophobia, worries about our birth rates whilst being in the top for intimate partner violence reports in Europe.
''Happy House'' consists of stories about happiness as well as great fear, home and homesickness. Individual sorrows and joys get more clarity through conversations with other people. "Happy House" is an image of Estonia in a twisted mirror, but also happy reflection at the same time. It tells stories about the variety of what happiness can mean to us, fears big and small to hide in from.
On the opening night of the exhibition there will be an artist tour at 5.30 PM.
Angela Maasalu (b. 1990) is an Estonian painter living and working in London. She studied painting and art history at the University of Tartu (BA 2012), painting at Estonian Academy of Arts (MA 2015) and has also completed a course at UAL Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (2013-2014). She has had solo exhibitions in Estonia, the UK and Greece.
Thanks: Lilian Hiob, Marten Esko, Gerda Sülla, Anu Raud, Viljandi Art School, Sakala Centre, Rüki Residency, Rüki Raam
Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Viljandi Town Council
The exhibition will remain open until 20 April.