DANCE OF DEATH, STRANGE PICTURES AND THINGS

For decades, Jüri Mildeberg has captivated viewers with his masterful technique and boundless, odd or whimsical imagination. At the heart of his art are peculiar characters – ornamented skull-faced figures, distorted humans, and fantastical creatures – brought to life in fairy tale-like or grotesque scenarios. Such visions unfold once again in this solo exhibition, centered around timeless scenes of life and death, and all the oddities that lie between or intertwine with them.

Dance of Death, Strange Pictures and Things presents a large number of pictures and sculptures created in various techniques and formats. These pieces intertwine the absurdity of life and death with a poetic world of fantasy filled with bizarre beings – and, of course, by things. In this exhibition, one might encounter Death dancing or talking with a swan, skeletal and fly agaric mushrooms, red-nosed masks that stare at the viewer, and a little child riding on Death’s back. As the title suggests, everything is quite odd, and this dance of death bursts with life and revelry.

Mildeberg’s captivating Dance of Death is a reinterpretation of an old motif – one that is not solely about representing the moment of death or meditating somberly on mortality, but also about celebrating life. In Mildeberg’s work, life thrives in all its glory, even in the shadow of Death. A parallel can be drawn to Bernt Notke’s famous Dance of Death, located in Tallinn’s Niguliste Museum, where dancing skeletons are surrounded by blooming greenery and scenes of everyday life, symbolizing the continuation of life. Through the dance of death, we, the living, are reminded to cherish life as long as it flows.

True to Mildeberg’s artistic spirit, the works in this exhibition embody profound humanistic thought. Simultaneously, they radiate a childlike (though never childish) creative joy and upbeat humor, spiced with a touch of the grotesque and a hint of the macabre. This vibrant spectacle is balanced by a warm, earthy color palette, lending the exhibition a harmonious calm and timeless elegance.

Jüri Mildeberg, also known as Mildebergius (b. 1965), entered the art scene in 1989 with his first exhibition. Since then, he has enriched both the Estonian and international art worlds with his diverse creations – ranging from painting, graphic art, and illustration to sculpture and ex libris design. Mildeberg can be considered one of the most important contemporary Estonian artists, widely known for his distinctive style. His work has reached broad audiences, including through animated interludes created for Estonian Television (ETV) in 2004–2005. He has illustrated numerous magazines and books, including Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost. 1991, Andrus Kivirähk’s Old Barny, or November. 2020, and Leelo Tungal’s award-winning book Children’s Taste. 2023. Together with Finnish children’s author Teppo Vuoristo, he also created the Hempa series: Hempa – the Gorilla of Korkeasaari. 1999, and Hempa and the Beastly Union. 2002. His enchanting artistic world also adorns the window shutters of the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre’s main hall.

Mildeberg is a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association, the Estonian Graphic Designers' Association, and the Estonian Section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY Estonia).

Text: Lola Annabel Kass, Haus Gallery’s art historian