As a curatorial project, Haus Galerii has initiated a major exhibition of contemporary Estonian artists based on a new concept, with the intention of establishing it as an annual tradition.

The exhibition brings together a collective statement on what matters to our artists at this particular moment in time. It opens a dialogue between art and the public around themes that the artists themselves have chosen to bring into focus, reflecting the spirit and essence of our present time and space.

The exhibition was assembled through an open call. Nearly 50 professional artists from different generations responded to the invitation. The call was open to visual art without significant restrictions regarding technique or format.

Artists were invited to submit 1–3 works either recently completed or created during the past few years that represented something important and meaningful to them, reflecting a significant personal or worldview-related position. The works had not been previously exhibited. Artists were also asked to provide a few sentences contextualising each work and explaining its significance within the framework of the exhibition.

From among the submitted works, nearly 60 were selected for the exhibition. Together, they express the current artistic positions of Estonian artists, their differences and commonalities, and the unique collective portrait of the present moment that emerges from them. The texts accompanying the works, written by the artists themselves, form an important part of the project and are published both on the gallery’s website and in the exhibition space.

Haus Gallery has been active and consistent on the Estonian art scene since 1997, making it one of the country’s oldest and most experienced art galleries. Our role has been to promote the appreciation of Estonian art and to develop the local art market, representing the high professional quality of Estonian art. We have brought together art history and the present, with our exhibition programme always remaining closely attuned to the pulse of its time. Over the course of three decades, the gallery has curated and organised hundreds of exhibitions and numerous art auctions, helping to shape a broader understanding of the value of Estonian art and the criteria by which it is assessed.

The concept of the present exhibition is rooted in the gallery’s long-standing experience and in the conviction that art maps our emotional history and reflects what is taking place in society through the personal yet universally resonant perspectives of individual artists. Art offers powerful visual messages for us to contemplate and discuss together, while also providing a way to examine our shared emotional attitudes and worldviews.

The public is invited, together with Haus Gallery and the artists, to experience one possible view of the present moment — to immerse themselves both in individual works and in the overall picture created by the exhibition as a collection of art. We invite viewers to reflect on what we depict in our art today, what touches us, and WHY. The gallery deliberately leaves these conclusions uninterpreted, allowing the viewer greater freedom of thought and interpretation to analyse our world here and now through ART.

Together, we are recording the artistic messages of 2026 in the exhibition spaces of Haus Gallery, and we look forward with anticipation to 2027 and to the new collective artistic portraits that will emerge in the years to come.

Curator and exhibition designer: Piia Ausman