Young Baltic painters confront fear in Tallinn finalist exhibition

For the first time, the finalists’ exhibition of the Young Painter’s Prize, the Baltic region’s largest competition for young artists, has opened at Tallinn Art Hall’s Lasnamäe gallery, ERR reports. Nearly all the young artists address the theme of fear.

The competition was launched in 2009 by Lithuanian artist Vilmantas Marcinkevičius to demonstrate the vitality of painting. It has expanded over the years and has now reached Tallinn for the first time. A jury selected 25 finalists from 117 applications.

“The artists were selected in three categories: painting technique, originality and contemporaneity. In other words, how the work reflects contemporary painting and society as we understand it today,” said Giedre Miller, organiser of the Young Painter’s Prize, or YPP.

Fear emerged as this year’s recurring theme. The young artists are frightened by war, either directly or indirectly, and also feel uncertain about the current political situation and the environment.

“I think it is very understandable why. My work focuses on how people change within a system that controls them. I think this question is highly relevant to many people,” said Latvian painter Ligita Grigorjeva.

Kaido Ole, an Estonian painter and the Estonian patron of the Baltic Young Painter’s Prize, said the depiction of flesh stood out in the work of young Estonian painters.

“Perhaps it is also a sign of the times: you do not depict war directly, but there is this skinless flesh, people are vulnerable, and this is my interpretation, but the theme is in the air. It has been chosen in several cases. It is surprising how many artists depict some kind of pinkish mass, with the background emerging from it. Previously, that pinkish mass was even more like flesh. Perhaps it means something,” Ole said.

The Baltic Young Painter’s Prize fund is financed mainly by private capital. The winner will be announced on September 18. In October, the exhibition will travel from Tallinn to Riga and then to Klaipėda.