Brenda Purtsak "Distant veils"

Artrovert Gallery 24.09.–1.11.2025

Tue–Sat 12–18

Opening 24.09, 18:00

Purtsak's artistic practice has reflected themes related to human biological body, birth, death, family and kinship. The exhibition at hand combines all themes mentioned above through the lens of contemporary painting with the keywords of desacralized Christian art, compassion and self-sacrifice.

The exhibition addresses people as cultural artifacts and draws parallels between works created especially for the exhibition and well-known historical artworks such as Michelangelo's Pietà sculpture and Madonna and Child paintings. The desacralization of these symbols allows the artist to address a wider range of personal and cultural meanings that are not associated with religion.

Paintings, ceramic works and charcoal drawings are displayed within Brenda's exhibition. The ceramic series derive from My Little Pony toy series that she remembers from her childhood. They consist of colorful ponies with unique symbols on the sides of their bottoms called "cutie marks." These marks represent the unique talent of each pony and its connection to and the relationship with it. The ponies, people, and charcoal drawings in Brenda's paintings may at first glance seem unfinished and somehow collaged together. However, human memories are mostly not crystal clear or possible to freeze to take a deeper look the same way as photography or film enables to do. As time passes new layers are added or we might discover some that we had not realised existed before.

Curator: Liisi Kõuhkna

Graphic design: Rainer Kasekivi

Support and thanks to: Kultuurkapital, Artrovert Galerii, Brenda perekond, Maria Elise Remme, Keithy Kuuspu, Ian Simon Märjama