Artist: Mariann Metsis

Title: Maalid 2020

Curator: Niina Ulfsak

Venue: Hoib Gallery, Tallinn

Hoib gallery is proud to present Maalid 2020by Mariann Metsis (b. 1991, Tallinn),the London-based artist’s first solo exhibition in Estonia. 

Having grown up in a post-Soviet country, Metsis has spent the last ten years in London, the epicentre of late capitalism. Reflecting on the coming together of these two experiences, the artist creates narratives through layers of reality, mirrored in the way Metsis uses paint – each new layer haunted by the former. Looking at the outcomes of two opposing historical narratives, Metsis’ paintings give form to the ghostof communism’s failure that still haunts the West. Based on her own lived experience, Metsis’ work displays an understanding of time in a non-linear way. In her paintings trauma, the ludicrous acceleration of ideologies and the struggle against uncertainty are all tied together by a deep love for art. Metsis’ visual language explores art historical symbols, memoriesand itemsalienated by capitalism. Blending into layers of unknown landscapes, depicted objects vary from English Greyhounds to belts found on eBay. Her paintings show a synthesised kind of realness, pointing to the absurdity of progress in the severely escalated moment of 2020.

Mariann Metsis is a painter living and working in London. She studied at Central Saint Martin College of Art & Design, London; The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; and obtained a BA in Fine Arts from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. Her work has been featured in various shows, including just as when the nightat Light Eye Mind; Paintings for the Temple of Loveat Cob Gallery and Cities Methodologiesat Slade Research Centre. Her writing has been published in Manhole Journal.