Kumu will host Chromatic Drift, Kristi Kongi’s most ambitious solo exhibition to date

Kristi Kongi’s (b. 1985) solo exhibition Chromatic Drift, opening in the Great Hall of the Kumu Art Museum on 22 May, creates an immersive sensory and spatial experience. Central to this experience is colour, a hallmark of Kristi Kongi’s oeuvre. Extending beyond the canvas, colours and motifs have spilled onto the museum’s floor, walls, windows and into the outdoor space. The exhibition, curated by Ann Mirjam Vaikla, is one of the highlights of the Kumu Art Museum’s anniversary year.

Chromatic Drift is Kristi Kongi’s most ambitious solo exhibition to date, presenting works created specifically for this display. The first part of the title, “chromatic”, refers, in the artist’s words, to an abundance of colour, while “drift” stems from a poetic mode of being within unmapped territory.

According to the curator, Ann Mirjam Vaikla, the paintings presented in the exhibition emanate a certain darkness, in which pure spectral colours have been replaced by more earthbound tones, such as purple, brown and deep burgundy. “These landscapes, seemingly ablaze, speak to the aesthetics of the Anthropocene, where collective perceptions of both ecological unease and an uncertain sociopolitical situation have become, through the artist’s perceptual world, a reflection of the contemporary world,” said Ann Mirjam Vaikla.

According to Kadi Polli, Director of the Kumu Art Museum, the Great Hall has only rarely been entrusted with new productions. Among Estonian artists, Jaan Toomik in 2007 and Kaido Ole in 2012 have created works specifically for the Great Hall. “The collaboration with Kristi Kongi during Kumu’s anniversary year is particularly significant. Organising an exhibition that, in addition to the 1,000-square-metre Great Hall, also extends to Kumu’s inner courtyard and windows presents an extraordinary creative opportunity and challenge for both the artist and the museum,” noted Kadi Polli.

Kristi Kongi’s artistic practice is characterised by processuality and the continual shifting or dissolution of boundaries. The artist’s journey began in 2010, when she employed a realistic mode of representation to convey personal memories, while also demonstrating a sensitivity to site-specificity. Over time, Kongi’s practice has moved towards increasingly abstract approaches, with a sustained focus on working with colour, light and space, and the interplay between them. Her oeuvre encompasses works ranging from traditional oil paintings and watercolours to painted spaces and installations, driven by an interest in and commitment to monumental painting. Over the past decade, her work has been influenced by numerous visits to Mexico.

The exhibition is accompanied by a book in which Kristi Kongi’s work and artistic practice are interpreted by Sara Garzón, a Colombian-born curator based in the United States, the Estonian art historian and critic Sirje Helme, and the exhibition’s curator and editor of the book, Ann Mirjam Vaikla. The book contains extensive visual material on the works created for the exhibition, as well as on the artist’s multi-year creative process, both in her studio in Tallinn and during her residency at Cerámica Suro in Guadalajara, Mexico.

As part of the exhibition’s public programme, guided tours of the exhibition by Kristi Kongi and Ann Mirjam Vaikla will take place on Saturday, 23 May. The opening programme will conclude with an artist talk with Kristi Kongi, moderated by the curator and gallerist Lilian Hiob-Küttis. The open workshop Colour Vitamin invites participants to create a work that brings more colour into their world. Drawing on the themes of the exhibition, the public programme also seeks to explore connections between visual language and perceptual experience. For example, on the evening of 4 June, visitors can take part in a movement workshop led by the dance artist Christin Taul, on 3 September an exercise in slow looking with the artist and creative therapist Rave Puhm, and on 24 September a creative writing workshop with the bibliotherapist Berit Kaschan.

Kristi Kongi has participated in numerous exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad. Her solo exhibitions have taken place at the Tallinn Art Hall, Tartu Art House, Kogo Gallery in Tartu, Karen Huber Gallery in Mexico City, and many other venues. Kongi’s works are held in the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, the Tartu Art Museum, the European Central Bank and the European Patent Office, as well as in private collections around the world. Since 2017, she has served as an Associate Professor and Head of the Painting Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Curator: Ann Mirjam Vaikla
Exhibition design: Mari Hunt and Grete Daut (MARIHUNT Architects)
Graphic design: Brit Pavelson
Exhibition installation manager: Tõnis Medri
Technical assistant: Kaarel Eelma
Coordinator: Anastassia Langinen
Public programmes: Maria Lota Lumiste

With the support of: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, AkzoNobel, Proplastik, Lincona, Estply, Raitwood and Cerámica Suro