Kaido & Marko - Design Jet 5000

Kaido Ole and Marko Mäetamm are without doubt this years’ most talked about artists in Estonia: their joint paintings and installations project “John Smith: Marko und Kaido” is currently showing at the Venice Biennial until early November and officially represents Estonia.

John Smith is a fictional conceptual persona who encompasses both Ole’s and Mäetamm’s personality traits, work style and technique. The artists are having fun creating a mystical world which features absurd humour, a parody of socialistic utopia and the little guy’s idealistic dreams. John Smith, a German émigré of Polish heritage, finds himself living in Rapla and teaching art. He chances upon Kaido & Marko building a spaceship in their backyard.

The works exhibited in Venice consist of a series of four large paintings which in the context of this gigantic exhibition liaises well with the overall theme of this biennial - the cosmos. For this exhibition at Gallery Viviann Napp, Ole and Mäetamm photographed the biennial series, had the images digitally printed and hand embellished with illustrations from the Venice catalogue.

Ole and Mäetamm, who excel in their technical perfection when painting in oil, do not forget to give tribute to their medium, the “printing press”, when they switch genres to graphic art, and name the exhibition after the printer, Design Jet 5000. Of course, this is an ironic tribute but the new project must be interpreted as one of self irony and self parody. On the one hand, Design Jet 5000 has been especially created to demystify the painting project and to serve as a premiere presentation for the public in Estonia. On the other hand, this project works as a critical auto-reflection. The new format portrays the same work from a fresh perspective. One unique oil painting gives way to the multiplicity or mass measure of graphic art. In my opinion the smaller size of the “print” now truly emphasizes the comic strip aspect of the John Smith project.

With the aim of becoming an art gallery with a regular schedule of exhibitions, La Galerie Passage has been restructured after extensive renovations. The exhibition Design Jet 5000, launches a new gallery in Tallinn- Gallery Viviann Napp. Pressetext

Kaido & Marko - Design Jet 5000
Kaido Ole, Marko Mäetamm
Kurator: Harry Liivrand