Starting June 5, 2018, “Running with Wolves” – an international illustration- and doll exhibition from St. Petersburg – will be exhibited at the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre, and will remain open until June 13, 2018.
Every year, the international exhibition “Doll Time” – an event of remarkable proportions – is held in the spacious halls of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists. The 21st of these was on display in Russia’s cultural capital until just recently: May 23rd. Over the last few years, the ArtBalkon balcony in the grand exhibition hall has been reserved for the internationally-renowned doll exhibition curator Tatyana Mokhryakova, who uses it to exhibit her top-tier projects. This year, however, the balcony exhibition transformed into an entirely independent project that involves the cream of the crop of doll artists (and also illustrators) from six different countries. Naturally, Estonia was likewise involved.
Since inspiration for the project came from the “Running with Wolves” illustration exhibition of Baltic states artists – one which included the works of several Estonian illustrators – the two projects became tied closely, and the same name was used for the St. Petersburg exhibition.
The Estonian Children’s Literature Centre’s Stairway Gallery and attic display cupboards could not fit all the works that were open to the public in St. Petersburg, so only a selection of the pictures and dolls are featured. The current exhibition is an extention of the werewolf pieces already on display in the Centre: it appears that the subject of werewolves (and wolves in general) is a highly popular one among artists, regardless of state borders.
The illustrations of six different artists are hung in the Centre’s Staircase Gallery: works by Sveta Aleksejeva (Estonia), Appias Albina (Lithuania), Ilvita Didrihsone (Latvia), Anna Silivonchik (Belarus), Yelena Bryzgalova and Olga Filippova (Russia).
Works by eighteen doll artists are on display in the Centre’s Fairy Tale Attic: Anna Davidenko and Jüri Mildeberg (Estonia), Nadezhda Kravchenko (Kazakhstan), Ksenya Shinkovskaya (Lithuania), Krista Kipure (Latvia), Tatyana Gomza (Belarus), Natalya Beltyukova, Olga Gerr, Marina Glebova, Maya Khokhlova, Irina Yablochkina, Natalya Krutova, Ika Kulyukina, Andrei Nikitinskikh, Natasha Pobedina, Tatyana Serykh, and Maria and Svetlana Zabrodskaya (Russia).
Additionally, the Centre’s Fairy Tale Attic currently houses the doll and graphic arts exhibition “The Spirits Who Surround Us” by the renowned Austrian-Russian doll artist Tatyana Gurina.
