News

On September 9-12, (AV17) Gallery participates in the POSITIONS contemporary art fair in Berlin for the fourth time and this year (AV17) Gallery booth presents the latest works of Tauras Kensminas and Rimantas Milkintas. However, besides Lithuanian artists representation (AV17) Gallery is placing additional focus on presenting creative aspirations of young artists from abroad. This year at the POSITIONS art fair one of the (AV17) Gallery’s represented artists, Laura Põld, was nominated for the Claus Michaletz Prize and as a winner, the artist has prepared a separate booth with an installation of personal works.

The Secco-Pontanova Foundation aims to connect Germany and Eastern European countries through cultural exchange. Hence, the Claus Michaletz Prize objective is to promote the young artists from Eastern Europe and encourage them to continue to express themselves internationally at the beginning of their artistic careers. This prize was first presented at the 2020 POSITIONS Art Fair.

As part of the Claus Michaletz Prize, Laura Põld is showing her newest works under the title “Dirt is a record. Soil is an archive”. The exhibition consists of Põld’s ceramic sculptures and objects, watercolours and textile works. The installation is designed by Kati Saarits and accompanied by a text by Lou Sheppard. In her multifaceted practice, Laura Põld uses traditional techniques to talk about issues such as land use in the anthropocene and the coexistence of species.

Laura Põld’s work deals with a situated and subjective sense of territory and place. The Estonian artist seeks to combine specific histories or qualities of a given location with her materially sensitive work. Her practice weaves together natural, context-specific, crafty and interdisciplinary elements. Laura Põld has been awarded with a number of prizes and scholarships such as the annual prize of The Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2014), Köler Prize Grand Prix (2016), the grand prize of The Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2018), the ISCP New York studio grant (2019) and the Claus Michaletz Preis (2021). She studied ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA), painting at the University of Tartu (MA) and sculptural conceptions and ceramics at the University of Art and Design Linz (MA). Põld is currently based in Tallinn and Vienna.