Vano Allsalu

Artist's country of origin: Estonia

Vano Allsalu (b 1967) graduated in 1991 from the Painting Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has participated in exhibitions since 1984 and has been a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association, Estonian Painters’ Association and Tartu Artists’ Union since 1992. He has taught painting as the holder of the Chair of Painting in the University of Tartu, as an assistant professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts and as a lecturer in the Sally Stuudio Art School. In 2013–2019, Allsalu was the president of the Estonian Artists’ Association and is currently its vice president. His works are in the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, Akzo Nobel and Bank of Estonia, as well as in private collections in Estonia and abroad. Allsalu has described the situation into which he has positioned himself as a painter with the following remark: “There are only elusive, non-existent rules – and even those are just mine. This is a good feeling.” Art historian Eha Komissarov comments on Vano Allsalu´s works as follows “Already with his first paintings Allsalu introduced corrections into the principles of the Estonian school of painting and released the colour, as it were. His paintings are disharmoniously beautiful and offer untraditional colour compositions, which nevertheless are not difficult to accept by the viewer.”