Tütar Gallery (EE) is a contemporary art gallery based in Tallinn, Estonia. At Foto Tallinn, Tütar’s presentation is based on an installation by Denes Farkas – first developed for Reykjavik’s Sequences Festival – exploring systems of preservation under fragile conditions. Drawing on literary references and photographic research in global seed banks (Svalbard, Lebanon, St. Petersburg), the work reflects on how societies attempt to maintain continuity amidst war, climate crisis, and historical rupture. Here, the installation is reinterpreted as a flexible wall-based display composed of over 50 A4 photographic prints, emphasising temporality, vulnerability, and material immediacy.
Vasli Souza
Vasli Souza (NO) is a contemporary photography gallery founded in 2013 by Marcio Souza from Brazil and Rasmus Vasli from Norway. The gallery presents work that explores human emotions, relationships, and everyday life, often with a subtle sense of humor or uncanniness. It aims to create a diverse programme through both local and international artists, with a focus on discovering talents that have previously gone under the radar. Since its opening, the gallery has presented artists such as Ren Hang, Zanele Muholi, Karolina Wojtas, Sami Parkkinen, Pixy Liao, Yushi Li, Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen, AdeY, and Nelli Palomäki.
At Foto Tallinn 2026, Vasli Souza’s presentation combines new and unseen works by Hilla Kurki and Taavi Rekkaro in a shared exploration of memory and touch, meditating on our relationship to images. In Clay Diaries, Kurki builds a living archive through shared moments, where friendship itself becomes the main outcome of the work, beyond just its subject. Meanwhile, Rekkaro’s ‘objects’ rethink photography as something to be touched, where closeness becomes part of the experience. Together, these projects probe at connection in everyday moments, creating a dialogue between distance and intimacy.
The Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki
The Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki (Kuva) (FI) is dedicated to artistic education and research at the Bachelor’s, Master’s, and doctoral levels. The Time & Space Art department gathers those interested in photography. As an educational institution, Kuva is committed to fostering close connections between the artistic communities of Helsinki and Tallinn.
As part of Foto Tallinn, Kuva showcases three talented students working with photography – Erkki Huilla, Diana Luganski and Ananya Tanttu – all of whom are soon to graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki.
uniarts.fi/en/units/academy-of-fine-arts
SICSIC (FI). Established in 2010, SIC is a contemporary art space based in Helsinki. In 2022, the gallery moved to its current location at the old Malmi train station. SIC is maintained by artists from the association Musta Saukko ry. The members of SIC are artists Olli Keränen, Aino Lintunen, Maija Luutonen, Sauli Sirviö, Niina Tervo, Timo Vaittinen, Laura Wesamaa, Bogna Wisniewska, and producer Eino Viitamies.
SIC aims to show high-quality exhibitions with international appeal, offering an alternative to local museums and galleries. Its programme focuses on creating new ways of working together and changing the ways art galleries operate, ensuring artists are paid fairly for their work. Alongside a schedule of solo and group shows by Finnish and international artists, SIC also provides summer residencies, free exhibition spaces, and financial support towards production and exhibition costs.
TOBE Gallery
TOBE Gallery (HU) is dedicated to contemporary photography and photo-based art, offering a platform for artistic dialogue and experimentation. Founded in Budapest in 2013, the gallery was established to create opportunities for Hungarian and Ibero-American artists whose practices reflect a strong commitment to innovation, critical thinking, and high-quality visual expression. Its programme brings together both recognised and emerging talents, encouraging interactions across diverse generations, perspectives, and cultural contexts. Through curated exhibitions and collaborations, TOBE Gallery supports artists’ development while engaging audiences in thoughtful reflection on contemporary image-making. Since 2017, the gallery has expanded its international presence by participating in respected art fairs, festivals, and professional platforms, strengthening cross-border connections and contributing to global conversations on lens-based media.
At Foto Tallinn 2026, TOBE Gallery showcases the work of Kincső Bede, highlighting her sensitive exploration of identity, memory, and generational continuity. Bede’s artistic practice bridges personal and collective histories, addressing the subtle tensions and emotional distances between generations. Through symbolic objects, staged images, and intimate narratives, her work reflects on inherited identities and the evolving role of tradition in contemporary life, making it especially relevant in the context of cultural and familial transformations. The presentation features a selection of images from the series Three Colours I Know in This World, a large-format photograph from the Anikó series, as well as a self-portrait that exemplifies the artist’s character.
Temnikova & Kasela Gallery
Temnikova & Kasela Gallery (EE) was established in 2010 by Olga Temnikova, an artist with previous experience as a gallery director, and Indrek Kasela, a creative entrepreneur, philanthropist, and film producer. The gallery provides local and international representation for established and emerging artists from the region, including Estonia, Latvia, and Finland. The core of the gallery’s programme is conceptual contemporary art with a strong social message. For the past 15 years, Temnikova & Kasela has presented a regular schedule of exhibitions in its Tallinn space, working closely with artists and collectors, and playing an active role in regional and international art scenes.
Here, Flo Kasearu’s Thaw and Sigrid Viir’s Time Use of Useless Time are shown in dialogue. Kasearu’s melting ice creams capture a moment of slow collapse, reflecting the fragility of small businesses and pointing to overproduction and ecological imbalance. Viir’s chromogenic compositions approach time as a structured system, referencing the slogan “Eight hours for what we will” to question how contemporary life divides labour and leisure. Together, these works address time as something both material and abstract. Elsewhere, Krista Mölder’s installation focuses on perception and the photographic image, exploring the tension between stillness and movement, and revealing what lies beneath the visible surface. Through reflection, layering, and spatial shifts, she creates moments of uncertainty, where the image appears to flicker between presence and absence. This approach emphasises intermediacy: states of transition that resist fixed meaning.
Punctum Gallery
Punctum Gallery (EE) is dedicated to contemporary art – focusing on photography, but embracing all artistic media. Its programme is guided by an understanding of contemporary photography as a reflection of society today, platforming artists whose works investigate pertinent themes. For Punctum Gallery, the idea behind a picture, the message, the research, and the artistic practice are all highly valuable.
At Foto Tallinn, works by Latvian artist Kristine Krauze-Slucka and Estonian artist Joosep Kivimäe both engage with the construction and perception of space through geography, material processes, and technological systems. Krauze-Slucka works are drawn from two separate series. The first, Mapping Tensions: Cartography of Distorted Boundaries, explores the fluidity and fragility of borders through photographic assemblage, using expired silver gelatin paper . The second, Solastalgia, consists of unique black-and-white silver emulsion prints: abstract, geographical spaces where gradual processes of disappearance and distancing are illuminated. In his work, Kivimäe examines the infrastructures shaping contemporary life, from the Baltic Sea as a transport corridor to the geometries of propulsion and efficiency. His projects reflect on how technological systems organise movement, perception, and the relation between human and machine.
Maksla XO
Maksla XO (LV) is one of Riga’s leading contemporary art galleries, set in a functionalist building designed by Teodors Hermanovskis in the city’s Art Nouveau district. Established in 1999, the gallery focuses on contemporary and emerging art from Latvia, including painting, sculpture, and works on paper. Its programme spans a wide range of styles, from traditional representation to socially-engaged practices. Founded and curated by Ilze Zeivate, the gallery represents key figures in Latvian contemporary art, including Helēna Heinrihsone, Ivars Heinrihsons, Ieva Iltnere, Kristaps Ģelzis, Jānis Mitrēvics, Ilmārs Blumbergs, Ģirts Muižnieks, Kristaps Zariņš, Leonards Laganovskis, Vineta Kaulača, Paulis Liepa, Arturs Bērziņš, and Roman Korovin, alongside collaborations with international artists such as Marko Mäetamm, Bodo Korsig, Stephen Wilks, and Erik Mattijssen.
At Foto Tallinn, MAKSLA XO brings together works by two seemingly different yet fundamentally similar artists: the photograms of British photographer and researcher David Penny, and the diptychs of Latvian photographer and painter Roman Korovin. Penny’s works unfold from an initial, exploratory question: what happens when making a photograph using a single wavelength of light? Korovin’s works, meanwhile, are based on the repeated use of the same motif with only minor variations in light, framing, or movement. These repetitions form sequences in which new meanings emerge through subtle shifts of tone and rhythm – the artist describes them as “the shortest stories ever,” with each pair or set marking a beginning and an end. Ultimately, the exposition is about space, emptiness, and tonality; the poetics and stillness of the object, the boundaries and intersections between science and art.
Helsinki Contemporary
Helsinki Contemporary (FI). Located in the heart of Finland’s capital, Helsinki Contemporary exhibits distinguished contemporary art by emerging and established artists from Finland and abroad. Working internationally – with a strong curatorial emphasis – the gallery prioritises long-term collaboration with its artists; employing a range of artistic media, artists with an ambitious, in-depth approach form the core of the gallery’s programme. Helsinki Contemporary was founded first as Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary in 2007, continuing in its current form 2011. Currently, the gallery represents 28 Nordic artists.
Helsinki Contemporary’s display at Foto Tallinn highlights the work of Finnish artist Emma Sarpaniemi. For Sarpaniemi, places, found objects, pieces of clothing and accessories often provide the starting point for her performative self-portraits. Through photography, she explores the notion of womanhood and challenges conventional definitions of femininity. The shutter release cable, often clearly visible in her photos, becomes a symbol of the subject’s control over their own image. In her work, the characters Sarpaniemi depicts often represent parts of the artist’s own identity, bridging reality with the imagined.
Kogo Gallery
Kogo Gallery (EE). Founded in 2018 in Tartu, Estonia, Kogo Gallery is known for its bold, experimental programme and commitment to supporting young and mid-career artists, currently representing seven contemporary artists from the Baltic region. Each year, the gallery presents several solo and group exhibitions, collaborating with artists and curators from the Baltics and beyond, as well as fostering dialogue on pressing contemporary issues through a programme of exhibitions and public events. Kogo has developed a strong international presence through exhibition exchanges and participation in art fairs such as Liste Art Fair Basel, Basel Social Club, Art Brussels, viennacontemporary, and Esther.
Here, Kogo Gallery presents a collaborative stand featuring Kristina Õllek (Estonia) and Līga Spunde (Latvia), merging photographic and 3D-printed sculpture with digital artifice. Õllek’s research-driven practice investigates aquatic ecologies and the ethics of deep-sea mining; her inkjet prints on aluminium and honeycomb structures respond to the discoveries of “dark oxygen” produced by manganese nodules. In parallel, Spunde’s “hyper-dimensional” forms – such as the 3D-milled Still Life with Computer Mouse – materialise the psychological toll of technological rhythms and modern lifestyles. While Õllek explores bodily entanglements with the natural world and Spunde probes symbolic subcultural codes, both engage technology as a vital tool and subject of critique. Together, their works navigate the fluid boundaries between organic geological matter and digital systems, highlighting how technology and economy foster imbalance and exploitation within both the human psyche and the environment.
