Since moving to Charleston in 2020, artist Riivo Kruuk has wasted no time in making a name for himself — his most recent pop up exhibition, held last month at his North Charleston studio space, Studio Union, completely sold out. That’s due partly to the fact that Kruuk has been putting his art all over town through his awesome mural paintings, and in part due to his totally unique subject matter.
“Being an artist or becoming one, it’s about being almost delusional and totally resilient,” Kruuk said in an interview at his studio. “Being an artist isn’t about being safe, and it’s not guaranteed. It’s about making stuff that other people haven’t seen yet, bringing stuff into the world and finding ways to connect.”
His biggest mural to date is a 65 foot tall painting on a building in Romania, though you can find a few in Charleston too: at Odd Duck in Park Circle, for example, as well as on the side of White Gallery in Mount Pleasant, the gallery which will host his upcoming solo show Tradition, opening March 23.
Combining old and new
The paintings and drawings in Tradition are inspired by Kruuk’s Estonian heritage and the country’s vibrant youth culture, he said. That duality of old and new is driven home by Kruuk’s smart combination of luscious oil painting, grounded in realism, and spray painted moments that feel more improvisational and rebellious in comparison.
The choice to work with two distinctly different materials points to a duality that exists in Kruuk’s identity.
“Exploring my Estonian heritage in my work, it came from a place of wanting to learn more about it,” he said. “My mom spoke Estonian, we would speak it at home. … But then I’m also an American. There were these traditional foods that we would have during certain holidays that my other friends didn’t celebrate, or clothing that would get sent from grandparents overseas.
“So it came from a place of wanting to explore that, and then asking, how do I modernize it or make it more suitable for a contemporary art world? How can I make it feel current and still have those nods to folk stories?”
Honoring the culture
After nearly a year working towards this solo exhibition, playing around with new motifs like animals to tell Estonian folklore stories in his paintings, Kruuk decided to call the show Tradition.
“I had done an interview with a news outlet in Estonia, and they were like, he works very politically. I was surprised by that at first, I didn’t think going the folklore route was political.”
As an example, the interview highlighted a recent drawing where Kruuk depicts a Gopnik figure poking at a hedgehog.
“I drew this figure called a Gopnik poking at a hedgehog, which is a representation of Estonia. It’s this big Russian figure poking at the little tiny animal, but the animal is not backing down. After that experience, I realized, and it makes more sense now as I’m making more work, that it is political,” Kruuk explained.
“With the occupations and invasions that Estonia has gone through, through centuries, they try to wipe the culture away. Estonia is very resilient and still maintains that strong culture. I realized at some point, it’s almost my job, being that I’m in a safer place than artists over there, to honor that culture, to put it on the map, to make it known.”
Tradition opens March 23 at the White Gallery at 709 Coleman Blvd. in Mount Pleasant. The gallery will host an opening reception at 6 p.m. March 23. Learn more on Instagram at @riivosuave.
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