Jaanus
Samma

Jaanus samma, Fool, Installation View, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin, 2026

was born in Estonia in 1982. He lives in works in Tallin (EE)
Samma’s research-driven practice spans installation, sculpture, drawing, and textiles, combining rigorous inquiry with subtle humor and semantic subversion. Samma’s work critically engages with queer histories, public space, cultural tradition, and the mechanisms through which history, ethnography, and museology construct meaning. He is particularly recognized for his sustained reflection on gender, sexuality, and nationality, often locating queer subjectivity within seemingly heteronormative environments. Drawing on fieldwork, oral histories, and archival research, Samma reclaims symbols, narratives, and spaces that have historically excluded sexual representation. Working across media and often in collaboration with craftspeople and specialists, Samma also approaches exhibitions themselves as a distinct artistic form.
2005–2009 Estonian Academy of Arts, MA Fine Art
2001–2005 Estonian Academy of Arts, BA Graphic Arts
2007 University Paris 8 Saint-Denis
2006 École Supérieure des Arts et des Industries Graphiques, Paris
2026 Fool, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE)
2026 Kolga elajad / Creatures of Kolga, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn (EST)
2024 Elisarion, with Elisar von Kupffer, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn (EST)
2023 Iron Man, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn (EST)
2022 Still Lives on National Motives, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Tallinn (EST)
2021 Otherness, Desire, the Vernacular, with Carlos Motta, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn (EST)
2021 Museum Display, CFAlive, Milan (IT)
2021 Pattern, Tartu Art House, Tartu (EST)
2021 Folklore, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE)
2018 Outhouse by the Church, curated by Eugenio Viola, Nomas Foundation Messages, The Aine Art Museum, Tornio (IT)
2017 Dialogue. Mare Vint and Jaanus Samma, curated by Anu Allas, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn (EST)
2017 Divider, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn (EST)
2016 Three Works at a Canteen, ex-canteen factory Kalibr, Minsk (BLR)
2016 Not Suitable For Work. A Chairman’s Tale, Museum of Occupations, Tallinn (EST)
2015 Unrest, Gotlands Konstmuseum, Gotland (SE) NSFW. A Chairman’s Tale, Estonian pavillion at the 56th
2015 Venice Biennale, Venice (IT) 2014 The Hair Sucks Sweater Shop, Tallinn Art Hall Gallery, Tallinn (EST)
2013 Chairman. The Opera, Kunstraum B, Kiel (DE) 2011 AAFAGC (Applied Art for a Gay Club), März Project Space, Tallinn (EST)
2009 In a Park, Draakoni Gallery, Tallinn (EST)
2008 War, Vaal Gallery, Tallinn (EST)
2005 Swimming-pool, EKA Gallery, Tallinn (EST)
2026 Modern Life for Home and Farm. Jaanus Samma & Małgorzata Mycek, BWA Warszawa, Warsaw (PL)
2026 Utopia. The Right to Hope, Curated by Andreas Beitin, Sebastian Mühl, Dino Steinhof, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (DE)
2026 Spiegel im Spiegel. Encounters Between Estonian and German Art from Lucas Cranach to Arvo Pärt, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn (EST)
2025 The Tree of the World, Curated by Eugenio Viola, 24th Paiz Art Biennial, Paiz (GT)
2025 Spiegel im Spiegel. Encounters Between Estonian and German Art from Lucas Cranach to Arvo Pärt, Die Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden State Art Collections, Dresden (DE)
2025 Utopias of the present, together with Maciej Nowacki, curated by Romuald Demidenko, Krupa Art Foundation, Wroclaw (PL) 2024 GOSSIPMONGERS, BWA Warszawa, Warsaw (PL)
2024 Still Lifes of National Motifes, Estonian National Museum, Tartu (EST)
2024 As Though We Hid the Sun in a Sea of Stories, HKW, Berlin (DE) 2023 Biennial of Textile Art (BAT), Santiago (CL) ROBERT GRUNENBERG 2023 Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana (SI)
2023 Kaunas Bienniale, Kaunas (LT) 2023 Survival Kit, Latvian Centre of Contemporary Art, Riga (LV) 2023 Momentum 12: Together as to Gather, gallery F15, Moss (NO)
2023 Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn (EST)
2023 In loving hands, Combining the Past and the future, Vana-voromaa kultuurikoda, Voru (EST)
2023 IMAGINE 10 Unrealized Projects, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE)
2022 The Latvian Collection, Malmö Art Museum, Malmö (SE)
2022 Growing Out? Growing Up? Contemporary Art Collecting in the Baltics, Zuzeum Art Centre, Riga (LV) 2022 Statecraft, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (GR)
2022 My Bitter Sweet Frankenstein Body, Titanik gallery, Turku (EST)
2020 On Adornments, Temnikova & Kasela with Ivan Gallery, Spike, Berlin (DE)
2020 Roots and Ruins, curated by Rael Artel, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn (DE) 2020 II Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA), Riga (LV)
2020 Wunderkammer, Latvian Museum of Photography, Riga (LV)
2019 Body Works, curated by Romuald Demidenko and Gosia Golinska, State Art Gallery, Sopot (PL) 2019 De stad, de stad, curated by Bas Hendrikx, Garage, Rotterdam (NL)
2019 Post Winter Mixtape, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn (EST) 2018 Based on a True Story, MeetFactory, Prague (CZ)
2018 The State is not a Work of Art, curated by Katerina Gregos, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn (EST)
2018 There and Back Again, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (FI)
2017 Queerly Classed, curated by Yevgeniy Fiks and Olga Kopenkina, Franklin Street Works, Connecticut (US) 2017 Dedication, Exploitation & Haute Collaboration, curated by Tobias Kaspar, Silberkuppe, Berlin (DE)
2017 Failure/Afterlife, curated by Annika Toots and Merilin Talumaa, Tallinn Photomonth, Telliskivi Creative City, Tallinn (EST)
2016 You Talkin’ to Me?, curated by Barbara Seiler, Barbara Seiler Gallery, Zürich (CH)
2016 Conservatism and Liberalism, Sculpture Quadrennial Riga (LV)
2016 Masters Peasants Peasants Masters, BWA Sokól, Nowy Sacz (PL)
2016 Kunstnerbøger – Vildt Voksende, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (DK)
2016 Kilometre of Sculpture, curated by Anna Virtanen, Rakvere (EST)
2014 Feeling Queezy?!, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn (EST)
2014 Side Effects II, Ancien Musée de Peinture de Grenoble, Grenoble (FR)
2014 Is This The Museum We Wanted?, Tartu Art Museum, Tartu (EST)
2013 Pebbles in the Mouth, Gallery Augusta, Helsinki (FI)
2013 Köler Prize Exhibition of Nominees, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn (EST)
2013 Afterlives of Gardens, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn (EST)
2012 SVEART, St Vincent, Valley d’Aosta (IT)
2012 Corporal Punishment, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn (EST)
2012 The Exotic, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn (EST)
2011 Untold Stories, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn (EST)
2010 Rauma Biennale Balticum 2010, Rauma (FI)
2009 Luleå Art Biennial, Luleå (SE)
2008 Exposition d´Art Contemporain Balte De trop de réalité, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (FR)
2008 Plaisirs de l’imagination, Château de Tours, Tours (FR)
2008 Doings or Not, Ljubljana City Museum, Ljubljana (SI)
2007 14th Tallinn Print Triennial Youth exhibition Seapainters Club, Tallinn (EST)
2007 Biennale de la Jeune Création Européenne, Montrouge (FR)
2006 Hämarus/Twilight, V&V Gallery, Vienna; GSLI, Florence (IT)
2024 The DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program
2022 Visual and Applied Arts Endowment Annual Awards
2016 Kristjan Raud Art Prize
2013 Köler Prize 2013: Grand Prix, Köler Prize 2013 & Public’s Choice Award
2012 Tallinn 6th Applied Art Triennial: Prize of the Estonian Artists’ Association
- 2026There are Many Different Stories, but Somehow, Nobody Talks about it,Shameema Binte Rahman, echo gone wrong, 14. January
- 2024 Jaanus Samma: kunst innustab vaatama ajalugu uue nurga alt, ERR, 6. February
- 2023 Queer Stories in Folk-Inspired Rugs: An Interview with Artist Jaanus Samma, Justė Litinskaitė, echo gone wrong, 18. August
- 2022 Rahvuse sünd diktatuuri vaimust, Janar Ala, Postimees, 11. November
- 2022 Otherness, Desire, the Vernacular. An interview with Carlos Motta and Jaanus Samma, Arterritory.com, 25. January
- 2021 Jaanus Samma. Artist Interview,Vienna Contemporary Magazine, 16. June
- 2021 Homonatsionalismi kriipiv visioon, Terje Toomistu, Sirp, 14. May
- 2020 Juurte otsingud, Johanna Jolen Kuzmenko, Sirp, 16. October
- 2020 Jaanus Samma, the many gay histories of Modern Eastern Europe,Agata Pyzik, Conceptual Fine Arts, 10 June 2020
- 2020 Kunst sinu ümber. Peidetud lugude jutustaja Jaanus Samma, Kaarin Kivirähk, Sten Ojavee, Postimees, 3 April, 2020
- 2018 Jaanus Samma at Nomas Foundation, Artforum, by Ida Panicelli, October
- 2018 Artist profiles: the names you should know at Armory, The Art Newspaper, March 8
- 2017 Jaanus Samma at Temnikova & Kasela, Art Viewer, March 6
- 2017 Jaanus Samma: mõistest „geinäitus” piisas, et tekitada vastuseis, Eesti Päevaleht, February 4
- 2017 I’m more of an artist than an activist. Interview with Jaanus Samma, Echo Gone Wrong, January 11
- 2016 Best of 2016: Our Top 15 Exhibitions Around the World, Hyperallergic, December 30
- 2015 A Chairman’s Tale in Venice, in Arterritory, July 2
- 2015 Jaanus Samma on His “NSFW” Estonian Pavilion in Venice, Artinfo, June 29
- 2015 We Need to Have Freedom of Love, Kunstkritikk, May 7
- 2015 Liigne sõnakuulelikkus on ohtlik. Intervjuu Jaanus Sammaga, Müürileht, May 4
- 2015 The Venice Questionnaire 2015 #13: Jaanus Samma, Art Review, April 21
- 2015 Jaanus Samma: ei ole ühtset tõde, tõdesid on nii palju, kui on näituse vaatajaid, ERR Kultuur, March 31
- 2015 In The studio: Jaanus Samma, Art in America, March 2