LIVES AND WORKS IN TEL-AVIV, ISRAEL

Tenno (Tennopent) Sooster, the son of famous Estonian artist Ülo Sooster, is a Member of the Union of Estonian Artists. Since 1990 he has been involved in book illustration, editing and graphic design. He started working as an independent artist in the engraving workshop of the Tel Aviv House of Artists in 2000, where from 2018 he works as director and teacher of Artists Engraving Workshop. His graphic art include various printmaking techniques such as letterpress (linoleum and silkscreen, exotic - mokulito - a mixture of engraving and woodcut, monoprint); gravure: etching, chine-colle, mezzotint, reserve, etc., as well as collage, assemblage.He works with wide range of themes from the world of insects and fish to pseudo-historical illustration, abstraction and surrealism. 

EDUCATION

1972-1977. Workshop studio of Dmitry Lyon, Yuri Sobolev, Tõnis Vint.

1978. Animation courses at the Soyuzmultfilm studio. 

1979-81. Higher two-year courses for directors and scriptwriters at the USSR GOSKINO, Animation Department 

EXHIBITIONS 

2024 – Group exhibition. Self Portraits of Israeli artists. Moshe Castel Museum, Israel.

2023 – Group exhibition “Letters that built the world”. Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Kiev, Ukraine

2021 – Group exhibition “HalfWay”. Hebrew alphabet project, Artists’ House, Tel Aviv, Israel

2019 – Group exhibition at the XX International Graphic Biennale. Varna, Bulgaria

2019 – Group exhibition “Trails: Curriculum Serpentibus”. The Vabaduse Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia

2019 – Group exhibition. The Marchionni Prize, Short List. MAGMMA Museum, Italy

2018 – Group exhibition “ART on PAPER.  Naima Art House, Jerusalem, Israel

2015  –  Solo exhibition at Gallery of Paide. Paide, Estonia.

2015  – Solo exhibition “Falsification of History”. Vabaduse Gallery. Tallinn. Estonia

2014  – Solo exhibition “Unius phantasia” Põltsamaa Museum. Põltsamaa, Estonia

ARTIST VOICE

Triumphant video installation in the age of computer art, I consciously moving towards "obsolete" means of creating artwork. The process of realization in concrete material led me to the desire to work with more traditional materials - paper, ink, pastel, as well as the graphics. Ink and paper allows me to feel on a molecular level the durability of the material, the quantity and concentration of the ink, and the possibility of achieving the desired result with precisely calculated movements. Therefore, each stroke or dot on the paper individualizes the work and gives it a unique character. I am also interested in techniques and motifs, and often in ancient compositions and masters in combination with a contemporary paradoxical view of art. My images illustrate metaphysical opposition, inviting you to a more intellectual game.