September 2024
‘Joint Double’ exhibition opens at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design.
Read about the exhibition: https://admin.etdm.ee/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Teinetapp_A2_veebi.pdf
April 2024
Kermik contributed to the lecture series ‘When is Design?’ (Millal on disain?) at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design.
Watch on-line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgAMPhG61ns
December 2023
Dates have been confirmed for Kermik’s forthcoming 2024 exhibition at the Estonian Applied Art and Design Museum. The exhibition titled ‘Joint Double’ (12.09. – 30.11.2024) will consider scenarios for cross-regional chair design and local traditions of joinery with a focus on the Western Estonian islands and Suffolk, United Kingdom.
J. Kermik (2007 – 2023) Moon Cycle Weave: Restoration of the Randwall Chair. Ash frame, woven cane seat.
October 2023
Estonian National Museum, Country Chairs Symposium, 20 October 2023.
Kermik was an invited contributor to the event accompanying the major exhibition of Estonian country chairs. The exhibition titled ‘Four Feet on the Ground’ featured over 100 unique chairs, each telling a story of the period in which they were made.
Three-seater garden bench (early 1900s), Saaremaa.
April 2023
The Yale Centre for British Art, Isokon Symposium, 21 April 2023.
The event hosted by the YCBA to commence preparations for the first Isokon retrospective in the US, explored aspects of the company’s creative output and the emergence of its iconic aesthetic from London’s cultural and modernist melting pot. Kermik’s presentation focused on Isokon furniture projects by Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer which strove to engage with design opportunities offered by the plywood industry.
February 2023
Yrjö Kukkapuro’s ‘Magic Room’ opens at Espoo Museum of Modern Art (EMMA), Helsinki.
The exhibition, which marks the occasion of Kukkapuro’s 90th birthday, presents furniture and art objects in thematically arranged installations referencing the concept of the ‘Magic Room’ developed by Kukkapuro in the 1980s.
Kukkapuro and Kermik: Private view of the ‘Magic Room’ at EMMA, 28 February 2023. Kermik, who considers Kukkapuro his design mentor, became associated with him and the Finnish furniture company Avarte during the late 1980s.
January 2023
Winter activities in the studio include processing and archiving archaeological and fieldwork findings from the Island project.
J. Kermik (2023) The shard. Pattern reconstruction of Micko’s plate.
January 2023
Highlight of the January 2023 additions to Kermik Design archive was the Red Chair. The chair was made by Kermik as part of the workshop skilling during his studies at the State Art Institute of Estonia.
J. Kermik (1978) Red Chair. Pine, lacquer paint.
August 2022
Findings from the site of the Island project (see June-July-August 2021) offer opportunities for object and material studies.
J. Kermik (2022) RECONcile. Oxidized brass cylinder, 130 Ø x 170.
January 2022
Firewood Spoon. Ash (240 x 68 x 28), Suffolk. Formed by the tree itself to heal the wound of the dead branch.
December 2021
Ahead of the approaching winter solstice, Interior Architecture students of the Estonian Art Academy display lighting designs developed as part of the LIGHT|BODY|SPACE project. The project concept and supervision by J. Kermik.
Lighting design and image: L. M. Tõru.
October 2021
Estonian cultural newspaper ‘Sirp’ published an article to correct some inaccuracies in the treatment of design history recently published by the newspaper.
September 2021
As part of the ‘Suffolk: Joint Double’ project, Kermik undertook a study-day at the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket. Museum collections include examples of furniture, household objects and agricultural machinery produced in East Anglia.
June-July-August 2021
Field- and groundworks in preparation for a building project on an island in the Baltic. Works included mapping the site with its archaeological interest-areas, profiling of seasonal wildlife, plants and trees.
February 2019
Annually, at the start of the year, Estonian Publishers’ Association and National Library together with Estonian Graphic Designers’ Union and the Association of Estonian Printing Industry hold the competition of ‘25 Best Designed Estonian Books’. Included in the selection of the 25 best of 2018 was ‘New Pain: Young Estonian Design in the 1980s’ (design by Stuudio Stuudio). Congratulations to Agnes and Mikk from Stuudio Stuudio!
December 2018
‘New Pain: Young Estonian Design in the 1980s’ (exhibition and publication) received the Honourable Mention at the Annual Awards Ceremony of ‘Estonia’s Best Interiors and Design’.
What was intriguing in the case of ‘New Pain’ was precisely the refracting or breaking of the modernism paradigm, which was expressed in a restlessness seen in the work of those engaged in Estonian design, interior architecture and architecture, sometimes a sense of being out of control. Certainly, addressing that paradigm shift meant a major challenge, but it is important to deal with the recent history; it helps make better sense of the current cultural situation.
Carl-Dag Lige, architecture critic, member of the awards jury.