Today, the restaurant is filled with the large-format works and massive figure compositions (with some smaller colourful plant motifs placed in between) of Juss Piho, a freelance painter and renowned book illustrator.

In Juss Piho’s paintings time seems to have been frozen, if only for an instant. The viewer is invited into the world of characters created by the artist, to seemingly unknown rooms which become more familiar the closer you get, reminding you of something about yourself or someone else, as if hidden in the deepest corners of your memory. These pictures provoke one to create stories and discuss what took place before or what will happen after the artist, by raising his brush to the canvas, has halted the images. Piho’s paintings are guileful, aloof in their strangeness while familiar in their simplicity. Slowly they start speaking to us, weaving stories, pleasantly haunting us through dynamic groups of people – a lady in a long white dress, or a bird or a cat on the corner of a tablecloth. Large clean intersecting surfaces in the background of Piho’s paintings give each thought some space, just like his characters give a reason to each story and course to each feeling.

Juss Piho (1963) has been actively exhibiting his works since 1987. He is a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association and has won several awards, mostly for his book illustrations, with his 2001 international book illustrations triennial from Japan deserving special recognition. His works can be found in museums as well as in private collections. Though a large part of Juss Piho’s creations consist of drawings and book illustrations, today he can be predominantly considered to be a painter, and a very good painter at that. He is one of those who remains engraved in your memory long after you have seen his creations, urging you to keep coming back to them, as if they were your personal memories.

In the restaurant Art Priori, art is a companion, friend, and partner with whom to communicate and lock eyes, in such a way that it touches something, changes something for the better, making it deeper and clearer.

Preview the works on Art Priori's website and visit the exhibition right at the restaurant (Olevimägi 7, Tallinn). Art Priori is opened from Tuesday to Thursday 17.00-23.00, on Fridays and Saturdays 17.00-00.00