The painter Laurentsius, real name Lauri Sillak, has previously also performed in the art scene by pairing up with another artist, doing so in the shadow of his solemn sounding pseudonym. His former student, Katrin Piile, has, on the other-hand, never felt the need to be known by her diminutive nickname; nevertheless, Kata is exactly the one who is known as one of the inhabitants of Metropol, the mecca of the modern art underground. In this exhibition both of them will be performing under their real names, changing their alter egos to exhibits, as if switching the places of subject and object.

Such objectification reaches the organs, deep inside to the guts, blood vessels and bones. Lauri Sillak’s business card – photorealism finished in an academistic way – is manifested in the form of restricted skulls and paper-thin plastic hearts; Katrin Pille's trickster type of hyperrealism goes, in turn, even further by notionally invading the brain directly through the spine and the aorta. If we add a sliver of their recent joint work, i.e. kitschy roses set into a baroque style frame, we get the end result of an aesthetic experience which evokes awe and proves that mastery in painting is still highly valued.

Lauri Sillak (1969) received his art education at the Estonian Academy of Arts, majoring in painting. He has been participating in exhibitions since 1993. From 2000–2010 he worked as a lecturer at the painting department of the Estonian Academy of Arts; he has been awarded numerous awards, including the Konrad Mägi Medal and the Kristjan Raud Art Award. His last exhibition was the retrospective Dancing with Reality at the Hyvinkää Art Museum, in Finland, with some of the works having been exhibited there now also on display at the Haus Gallery.

Katrin Piile (1987) graduated in 2010 from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a major in painting, although she was already taking part in exhibitions before that. She lives and works in parallel in Tallinn, Edmonton and Vancouver, and has participated in the performances of art groups Non Grata and C.N.O.P.T in New York, Louisville in Kentucky, Berlin and Tallinn. Her most important personal exhibitions have so far been in the Culture Factory Polymer and at the Pärnu City Gallery Artists House.

Lauri Sillak and Katrin Piile's exhibition Kata & Laurentsius. Anatomic Affects. will remain open at Haus Gallery until 6 October.