The title of Juss Piho's exhibition "Above and Below" becomes a play on words – Piho's works are exhibited throughout the two halls of the gallery on two floors, inviting you to take a look both above and below - where the gaze leads one to experience the immeasurable nature of inspiration and the gravity of the materializing world.

Juss Piho is a recognized Estonian painter whose paintings are comparable to short stories. His way of imagining, especially his way of thought is intriguing and ever-present in his creation throughout time. Some artists move through narratives to reduce form, image and color, first appealing to the viewers’ abstract emotional associations, but in Piho’s case it is the opposite. Excerpts from non-existent stories, familiar objects and people are the source of his techniques and his creativity, urging him to compose surfaces, to convey color temperatures and precise details to the subtlest degree.

Looking at Piho's works, it seems as if his idea has halted before painting, something reminiscent of something or someone, intertwined with the artist's current vision. Thus, real-life images become a second reality in paintings - parallel worlds that really exist but separately from each other. The details in Piho's paintings are in contact with the characters in the picture, provoking to find reasons why they should be in the same scene with each other or whose living room, kitchen, garden corner or trains of thought have found their way to the artist's painting studio. Whose lamp is in the corner of the picture or whose dog is on the side of the street or who lives in the house that man is passing by – more questions arise - what is he thinking and where is he going, who is he?

When enjoying Piho's paintings these questions arise as if by themselves and that is why his art is so fascinating. Stopping us for a moment, searching for answers, and believing that the imaginary world is rich at the expense of the real and vice versa, combining the two is only a matter of thought and fulfillment to experience life and one's possibilities more fully, even more metaphysically.

People passing by and people stopping could be the core definition of the characters that Piho paints and something that the viewer is invited to identify with. For art to do its work and live its meaning, there must be room to identify with it, to find hints of what catches the eye and stops the rest of the world, provoking different and deeper conversations than usual - this time throughout the entire Haus Gallery, both above and below.