Oliver Soomets

Oliver Soomets was born in the city of Tartu on May 17th, 1980, in Estonia. In his childhood and adolescence he was involved in world-class competitive ballroom dancesport. From 1999 he studied architecture and urban planning at the Estonian Academy of Arts and graduated in 2005 (MoA). During his studies, he briefly worked as an architecture journalist writing commissioned articles for mainstream media and participated in various staging and musicals as a dancer.
 
In parallel with his studies, he founded and led the Estonian Breakdance Association (EBL) and the Estonian Young Architects Union (ENAL), organizing the international street dance competition Battle of Est (BOE) until 2015. After school he worked for 10 years at the offices of Architecture Agency and Alliance Architects until 2014.
 
Since 2015 he has been an autodidact freelance contemporary artist whose works can be classified as pop-neo-symbolism. He uses various materials and techniques in his works but concrete is his primary material. During his short career as an artist he has made about 50 works which are mainly large-scale public space sculptures and installations. Also he has participated in group exhibitions but has not made a solo exhibition yet.
 
His artistic inspiration and subject matter are large and timeless questions which implicitly based on scientific implications. As an artist he is open to creative collaboration with “everyone” who can think across disciplines and creatively. This has resulted in several contributions and designs with many interdisciplinary contemporary Estonian artists.
 
Since 2019 he has been teaching public art-related courses at the Estonian Academy of Arts and the Baltic Film and Media School. In his free time he continues to teach various dance styles at several dance schools. He´s a father of two kids and passionate about painting, cooking and chess.