Instead of dealing with the topical and political, the context of Zolotko's art is Western cultural history in the broadest sense, embracing antiquity, the Bible, belles-lettres, philosophy and folklore, Kumu says. His works deal with human existence: life, death, loneliness, silence and decay, as well as hope

Curator Triin Tulgiste-Toss, to whom the artist also dedicated the exhibition, said: "While it is often possible to point out shifts in artists' choices of subject matter or emphasis over time, Zolotko's art can be compared to a tower: every new work of art grows out of the previous one, specifying and elaborating on what has been said. "The Secret of Adam" combines previously used elements and those that have been developed further with completely new ones, returning to the central issue in Zolotko's art: the question of the relationship between things and language."

Zolotko graduated with a bachelor's from the Department of Sculpture of the Tartu Art College in 2008 and then went on to gain a master's in 2010 from the Department of Sculpture of the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has taught at various higher educational institutions in Estonia and as the gallerist-project manager at the gallery of the Tartu Art College.

In 2011, Zolotko received the first-ever Köler Prize from the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia. A year later, he received the Anton Starkopf Sculpture Award and in 2020 the annual award of the Visual and Applied Arts Endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

From 2021-2023, he was one of the recipients of the national artist's salary.

The exhibition is open until January 5, 2025.

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