Marko Mäetamm

Marko Mäetamm (b. 1965) is an artist based in Tallinn. He studied printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts, where he received his BA in 1993 and MA in 1995.

Mäetamm’s often autobiographical art practice explores the threshold between private and public through a variety of media such as photography, sculpture, animation, painting and text. Treating family life as a microcosm of a wider socio-political and economic models, he presents petty everyday situations filtered through a prism of an unmistakable dark humour.

Internationally known for these observations of domesticity and the politics of family life, Mäetamm’s more recent works have been making explicit reference to current affairs, embodying the angst produced by daily swings between “everyday local difficulties” and “major international problems”. Mäetamm brings his dry sense of humour to bear on both global awfulness and seeming triviality, encouraging us to consider more closely the motivation behind our behaviour.

Mäetamm’s work has been exhibited internationally including at Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2019); Pera Museum, Istanbul (2017);  Gallery Iragui, Moscow (2014 and 2019); IKON Gallery, Birmingham (2014); NADA Art Fair, Miami (2012); Wäinö Aalto Museum, Turku (2009); Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, NY (2009); Gallery Platan, Budapest (2001). Mäetamm is a recipient of numerous awards including the Kristjan Raud Annual Award, Estonia (2000), the Baltic Assembly Prize for the Arts (2009), and the Annual Award of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2011). He was given the Estonian State Decoration, Order of the White Star, V Class, in 2008. Mäetamm represented Estonia at the Venice Biennial in 2003, with Kaido Ole, and in 2007.