Merike Estna
Merike Estna (b. 1980) lives and works in Tallinn and Mexico City. A participant in the performance art scene associated with Academia Non Grata alternative art school in the early 2000s, Estna later acquired formal art education at the Estonian Academy of Art where she attended Painting BA and Interdisciplinary Arts MA classes. Estna relocated to London in 2007, where she completed an MFA Art Practice degree at Goldsmiths College in 2009.
Estna’s practice is primarily focused on the processes of painting, approaching the artwork as an integral part of life rather than it being about life. Borrowing patterns and colour combinations from applied arts and crafts, vocabularies which traditionally have not been accepted in the visual language of painting, her work challenges the masculine territory of painting and questions the strict separation between the two discourses. Initially applying patterns and treatments to canvases, Estna gradually progressed to cover clothes, objects and entire spaces as her research into colour and acts of painting expanded.
Estna’s recent exhibitions include: "Peradam", Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn (2024), "Analog Mountain", Margot Samel gallery, New York (2023), “Soil will not contain our Love“, Kai Art Center, Tallinn (2022), “Talk to me softly, when the world is fading away“, Karen Huber gallery, Mexico City (2022), "Memory Shop”, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud at the Fundacion Casa Wabi, Puerto Escondido, Mexico (2022), “Bitácoras“,at the Fundacion Casa Wabi, Puerto Escondido, Mexico ( 2022),“The House of the Tragic Poet“, Bosse & Baum, London (2021), “Borderlessness“, with Jaime Lobato, Hasanlu Armastajad, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn ( 2021), “Nightfall / Videvik“, Publics, Helsinki ( 2021), “Ghost of the Future, Filled With Memories of Past”, Moderna Museet, Malmö (2019); “Mother of Pearls”, Karen Huber, Mexico City (2019); “Dawn of the Swarm”, Bosse & Baum, London (2018); “Disposable Gloves Guide”, kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2018); "Soft Scrub, Hard Body, Liquid Presence", with Maria Metsalu, curated by Maria Arusoo, Art in General, New York (2017–2018); "Fragments from the shattered toe", curated by Thomas Cuckle, Kunstraum, London (2017); "Red Herring", Chart Social, Copenhagen (2017); "Doublethink: Double vision", curated by Alistair Hicks, Pera Museum, Istanbul (2017); "The Seed Can Be Initialized Randomly II”, with Ana Cardoso, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn (2017); "Memorial", Estonian Embassy, London (2016); “The Seed Can Be Initialized Randomly”, with Ana Cardoso, Múrias Centeno, Porto (2016); “Domesticmindcraft”, Karen Huber gallery, Mexico City (2016); “Genialmythcraft”, Palermo Galerie, Stuttgart (2015); “Corporate Jungle”, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn (2015); “Blue Lagoon”, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn (2014).
Selected works
View: ,Wild grass
acrylic, oil, canvas 200×150cm 2023
Moonlight
acrylic, oil, canvas 200×150cm 2023
El Rodeo
acrylic, oil, canvas 200×150cm 2023
Amor
acrylic, oil, canvas 200×150cm 2023
Amores mios 1
acrylic on plywood and traditional Mexican carpentry, text used is a poem by HAIEM 140×75cm 2023
Amores mios 2
acrylic on plywood and traditional Mexican carpentry, text used is a poem by HAIEM 140×75cm 2023
Letters of Love 1
acrylic, oil, canvas 150×100cm 2023
Letters of Love 4
acrylic, oil, canvas 150×100cm 2023
Pearls
acrylic and oil on canvas 61×45cm 2023
Ghost
ceramics 18×24×15cm
Ghost
ceramics 18×24×15cm 2018
Memories
ceramics 12×18×18cm 2019
Memories
ceramics 12×18×18cm 2019
Soil will not contain our Love
hand tufted woolen carpet 350×300cm 2022
Blue Ribbon
hand tufted woolen carpet 190×75cm 2022
Soil
acrylic, paper, wooden frame 220×150cm 2022
Our Love
acrylic, paper, pastel, wooden frame 220×150cm 2022
Contain
acrylic, paper, wooden frame 100×80cm 2022
Will Not
acrylic, paper, pastel, wooden frame 100×80cm 2022
Floaters
oil, glass 53×39cm 2021
Dinner For One
oil, glass, tin frame 50×40cm 2021
The ghost, the past and the fence
acrylic, oil, canvas 220×160cm 2021
I am an Empty Vessel
acrylic, oil, canvas 200×150cm 2021
Ocean of Endangered Times
acrylic, canvas 600×400cm 2019
Material Substitution for Lost Faith
acrylic, canvas 61×45cm 2019
Mother of Pearls
acrylic, oil, canvas 61×45cm 2019
History of Broken Glass
stained glass, metal chain 61×46cm 2019
Trapped
acrylic, canvas 200×150cm 2018
Double Trap
acrylic, oil, canvas 61×45cm 2019
From the series "Daily Paintings"
acrylic, oil, pastel, paper 52×36cm 2018
From the series "Daily Paintings" (Nr 125)
acrylic, oil, paper 52×36cm 2018
From the series "Daily Paintings" (Nr 137)
acrylic, oil, paper, framed 52×36cm 2018
The Emptiness of the Empty Eyes
oil, canvas 61×45cm 2019
Infinity of Housework
acrylic, oil, canvas 61×45cm 2019
banana/angel 4
acrylic on paper 61×45cm 2017
Black gloves
hand painted on hand tufted wool 200×150cm 2017
Best friends hair will always take care
wool, silk mohair, best friends hair, hand woven and embroidered 195×140cm 2017
Sad but sad
acrylic on canvas 200×150cm 2017
What do you mean? when you ask me to explain it's too early now
acrylic, canvas 60×45cm 2016
And the way you hold this as a distant precious brushstroke really breaks my heart
acrylic, canvas 60×45cm 2016
I can't possibly focus
acrylic, canvas 130×90cm 2016
Seeya
acrylic, canvas 60×45cm 2016
Your turquoise eyes are hovering in my mind
acrylic, canvas 130×90cm 2016
Did You? Notnot from series Slip Off
oil, acrylic, canvas 60×40cm 2015
Slip Off from series Slip Off
oil, acrylic, canvas 60×40cm 2015
Fried Chicken from series Slip Off
oil, acrylic, canvas 65×45cm 2015
Untitled from series Slip Off
oil, acrylic, canvas 60×40cm 2015
My Lipstick Was the Color of the Day
oil, canvas 37×28cm 2014
Rugface
acrylic, canvas 2014
So Soft/ + Pure
textile paint, robe 120×50cm 2014
So Soft/+ Pure
mixed media, installation view at SmallProjects Tromso, Norway 2014
JacketsPaintings / PaintingsJackets
acrylic, silk paint, silk, cotton, installation view at KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn 2014
Blue Lagoon
oil, acrylic, canvas, various objects, installation view at KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn 2014
Blow My Tie Dye
acrylic, canvas, spray paint, fans, installation view at KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn 1200×400cm 2014
Camouflage Painting Show
household paint on given space and paintings, installation view at KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn 2014
Traveling With a Painting
video installation on 5 screens, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn 2014
Traveling With a Painting
still from a video installation on 5 screens at KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn 2014
I'm Around For a While, For a Week
acrylic, floor, installation view at Enclave project space, London 2014
Pattern Book 5
acrylic, paper 2014
Random Tapestry
acrylic, cotton 102×153cm 2014
Tapestry Floating Away
acrylic, cotton 255×145cm 2014
A Very Light Painting with Black
oil, canvas 122×92cm 2012
A small dark colorful painting
oil on canvas 30×40cm 2012
27 Paintings, 4 Drawings and 3 Videos
installation view at KUMU Art Museum 2012
A Big Painting and a Small Painting
installation view at Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn 2012
A Big Painting and a Small Painting, video still
video 2012
A Blue Painting
oil, canvas 152×120cm 2012
Bright Painting
oil, canvas, led projector 2012
3 videos, video still
video 2012