Merike Estna will represent Estonia at the 61st Venice Biennale, due to open in April 2026.
Based between Tallinn and Mexico City, Estna’s formalist painting practice uses craft techniques and traditions that have not been historically recognised in the medium.
Estna studied painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2005) – where she would later be an associate professor at the Department of Painting from 2017–2023 – and then completed her MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London (2009).
Estna’s selection was the outcome of an open call by the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art. The selection jury included Chus Martínez, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW, Switzerland; Hendrik Folkerts, curator at Moderna Museet in Stockholm; Lolita Jablonskienė, curator at National Gallery of Art, Vilnius; Anu Allas, vice rector for research at Estonian Academy of Arts; Maria-Kristiina Soomre, art adviser to the Estonian Ministry of Culture; and Maria Arusoo, director of the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art.
In a statement, the jury recognised Estna’s work for its ‘maturity and impact’, and highlighted the artist’s ‘insistence on situating painting at the intersection of performance and the social. Her approach shows how traditional media can be re-invented as tools to regenerate a collective trust in art.’
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