For Kai the artist has created a multilayered environment of personal archaeology that includes installations made from textile, beeswax, wood, glass, and ceramics, as well as paintings and sound. Merike Estna is known as a bold experimenter with the medium of painting who is masterfully creating stages and spaces for an audience to inhabit. This Kai exhibition stands out for its experimental use of materials – Estna has experimented with embroidery as well as burning both on textile and on wood, for example. Combining time-consuming and traditional techniques with materials and themes of contemporary art, ‘Soil will not contain our love’ is inspired by traditional Estonian folklore and craft, creating a mesmerizing ambience.
Merike Estna is one of the most important contemporary artists in Estonia whose ongoing exploration of painting as a creative work and mode of expression is based on both a critical and conceptual approach and a deep respect for her craft. Over the last 7 years, the artist’s focus has been on international projects, as evidenced by solo exhibitions at Bosse & Baum Gallery (London), Karen Huber Gallery (Mexico City), Art in General satellite program for the Performa Biennial (New York), Kunstraum (London), kim? Art Centre (Riga), Kiasma (Helsinki) and Moderna Museet Malmö (Malmö). This large-scale solo exhibition at Kai Art Center is the artist’s first major institutional solo project in Estonia since her solo exhibition at Kumu in 2014.
