The Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art is proud to announce artist Merike Estna has been selected to represent Estonia at the 61st Venice Biennale. The 61st International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia takes place in 2026.
Merike Estna is a painter based in Tallinn and Mexico City. Her work focuses on the processes of painting as well as integrating works of art and life. Estna often uses craft practices, combining these with an expanded approach to painting to highlight traditions that have not been traditionally recognised in the medium of painting. The open call for the 2026 Estonian pavilion received 25 submissions. The selection process was conducted in two stages by an international jury.
Regarding Merike Estna’s work, the jury was impressed by her ability to use the medium of painting as a space for politically and socially relevant questions, as well as the grounds for activating questions of artist labour. The jury recognised Estna’s work for its maturity and impact, appreciated 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.
Merike Estna (1980) lives and works in Tallinn, Estonia and in Mexico City, Mexico. She graduated from the painting department at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA, 2005) and from Goldsmiths, University of London (MFA, 2009). She has received several Estonian art awards, among them the Hansapank stipend (2004), the Eduard Wiiralt Grant (2005) and Konrad Mägi Prize (2014). From 2017–2023, she was an associate professor at the Department of Painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Estna was among the recipients of the national artists’ salary between 2020 and 2022. More information about Estna’s work is available at the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art’s artist database here.
Participating since 1997, this will be the fifteenth time Estonia will be exhibiting at the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art is the official representative of the Estonian exposition and it is financed by the Estonian Ministry of Culture.
