Merike Estna is an Estonian artist whose expanded approach to painting moves beyond the canvas into installations, ceramics, textiles, clothing and performative situations. Born in 1980, she lives and works between Tallinn and Mexico City. She studied painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts and completed an MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work has entered the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum and Kiasma, and has been presented in solo exhibitions at Kumu Art Museum, Moderna Museet Malmö, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre and Kai Art Center.
Estna combines repeated patterns and mythological imagery with personal narratives and material experiments. By applying painted surfaces to floors, furniture, garments and objects that can be touched, worn or used, she treats painting as a social and sensory medium. Ceramics, weaving and other craft traditions allow her to question the historical separation between fine art and forms of labour associated with women. Ritual, domestic life, care and the transmission of knowledge recur across her projects.
In 2026 she represents Estonia at the Venice Biennale with The House of Leaking Sky, open from 9 May to 22 November. The pavilion functions as a working studio: Estna paints in public over the course of the exhibition, gradually joining twenty-two canvases into a work planned to reach about twenty-two by six metres. Painted ceramic tiles, studio tools and garments developed with designer Lilli Jahilo extend the project through the space, linking artistic labour with motherhood, repetition and maintenance.