Estonian sculptor Edith Karlson is one of the country’s most compelling contemporary artists.
Her sculptural installations blur the line between the mythical and the deeply personal, offering physical forms to feelings we struggle to name – longing, loss, identity, transformation.
Through her work, she carves out spaces where memory meets mythology and history merges with the imagined. Rooted in Estonian soil and shaped by a culture that prizes quiet intensity, Edith’s art carries both emotional depth and symbolic power.
Born in 1983, Karlson studied installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts, where she earned both her BA and MA degrees. Over the past two decades, she has developed a distinct sculptural language, often using animals and hybrid figures to express universal human experiences. Her large-scale, materially diverse installations feature everything from ceramic dogs to concrete Neanderthals – creatures that blur the boundaries between the human and the animal, the real and the imagined.
Video: Kristjan Taal
Her work frequently touches on mortality, memory, and the subconscious. In the series Drama Is in Your Head (2011–2018), Karlson created haunting, child-sized ghost figures that explored personal fears and social pressure. Later works, such as Return to Innocence (2021), deconstructed mythological narratives to explore the passage of time and the inevitability of death. Throughout her practice, she balances irony with empathy, creating tactile, emotional experiences that resonate long after viewers leave the space.
Karlson has shown extensively in Estonia and abroad, including solo and group exhibitions at Kumu, EKKM, and the Temnikova & Kasela gallery, as well as collaborations with artists like Kris Lemsalu and Sarah Lucas. Her public works – such as the towering bronze cat in Tallinn or the sculpture Vanad head ajad in Noblessner – demonstrate her commitment to accessible, site-specific art.
In 2024, she represented Estonia at the 60th Venice Biennale with Hora Lupi – a dramatic, immersive installation hosted at the decaying church of Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Penitenti in Venice. The exhibition confronted primitive human urges, the possibility of redemption, and the tension between beauty and decay.
Beyond her artistic work, Karlson speaks openly about the impact of motherhood on her life and creativity. She often credits her son as both inspiration and collaborator, noting that raising a child shifted her focus outward and deepened her sense of empathy. Her worldview remains grounded in hope – especially in the courage and creativity she sees in younger generations.
Karlson is a two-time recipient of Estonia’s national artists’ salary and has received multiple major awards, including the Cultural Endowment’s annual prize. Her artistic process is rooted in intuition and experimentation – a commitment to making with her hands, to working through material, and to confronting life’s big themes with humour, honesty, and heart.
