Allee galerii; Eesti Kaasaegse Kunsti Muuseum; Eesti Kunstimuuseum; NOBA; Tartu Kunstimuuseum
Kai Kaljo is primarily known as a video artist, although her work also includes painting, photography, fresco, stained glass, and installation art. Kaljo's themes are inspired by her personal and everyday life extending into existential and social statements. Using black humour and irony, she often questions power relations in the art world, whether they are based on gender (male artists vs female artists), choice of artistic media (traditional art vs new media), geography (Estonia and Eastern Europe vs the international Western art world) or economic status (the precarity of freelance artists).
In the 1980s, Kaljo studied monumental painting, and in the 1990s she found herself in a new society, where state art commissions had suddenly disappeared and the art field of newly independent Estonia saw the emergence of new media. Her first notable moment of recognition came in 1994 with her site specific installation “Genesis and Disappearance of Life” at the 2nd Annual Exhibition of the Soros Center of Contemporary Arts, Estonia “Unexistent Art”.
Kaljo became known internationally in 1997 when she presented her first video “Loser” at the exhibition “Funny versus Bizarre” at the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius. The work was soon exhibited at other international shows as well. In the video, using laconic irony, Kaljo describes her lived reality as an Estonian woman artist – so far from the success stories heralded as part of the official cultural politics. She has addressed the precarious situation of artists in her later work, for example, in the photo installation “The more I work the poorer I am” (2006), depicting scenes from the artist's work days during which she makes a loss of € 246.
The art historian Mari Laaniste has described Kai Kaljo's work as “a sceptical meditation bordering on self-deprecation”. In the video “I am no Adamson-Eric” (2018) she plays with the idea of who is allowed to participate in the community of art (history). Kaljo tells the story of a conversation she had with her mother: when she was younger, she asked her mother, why she could not become an artist as multifaceted as the famous Estonian artist Adamson-Eric. Her mother snapped back at her: “But you are no Adamson-Eric!” In the video “Even the name is sometimes the same” (2017), also shown in Paris and Berlin at the Rencontres Internationales festival, Kaljo contemplates the randomness of human life, as she searches for figures who often remain in the background in historic photographs. (inglise keeles)
22 pildiga teost; siin esimesed 22, kõik kataloogis. Pilte näidatakse ainult autoriõiguse alt vabade teoste ja galeriides müügil olevate teoste kohta, hoidjate endi serveritest.
Muuseumikirjed MuISist ja EKM digikogust; galeriide laoseis galeriide endi kataloogidest; oksjonitulemused nii, nagu Haus Galerii, Vernissage, Allee galerii, Vaal galerii, E-Kunstisalong ja Eesti Kunsti Oksjonid need avaldasid. Kogu kataloog
Vihm Wiepersdorfis 2004. aastal
Must roos ja teised lilled
Rukkipõld Leevi külas Põlvamaal
Argipäeva hommik
Vesikupp Mustjärves
Hara laht
Liilia
Ähijärv
Talv on tulemas
Sügisene leht
Invisible I
Invisible III
Invisible II
Nähtamatu IV
Kollane roos
Käsi. Sangviin
Käsi sõrmustega
Käsi
Roos
Punane roos
Seelik 2
Seelik