Edith Karlson

Edith Karlson (1983) is a sculptor who mainly depicts people and animals as her protagonists. Dogs, bears, lions, other animals and birds should be seen in allegorical or symbolic terms in her works. The creatures in her work refer to fears which arise from working as an artist, but also from functioning in the society. She mostly presents her works as installations, involving the entire exhibition space.

Karlson studied installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA, 2006; MA, 2008). She has been awarded with the EAA Young Artist’s Prize (2006) and the Köler Prize Audience Award (2015), as well as the annual prize of the Visual and Applied Art Endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2019). Karlson is also among the recipients of the national artists’ salary between 2018–2020 and 2022–2024. Her latest solo exhibition, Return to Innocence took place at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia in 2021.