Kaido Ole

Kaido Ole (1963) is a contemporary Estonian painter and a long-time teacher at the Estonian Academy of Arts. He often models for his own paintings but also creates peculiar characters, recurring in various series and compositions. Ole’s work is characterised by humour and self-irony and a critical sense of absurd stemming from his identity as an Estonian, Eastern European, artist and citizen.

Ole studied painting and design at the Estonian Academy of Arts (graduated in 1992). He has presented solo exhibitions at the Venice Biennale (with Marko Mäetamm, 2006), Kumu Art Museum (2012), Tallinn Art Hall (2016/2017) and the exhibition hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art, ARSENĀLS in Riga (2019). He has also taken part in numerous group shows and his works belong to museum and private collections all over the world. He has been awarded the Kristjan Raud Prize (1998), the Annual Prize of Estonian Cultural Endowment (1999, 2005), the Konrad Mägi Prize (2012) and the Third Class Order of the White Star (2014).