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Work was first shown in the 2024 group exhibition Dryads of Cosquer at La Traverse in Marseille, curated by Merilin Talumaa and Justė Kostikovaitė. Õllek’s works evoke the pink, sun-blocking algal blooms of Salin-de-Giraud’s salt marshes and are interwoven with visual references to the Cosquer Cave and pigments used in the prehistoric cave paintings. Her practice celebrates earth and water as potent life forces, drawing on ecological, hydrofeminist and more-than-human perspectives.
Kristina Õllek (b. 1989, Tallinn, Estonia) is a visual artist based in Tallinn, Estonia. She works in the fields of photography, video and installation, often making use of microbial and chemical processes, with a focus on investigating aquatic ecosystems, geological matter and human-altered environments. In particular, her work focuses on the marine habitat and the notion of new technologies, including the geopolitical and ecological conditions they are associated with.
Kristina Õllek holds a Bachelor’s degree (2013) and a Master’s degree (2016) from the Photography Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts. She furthered her studies at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee in 2012 and at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam in 2016. Õllek was awarded the Estonian Academy of Arts Young Artist Prize in both 2013 and 2016. From 2013 to 2018, she was a co-founder and active member of the artist-run space Rundum. In 2023, she received a three-year artist grant from the Estonian Artists’ Association and the Estonian Ministry of Culture.
Her work has been exhibited in numerous international solo and group exhibitions, including at Kai Art Center (Tallinn), Kumu Art Museum (Tallinn), the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (Tallinn), M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art (Kaunas), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Oslo), State of Concept (Athens), La Traverse (Marseille), Zeppelin Museum (Friedrichshafen), A Tale of A Tub (Rotterdam), Le Lieu Unique (Nantes), Screen City Biennial (Stavanger) and Fotomuseum Winterthur.
Õllek is currently working on new pieces commissioned for the upcoming group exhibition For All at Last Return (08.11.2025–03.05.2026), curated by Emma Dean, at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, as well as for an exhibition alongside Estonian artist Konrad Mägi (24.03.2026–12.07.2026), curated by Kathleen Soriano, at Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The artist’s works are part of the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, Winterthur Fotomuseum, the European Central Bank Collection, the New York Public Library and various private collections in Europe.
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