Kertu-Liisa Sarap, an Estonian artist
born in 2003

Her practice explores material memory through painting, leather and archival photographs. References to personal and cultural archives, including her grandmother’s photographic materials and Estonian ethnographic motifs, are used
with restraint and transformed through material processes.




kertuliisas@gmail.com

Instagram: @kes.kls @kertuliisa






EXHIBITIONS

2026 

(Upcoming) Performance at Estonian Pavilion, Venice Biennale 

2026 

(Upcoming) Exhibiton at Kuva, Finland


2026 

A Breath at Green Gallery, Narva


2026 

Whitsun at Estonian Open Air Museum


2026

Spring Exhibition 2026, HOP Gallery


2026 

Spring Exhibition 2026, Tallinn Art Hall


2026 

Young Painter Prize Exhibition, Tartu Kunstimaja, Tartu


2025—2026

Young Painter Prize Exhibition, Stasys Museum, Lithuania


2025 

Young Painter Prize Exhibition, Art Academy of Latvia, Riga


2025     

EKA Grad show TASE ‘25, Designers’ House, Rävala pst 8


2025     

Spring Auction, Vaal Gallery


2024
   
Put your pants on, this is an exhibition, EKA Gallery, group show


2024-2025   

Belong - Europa Gallery, Dublin, group show


2024      

I lár báire - Common Ground, A4 Sounds, Dublin, group show


2023      

Installation, New Mountains, Põhjala Factory


2023      

Installation, Gaze like candles, ArtDepoo, solo show


2022      

Viimsi Art School Alumni Exhibition, Artium, group show


2021      
Solo Exhibition, Käpik, ArtDepoo, solo show





ART EDUCATION

2026

Royal Institute of Art, MA Fine Art, Stockholm

2025—        

Estonian Academy of Arts, MA Contemporary Art 



2022 - 2025

Estonian Academy of Arts, BA Fine Arts, Painting



2024 

National College of Art and Design



2011—2021  

Viimsi Art School







RESIDENCY


2024                         

Residency at Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts (RHA)                                                                                     

                                       





  • Performance No. 1

Recycled oil paintings, vegetable-tanned leatherwork, readymade objects
2025

Bachelor’s Thesis in Fine Arts, Painting
EKA Grad show TASE ‘25
The installation is entirely composed of reused and repurposed materials, forming a slightly surreal representation of performance. Performance is familiar to everyone as a moment that demands effort or concentration. The state of anticipation, focus, and striving follows us across all areas of life. Most of our time is spent preparing for it, while the performance itself lasts only briefly. Then comes the next one, someone else's performance, which may overwrite or reinterpret the previous one, repeat it, or place it in a different context.
Archival photographs of athletes are painted onto oil paintings sourced from an antique store, where their original performative value had seemingly been discarded. Worn sports equipment, which might otherwise gather dust in a basement, becomes a suggestive element in the exhibition. The leather relief, crafted using traditional techniques, takes the viewer back to a time when the relationship between art and intricate craftsmanship was a part of everyday life. Everything repeats, but always a little differently.


Photos: Silver Mikiver