With her solo exhibition ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is Like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’, Kristi Kongi has created a vibrant oasis of color, immersing the entire gallery space. By merging her paintings with the physical space they inhabit, she redefines the pictorial experience and turns the act of painting into an architectural expression. The time dimension is also strongly present in the exhibition as the artist has used color as a tool to document her quotidian.
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Comex.
Kristi Kongi (born 1985) is a painter and installation artist whose work focuses on colour, light, and space. Her brightly coloured paintings often take the form of impressive installations made for specific settings creating an effect that Estonian art critic Elnara Taidre described as “painting within a painting” or meta-painting. Besides painting on canvas, walls, floors and ceilings, she also uses various coloured materials such as fabric, plywood and acrylic plastic to create her installations. Her works are based on specific or imagined places, and her observations, emotions and memories. Kristi Kongi uses thorough research and experiments in painting where she trials various colours, light and shade. The artist refers to these experiments as ‘exercises with the moon’. Her work is both poetic – this is also expressed in the titles – as well as systematic and analytical.
Kristi Kongi studied painting at Tartu Art College (BA, 2004–2008) and graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts painting department (MA, 2008–2011). She’s been awarded the Young Artist Prize (2011), the Sadolin Art Prize (2013), the Konrad Mägi Prize (2017), the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s annual award (2021) and was nominated for the Köler Prize in 2016.
Kristi Kongi is among the recipients of the national artists’ salary in 2022–2024. She is an Associate Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts painting department. Kristi is represented by Kogo Gallery, which is based in Tartu, Estonia.
www.kristikongi.com / www.kogogallery.ee/en/artists/kristi-kongi
Karen Huber Gallery has since 2014 served as Mexico City’s platform for discussing and questioning the state of contemporary painting. As the city’s only gallery specialising solely on painting, the program represents Mexican and international artists whose dialogue has become a cornerstone in Mexico City’s art scene. The exhibition schedule also invites both national and international curators to enrich critical thinking regarding the pictorial space.
www.karen-huber.com
Kogo Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Tartu, Estonia, founded in 2018. The gallery focuses on the younger generation of artists, currently representing eight artists from the Baltic countries, Kristi Kongi among them. Kogo is committed to encouraging dialogue on important issues of today by running an extensive public programme alongside the exhibitions.
www.kogogallery.ee/en
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
View from a solo exhibition. ‘The Past, the Present, the Future. It is like Indigo, Lilac, and Magenta’ by Kristi Kongi. Karen Huber Gallery, 2023, Mexico City. Photo by Ramiro Chaves
