Kalli Kalde

Kalli Kalde is Estonian graphic artist and painter, born 1967 in Tartu.

She graduated in 1986 Tartu Art School and 1991 Tallinn University, Department of Drawing and Manual Training with a master degree.

Since 1991 she has been working as a teacher of painting, drawing and graphics technique at the Tartu Art School. From 2001 to 2010 she worked as a lecturer of drawing and graphics technique at the Pallas University of Applied Sciences, in 2016 at Nuuk Art School, Greenland, as a teacher of drawing.

She has been exhibiting paintings and graphics at exhibitions since 1988.

She is a broad-ranging artist who has exhibited her works in graphic exhibitions in many European countries and United States of America, Canada, Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Japan and Taiwan.

She has worked in art residencies in Peru, Spain, Germany, Latvia, Sweden, Finland and the Faroe Islands.

Water gives and water takes all (NAT Art Residence - 04/2025)

My work is inspired by the power of the movement of water. Life originated in water. The caves here, where humans and Neanderthals have lived, were created by the movement of water. When people lived in the caves of Cantabria, the weather was cooler and the sea level was much lower than it is today. I use the rise and fall of the coast here, as a symbol of the rising sea levels caused by climate change. The people of the Madeleine’s time drew animals on the walls of their caves that are now extinct due to overhunting and climate change. The last aurochs died on Polish territory in 1627. In most European countries, the bison became extinct in the Middle Ages at the latest. All the European bison alive today are descended from just 12 bisons that lived in zoos and animal parks.

I decided to draw polar bears on the rocks, whose lives are most affected by the climate warming. Animals are dying out silently. In just a fleeting moment, the soul leaves the body. As humans, we may not even notice the disappearance of other species around us. The life is as fragile as these drawings on the seaside.

We photographed the process of the animals drawn on the rocks disappearing into the tides. Faroe Islands.