Major exhibition showcasing the works of Konrad Mägi opens at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London
The Art Museum of Estonia is the main partner of the major retrospective exhibition of Konrad Mägi’s works opening on 24 March at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, featuring more than 60 works. This is the first exhibition in the UK dedicated to one of Estonia’s most renowned modernists. The contemporary artist Kristina Õllek has also been invited to participate in the exhibition.
Dulwich Picture Gallery will display works from the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia and the Tartu Art Museum, as well as some loans from the Viljandi Museum, the National Archives and private collections. The exhibition traces Konrad Mägi’s journey as an artist from the Norwegian landscapes that first brought him recognition to his outstanding portraits, and provides an overview of the changes and developments in the artist’s style. It also highlights Mägi’s various creative locations and travels across Europe, which influenced his painterly style and choice of subjects.
The exhibition has been curated specifically for a British audience by the art historian Kathleen Soriano, who has worked at the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts in London and now works as a freelance curator. She is also a television presenter. At Dulwich Picture Gallery, Soriano has previously curated retrospective exhibitions of the works of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (2022) and Harald Sohlberg (2019). She currently serves as the director of the Hastings Contemporary.
“Konrad Mägi’s painted visions transport us to the moment and place of their creation. His intense, shining colours flame out with immediacy and purpose. Mägi is a true household name in his native Estonia; his pioneering work has been celebrated internationally. How fortunate we are to work in partnership with our colleagues in Estonia to bring this exceptional artist at long last to London; it is a privilege to be hosting the first major UK exhibition of Estonia’s greatest Modernist painter,” said Jennifer Scott, the director of Dulwich Picture Gallery.
“Konrad Mägi’s works perfectly sum up the special character of Estonian Modernism that sets it apart from the Parisian mainstream but, due to the twists and turns of history, this uniqueness has unfortunately failed to gain the international recognition it deserves. Mägi’s work has, however, been rediscovered in the last decade, as evidenced by the exhibitions that have been devoted to him in Italy, Finland, Denmark and Norway.
I am delighted that Dulwich Picture Gallery, which is well known for its excellent collection and rigorous exhibition policy, is opening its doors to Konrad Mägi’s works,” said Sirje Helme, Director General of the Art Museum of Estonia.
Konrad Mägi (1878–1925) was one of Estonia’s earliest modernist painters. Both landscapes and portraits play a significant role in his oeuvre, although he is best known for his landscape paintings. Mägi’s works are characterised by a strong and bold use of colour and a distinctive and profound sense of nature. He worked and travelled throughout Europe, including Norway, Denmark, France and Italy.
The contemporary artist Kristina Õllek has also been invited to participate in the exhibition; she has created a new site-specific installation for Dulwich Picture Gallery titled Between Sediments and Dead Zones. The installation is based on Õllek’s long-term research into the ecology of the Baltic Sea, reflecting the sea’s current state and revealing the geological era of ancient marine life preserved in Estonia’s coastal landscape. This temporal dimension is visible in the Silurian limestone of Saaremaa, an island that also influenced the work of Konrad Mägi. Between Sediments and Dead Zones is a monument to the oxygen-deprived areas of the Baltic Sea – the “dead zones” – depicting the aquatic environment within the spatial and symbolic context of Dulwich Picture Gallery’s mausoleum.
Kristina Õllek (b. 1989) is a visual artist living and working in Tallinn who uses photography, video and installation in her work. Guided by research and speculative thinking, she addresses marine ecology, geological material and man-made environments in her work. She earned her bachelor’s (2013) and master’s (2016) degrees from the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and furthered her studies at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam and the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin. Õllek has received the Young Artist Award (2023 and 2016) of the Estonian Academy of Arts and was granted an artist laureate salary from 2023 to 2025. Her works are currently on view in group exhibitions at the Estonian Museum of Architecture in Tallinn, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, UK, the National Art Gallery in Sopot, Poland and the Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine in Riga. Her works are part of the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, the Museum of Photography in Winterthur, the European Central Bank and the New York Public Library, as well as being included in several private collections across Europe. Kristina Õllek is represented by the Kogo Gallery.
The exhibition is accompanied by a book introducing Konrad Mägi’s work, which also includes an overview of the works by Kristina Õllek on display.
Dulwich Picture Gallery is the world’s first building specifically constructed as a public art gallery, having opened in 1811. In recent years, the gallery has brought major retrospective exhibitions of several Scandinavian and Baltic artists to British audiences, including the works of Tove Jansson, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Harald Sohlberg and Anna Ancher.
The Konrad Mägi exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery runs through 12 July 2026.
See also the exhibition page on Dulwich Picture Gallery website.