Kadri Mälk. Testament

Dark testament from the Baltic - new art jewellery from Kadri Mälk
Every concept, every notion, every emotion elicited by looking at an artwork is true, say Kadri Mälk on her work, falling silent and letting this take effect. Her pieces are fundamentally borne of dark colours yet are not melancholic. Black wood, black hair, black stones and black coal form the lightabsorbing foundation of her jewellery - punctuated with accents of colour from the precious stones and metals.

The Estonian artist studied jewellery design under Leili Kuldkepp, among others, in addition to gemmology; she perfected gemstone cutting under Bernd Munsteiner in Idar-Oberstein and later, as head of the Jewellery Department, brought the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn into the international limelight.

In Testament Kadri Mälk shows more than just the results of her vast creative production from recent years. The jewellery pieces are juxtaposed with detail photos from unusual perspectives, nature shots and sketches of models: structures, materials and cuts become visible and experiexperienceable, adding further levels of observation and understanding. Almost imperceptibly the reader becomes increasingly immersed in the wild and poetic world of the Estonian jewellery artist.

Works by Kadri Mälk can be found in, among other places, nthe Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Alice and Louis Koch Collection in Zurich, the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, LACMA in Los Angeles and countless private collections.

Texts in English & Estonian


Kadri Mälk (b. 1958) graduated from Estonian State Art Institute in 1986 having had Leili Kuldkepp as her teacher. Three years later she started teaching herself, and became head of the jewellery and blacksmithing department in 1995 and immediately worked toward international dimension in a relatively closed up school until then. Inviting artists and lecturers from all over the world she includes her students almost in every exhibition proposal she receives as an already renowned artist; in 1999 the group of jewellery artists ÕhuLoss (Castle in the Air) is founded together with her students and younger colleagues and which has travelled the world since. 2008 she started the charitable Foundation Noor Ehe/Young Estonian Jewellery.