About me

Katrin Valgemäe (born 1979) is an artist living and working in Tallinn. Valgemäe studied painting and ceramics at Estonian Academy of Arts and furthered her skills at the painting department of Art Academy of Latvia.

Valgemäe’s works first offer a visual pull—an aesthetic and technically convincing beauty that draws the viewer in. But soon, a subtle disruption appears: something feels off. Alongside beauty comes discomfort, a tension between attraction and repulsion that refuses to resolve.

Within this tension, the work begins to function as a mirror. The viewer is no longer just looking at the image, but at themselves—their reactions, preferences, and aversions. It becomes clear that taste is not as personal as we assume; it is shaped by habit, subconscious patterns, and social conventions that we unknowingly repeat.

Valgemäe does not provide clear answers. Her works unfold slowly, in layers, holding the viewer in a state of ambivalence where beauty and the grotesque coexist. It is within this uncertainty that awareness emerges—a quiet realization that our gaze, desires, and judgments are not entirely our own.

Ultimately, the works offer not a solution, but an experience: a beautiful trap that turns into a mirror.