"Raul Meel (1941) is one of the most recognized Estonian avant-garde artists. He has been exhibiting since the beginning of the 1970s. Meel was one of the proponents of radical renewals in Estonian art that were not officially recognized during the Soviet period. Since his work erred from the approved directions in Estonian art, he was unable to accept many of the invitations from the West. He was accepted into the Estonian Artists Association only in 1987.

Raul Meel is the only Estonian artist to belong among the winners of the Award of top biennials international print art (1972). He has participated in over 600 group shows, the most notable among them are the satellite exhibition of the Venice Biennale “Printmaking today” (1972); Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts (1971, 1975, 1977); Kraków Print Biennial (1972, 1974, 1978); “New Talents and Ideas of World of Art” in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; “Modern Masters of World Art” in Soul South Korea (1993); travelling exhibitions “Cartographers” (1997–1999); “Realities and Utopias” at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum in New Jersey, USA (2000), “Fire in Modern Art” at Pedvāle Open Air Museum in Latvia; “Books of Great Beauty” at the Roger Raveel Museum in Belgium (2011); “The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945” at the German Historical Museum in Berlin, Palazzo Reale in Milan, Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn and MOCAK in Kraków (2012–2013); 16th Tallinn Print Triennial (1989, 2014); as an honorary guest at the international biennale “Di carta paper made” in Schio, Italy (2015); the virtual museum “Faces of Europe” (2016–2017); “Techne” at the National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow (2018); Baltic Book Art Biennale in Saint Petersburg (2018).

Of his over 100 solo exhibitions the most notable have taken place at the Art Museum of Estonia (1989); GKM Gallery in Malmö, Sweden (1989); Kuopio Art Museum in Finland (1992), Matisse Museum in Le Cateau-Cambrésis in France (with Leonhard Lapin, 1994); Tallinn Art Hall (1993, 1997; with Ilja & Emilia Kabakov, 2004); State Museum of Western European Art in Riga (1999); Oulu Museum of Art in Finland (2000); “Estonian dialogue in Henry Van de Velde’s Art Library” in Ghent, Belgium (2010); Kumu Art Museum (retrospective in 2014, in 2017 together with Ülo Sooster, Jüri Sobolev and Tõnis Vint); Pärnu Museum (2018).

He has received numerous art awards both in Estonia and internationally: the Eduard Viiralt Award (1989), the Kristjan Raud Art Prize (1989), the Cultural Award of the Estonian Republic (1995, 1998), the Fourth Class Order of the White Star (2007), Estonian Culture Award for Lifetime Achievement (2015), Lifetime Achievement Award of the Visual and Applied Arts Endowment of Estonian Cultural Endowment (2015); among international awards, 4th and 3rd Prize at the Kraków Print Biennial (Poland) (1972), 2nd Prize at the Frechen Print Biennial (1974), Critics’ Choice Awards at the exhibition “World Art Competition: New Talents and Ideas” (1979), South Korea´s Ministry of Foreign Affairs award at the exhibition “Modern Masters of World Art” (1993), Gold Medal at Biennale Internationale Di Carta (2015), Grand Prix at Baltic Book Art Biennale in Saint Petersburg (2018). Raul Meel’s works belong to museums and private collections all over the world." /source/