Since 2018, the RUA festival has been traveling the length and breadth of Estonia, brightening up gray walls with colorful new murals in some of the country's most out-of-the way locations. From Jõhvi to Jõgeva, Elva to Antsla, the festival has been slowly changing the face of Estonia's urban environment – one small town wall at a time.

This spring, it was Saaremaa's turn, with 10 top street artists from around the world all heading to Estonia's largest island to make a series of new works. All the murals they created were inspired – one way or another – by Saaremaa itself.

Whether it's Francisco Fonseca's carefully-constructed collage of the island's architectural treasures, or Ed Hicks reimagining the Kaali meteorite crater as a cosmic portal – each mural speaks of the artists' own unique interactions with the rich local culture and environment on the island.

For artist Riivo Kruuk (aka Riivo Suave), who grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, with an Estonian father and American mother, there's an even more personal connection to this part of the world.

"I would go to school and speak English but Estonian was my first language," Kruuk says of his childhood, adding that his dad still sends him clips from classic Estonian movies and comedy shows almost every day.

"I show them to some of my American friends, and they think: 'This is insane,'" he laughs. "But I think they're hilarious."

Moving with the times

Estonian humor may remain a mystery to outsiders but as Kruuk's work shows, when it comes to Estonian art, it's a very different story. Before Saaremaa, he had already painted murals in the U.S.: In Manhattan, South Carolina and New Jersey, as well as Sibiu in Romania – each one featuring a clear nod to his Estonian roots.

All Kruuk's works – including his RUA mural – blend traditional Estonian folk motifs dating back centuries with elements from contemporary pop culture. It's a combination born of a belief in the need to hold Estonia's rich cultural heritage close while also ensuring it moves forward with the times.

"[Culture] can be something that dies out or something that is pushed forward," Kruuk tells me. "But the more you try to position this culture in contemporary times and include younger generations, the more it sticks," he says. "The more this younger generation relates to it, then the more they want to push it further."

The characters Kruuk paints might wear "Adidas Samba trainers, with the 'rahvasmustrid' (traditional Estonian patterns – ed.) of different parishes on the stripes" or "a beanie [hat] rolled up in some sort of glasses, but it has some sort of Estonian traditional pattern."

Clothing, Kruuk says, is a great way to "contextualize paintings and place them in a certain time period," while also "sharing Estonian culture at the same time."

Keeping Estonia and its culture "in people's eyes and thoughts" is something Kruuk believes is part of his duty as an artist – especially in such challenging political times.

"The bigger threat here is [those who are] trying to wipe out culture," he says, pointing out that, especially back in the U.S., the general level of awareness about Estonia is limited, to say the least.

There are so many people there, who "didn't even think [Estonia] was a real place, not a real country, not a real language," he says.

"So, I thought it would be cool to really get into, to see how I could make this more contemporary and appeal to young people now," he says. "And even appeal to Americans – how could this open the conversation for Americans to learn more about Estonia?"

Finding the spark

Kruuk didn't always have such bold ambitions. When he first started making art in the states, the main concern was just earning enough to get by. "I was just trying to make work that maybe a lot of people would like and I could sell to make money and pay rent," he tells me.

Over time, however, Kruuk's mindset began to change.

"I realized that if you make work that you want everyone to like, then no one's going to like it," he says. "But if you make work that connects to you somehow through an emotion or the subject matter, then I think other people can feel that."

That thought inspired Kruuk to wholeheartedly embrace his Estonian cultural identity and he soon began incorporating it into his art. "It's something I'm proud of and made me feel a little different from everyone I was around," he tells me.

"I love tradition and I love cultures, so I really started researching Estonian things like traditional clothing and folklore – it just fired something in my brain."

The results weren't immediate – it took "a couple of years of figuring out my style and way of painting," Kruuk admits. But a chance meeting with top Estonian hip-hop stars nublu and Gameboy Tetris while on a visit to New York, reinforced the belief that he was on the right path.

"These are young guys who are Estonian and are holding their culture close, but they're also doing things that are very contemporary, new and cool," he says. "And that was the spark."

The positive feelings were clearly mutual. Nublu later asked Kruuk to create artwork for his "Nublikum" music festival in Keila, just outside Tallinn. Kruuk's designs also adorn the covers of nublu's hit singles "duubel5-v2.mp3" and "Push It" featuring Maria Kallastu, the latter of which won song of the year at the 2025 Estonian Music Awards.

Cultural connection

Soon after Saaremaa, Kruuk is heading to the Netherlands to create another mural – this time a collaborative piece about peace for NATO in The Hague ahead of their 2025 summit.

His work there – "A Peaceful Day" – is of a young girl sewing together a traditional cloth with the national flower of each NATO country embroidered into the fabric. A blue Estonian cornflower sits proudly among them.

But while Kruuk continues on his journey to take his modern-day interpretation of Estonian traditional culture around the world – it's finally painting a wall here in Estonia that he describes as the real "dream come true."

"In the neighborhood where I painted [on Saaremaa], they said 'we have another wall for you – whenever you want to come back we'll make it happen with the paint and the lift," Kruuk tells me. "For them to accept it so much that they wanted another one felt really good and made me feel extremely thankful."

"I always thought my first mural in Estonia was going to be in Tallinn or Tartu," he smiles. "But I think I had more of a human connection with a lot of the people here. The fact that it wasn't in such a big city made it even more special."

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