Raul Meel was born in Tallinn, Estonia, in 1941. Meel’s oeuvre is tied to themes concerning the opposition between East and West. As an artist who illegally participated in exhibitions in the West, Meel was a hero of the non-conformist art movement during the Soviet era. His work has been conceptual since the beginning. Meel is a painter, graphic designer, sculptor, installer and performance artist (particularly with fire), but also a visual and sound poet.

His means and methods were considered a threat to the official artistic tradition of the then Soviet Union. He was excluded from the Association of Estonian Artists, his works couldn’t sell, and he was barred from leaving the country. Meel, who is a self-taught artist, won his first laurels as an independant, both at home and abroad, with serigraphs, calligraphy, typographic compositions and technical diagrams, something entirely new in Estoninan art.

Meel held his first one man show in Tallinn in 1970. He has since participated at exhibitions in Ljubljana, Frechen, Paris, Vienna and Warsaw. Since 1975, his works have been shown in several cities in the USA: Boston, Washington and New York. He is represented at the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tallinn Art Museum, and more. Raul Meel´s works are included in many private collections.

In 1989 Meel worked in Malmö, Sweden, where the Galleri GKM arranged a one man show.