Urmas Nemvalts
Urmas Nemvalts (born 4 August 1968) is an Estonian caricaturist, editorial cartoonist, comics artist, illustrator and children's writer. He has worked for the daily newspaper Postimees since 1994 and is best known as the creator of the comic strip Mürakarud. In addition to his newspaper work, he has illustrated numerous books and published children's books of his own. He received the Oskar Lutsu Huumor Prize in 1999 and the Order of the White Star, 5th Class, in 2015.
Early life and career
Nemvalts was born on 4 August 1968. According to a 2023 publication issued in connection with the Estonian Humour Museum, he began drawing caricatures at the age of 13, and his first published caricature appeared in the Tartu daily Edasi in 1986. After service in the Soviet Army, he continued to submit drawings to editorial offices across Estonia, and in autumn 1994 he joined Postimees as its caricaturist.
In 1998 he launched the comic strip Mürakarud, the work for which he is best known. A 2017 English-language catalogue published by the Estonian Centre for Children's Literature described him as a caricaturist, illustrator and author of children's books, noting that Postimees had carried his caricatures and Mürakarud six days a week for more than 20 years. In 2016 he represented Estonia in the pan-European newspaper project Drawing Europe, organised in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum.
Work
Alongside his daily newspaper work, Nemvalts has illustrated a large number of children's books and has also written and illustrated books of his own. The Estonian Centre for Children's Literature characterises his drawings as marked by humour, grotesque elements and absurdity, with strongly individualized characters.
Among Nemvalts's self-authored books are Laura, Martin ja Metsavana maailm (2022), Valge Surm ja Pähklioru ettekuulutus (2023) and Siimu ja vanaisa autod (2024). In 2024 he published Eesti rahva mured ja rõõmud 2015–2024: lähiajalugu Postimehe karikatuuris, a collection of his Postimees caricatures.
His work has also appeared in international caricature competitions. In 2023, together with Priit Koppel, he presented the retrospective exhibition Nii see algas! ("So It Began!"), which surveyed both artists' work from their early drawings to the present.
Awards and honours
Nemvalts received the Oskar Lutsu Huumor Prize in 1999. His book Väikeste meeste jutud received a special prize in the 2006 Põlvepikuraamatu competition. In 2015 he was awarded the Order of the White Star, 5th Class. In 2017 he won second prize in the international caricature competition Jubilee – Estonian Republic 100. In 2018, as illustrator of Aidi Vallik's Kust said? Luulelood loomadest, he received the readers' prize of the Karl Eduard Sööt children's poetry award.
Selected works
- Poiste aabits (with Contra, 2010)
- Laura, Martin ja Metsavana maailm (2022)
- Valge Surm ja Pähklioru ettekuulutus (2023)
- Siimu ja vanaisa autod (2024)
- Eesti rahva mured ja rõõmud 2015–2024: lähiajalugu Postimehe karikatuuris (2024)