Mari Vallikivi is an Estonian art historian, and the curator of exhibitions and a work coordinator at the Kondas Centre of Naive Art. She studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and graduated with a BA in 1998. After that, she worked for Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus (the Estonian Publisher of Encyclopedias). Since 2003, she has been a curator at the Kondas Centre. Her main research interest is amateur art during the Soviet period. As a curator, she has to study a large number of different fields, due to the numerous temporary exhibitions at the Kondas Centre. In her opinion, approximately 300 exhibitions have been held. She has worked at the Kondas Centre since its beginning, and has been engaged in its development. In 2008, she began to research Kondas' person and work more closely. By now, thanks to Kondas’ letters and diaries, she has decoded several of his works. Mari Vallikivi considers the study of cultural opposition important, because it is part of Estonian history. The paintings by Kondas are part of this, which becomes clearer and clearer the more information about him is collected. According to Vallikivi, all art should be cultural opposition, in the sense that an artwork without a message does not move forward, art must address and upset, if not directly, then between the lines and allegorically.