Mari Laaniste is a researcher working with various forms of visual and audiovisual culture: film, animation, comics, cartoons, etc.
She has defended her BA (1999) and MA (2002) at the Estonian Academy of Arts Institute of Art History and VIsual Culture. The PhD thesis she is working on is focused on the work of Priit Pärna during the Soviet era.
She teaches classes on visual culture and film both at the Arts Academy and at Tallinn University.
She is active as a critic, organises conferences and has been the editor of journals in the series of “Etüüde nüüdiskultuurist” (Etudes of contemporary culture). Mari Laaniste has curated exhibitions on Estonian comics such as “Hall tsoon” (Grey zone) at the Tartu Art Museum in 2017 and organised exhibitions outside of Estonian in together with the Estonian Comics Association.