Synnöve Dickhoff
Born 1964, Finland
Synnöve Dickhoff is a textile artist who graduated from the University of Art and Design Helsinki. She has participated in several group and joint exhibitions and has had many solo exhibitions since 1995.
My works are visual observations about the finiteness and transience of human life. Their starting point is moments that change the course of life, events in time and their reflections in me. My working method emphasises the sensitive and layered nature of materials. Fragile and powerful lines on paper and on textiles tell the story I wish to tell, in which light and shadow are often both present at the same time. Works in series, details and material combinations are typical to my work. I aim to evoke a strong presence of the unconscious, memory and recollection through dyeing, burning, embroidering, darning, soaking the paper and the textiles. One theme in my work since 1995 has been the diary. The content – a woman's diary – has remained the same, while the form and the technique have changed.

Aino Kajaniemi
Textile artist, lives and works in Jyväskylä, Finland
My art works are woven with the traditional French tapestry technique by using various materials. I have been exhibiting in a numerous exhibitions in Finland and abroad and my works can be seen in public premises, like churches.
I draw detailed sketches but the final visual decisions about colours and materials I make during weaving.
In my works I want to express ideas that are close to a human being's life, feelings and moments of every-day life.

Riikka Latva-Somppi
Born 1969, Espoo, Finland
Riikka Latva-Somppi is a visual and glass artist living in Helsinki, Finland. She works at the interface of applied and contemporary art using glass as her main medium.
“I love to watch molten glass flow: to feel its movement connect with the pressure in my lungs. Glass is so corporal, yet as a medium it has the ability to translate the immaterial.
The golden bottles reflect the amorphous quality of glass in its physical sense as well as a notion of a substance between material and idea. A spontaneous, indefinite form is solidified in precious gold, often perceived as traditional and perfect, even holy.In the actual work- as well as in the process of making - theory evolves to an experience, may it be intellectual, a cultural connotation, a small amused insight or simply a forgotten memory that reaches the surface in a viewers mind. “

Tiia Matikainen
b. 1975 Kitee, lives and works in Helsinki
“In my ceramic work I deal with organic forms and the aesthetics of ugliness. In the series Wallflowers the common denominator is a sort oforganism. The balllike forms, cast in bone porcelain, have been melted in the furnace so that they loose their form and are pleated naturally.”

Outi Martikainen
Fibre artist, Born 1962, Jyväskylä, Finland
I’m interested to examine how different materials which are not typically used in textile world can be combined with fabric manufacturing methods and techniques. Textile methods are wonderful because they are a long ago developed to achieve rich surfaces with simple methods. This offers me an endless field for examining and creating.
I have worked with surface design also in architectural projects where I have designed silk screen printed surfaces on glass facades. Within an architectural project I have developed a technique where polyester felt are pre-worked with textile methods and then heat moulded into wall panels. Felt works for me as a canvas which I paint on to landscapes and atmospheres with fibres and yarns. In the work 'Way to Work' I sew together, cut-loss pieces and my old samples for different projects.

Maarit Mäkelä
born in Helsinki 1961
“The origin of my works is often cultural female images. By printing these images with silkscreen to ceramics, I tell a story based on my own experiences as a woman. When bringing these pictures to craggy ceramic surface the images reveal their vulnerability. “

Maija Paavola
Born 1946, Oulu, Finland
In the beautiful and simple northern nature I find the source of my ideas.
There in the wild forest or quiet swamps I often pick up tiny interesting details with me.
They keep telling me messages and touching stories of surviving.
My aim is to hand them over with my art.

Pekka Paikkari
Born 1960, Somero, Finland
For me, human presence is the starting-point of art. Clay is a flexible material for expression and as such contains the history of time. As an artist I construct a never-ending story. Despite the physical appearance of the art work, whether it is placed on the façade of a building or is an installation consisting of several pieces, the dialogue between the viewer and the work defines its final form.’

Rita Rauteva-Tuomainen
Born 1953, Helsinki, Finland
Rita Rauteva-Tuomainen is a textile artist living and working in Helsinki. Her main focus is in modern ryas, using mainly recycling and industrial leftover materials. Rita has been a free artist since 1990. She has arranged nine private exhibitions, including retrospective “For Love of Weaving Looms” at Salo Art Museum in 2003, and the latest being “Pick Ups” at Tampere Verkaranta in 2008. Rita has also taken part to over 40 joint exhibitions in all parts of Finland, and internationally in Hungary, Germany, Russia and Sweden.
Rita´s textile art has found places in numerous public buildings, including Tampere City Collections, Virkkala Church, Finnish Radio (Stockholm), Otterup Town Hall (Denmark), Somero Hospital, Vihti-Karkkila OKO Bank´s Head Office, Central School Salo, among others. Rita has also several works in private collections.

Jari-Pekka Vilkman
Each of my sculptural, yet functional handmade furniture pieces is a bold exploration of particular shape, line or curve. They are influenced as much by nature as by modern architecture. Though minimalist in certain aspects, the work is carefully detailed with changes in grain direction and inlayed line-work.

CHAO HSIEN KUO

INNI PÄRNÄNEN

ANU PENTTINEN

MARKKU SALO

KAISA NYBERG

JOHANNA VIRTANEN