Page 180 - TOP 10 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS - Volume II

Päivyt Niemeläinen
Lives and works in Helsinki, Finland
https://www.paivytniemelainen.fi/
Päivyt Niemeläinen is a significant Finnish visual
artist who lives in Helsinki. She has been an active
and experimental artist over twenty years. During
this time I have visited many of her exhibitions.
Every time the experience of her art has been a
surprise because of their innovative character both in
content as well as in art methods. In the early period
of her art career she made oil, aquarelle, wax and
tempera paintings. To expand her expression she also
developed different special methods, such as relief
painting, and creating pictures in a prehistoric way
like painting with blood-water and pure pigments.
She has used different kinds of art materials, like
recycled materials. She has also designed textiles,
print fabrics, and posters and written manuscripts
for TV films.
Regarding the content of her art, the whole human life
– in good and bad - and impressions of nature, are in
the focus of her art. The artist also “wanders” in the
secret gardens of existence. Her art gets sometimes
also an inspiration from ancient great stories, and
features of figures and tunes of colors may spring
deep symbolic content in her paintings. In recent
years the artist has made forceful anti-war art against
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greediness for money and violent oppression. This
art acts as a powerful comment on behalf of peace.
On the whole, I can set a great part of her art in the
context of contemporary art due to the variation
of different art media and materials, as a sort of
“serious art play”. Presumably one reason for this
has been her diverse education as a textile artist,
in the academic field at University of Helsinki (MA),
and in many different art training programs.
Päivyt Niemeläinen has been invited to participate in
numerous Finnish as well as international exhibitions
like in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Denmark,
England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malta,
Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the
USA. Her artworks have been published in many
international publications. She has paintings both in
domestic and foreign public and private collections.
She has also memberships in many Art Associations
and she has got several grants in Finland and abroad.
Inkeri Sava, PhD, emerita professor in Art
Pedagogy