KRISTINA RISKA
NEW WORKS
11 October - 18 November 2018
Kristina Riska finds artistic inspiration in the traces people leave behind in history and in their environments. Her intuition for the soft rawness that only clay can offer, and her surrounding environment which reflects the colours of the Nordic landscapes is materialized in the objects. Riska’s ceramic pieces enables a relation with the audience beyond the simple act of contemplation, and offers an alternative way of seeing and interacting with sculptures. Due to the human scale of the objects one can explore the physical components and experience the objects as equal or at least closer to us. This interaction is caused not only by the monumental size of the sculptures, but also Riska’s creation of the objects fascinating shapes and exceptional surfaces.
The two large scale works represented in the exhibition were created during her residency earlier this year at Oslo National Academy of the Arts.
Kristina Riska (b. 1960 in Helsinki, Finland) currently lives and works in Helsinki. Riska is a graduate of the Department of Ceramic Art at the University of Art and Design, Finland. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including: The State of Finland’s Suomi Prize in 1995; the Medaglia D’Oro in Faenza, Italy, 1995; a silver medal at the International Ceramic Contest in Mino, Japan, 2002 and an Honorary Award in 2008; and working grants from both The State of Finland and The Finnish Cultural Foundation. Riska’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions worldwide and placed in many public and private collections, including The Design Museum, Helsinki; The Saastamoninen Foundation, Finland; The Ulster Museum in Belfast, Ireland; and the Gifu Museum, Japan, among many others.