The first award for glass expertise, Pro vitrea, goes to Matias Karsikas.
Riihimäki
Finns has a special relationship with well-known glass designers such as Tapio Wirkkala, To Timo Sarpaneva, To Helena Tynell, to Gunnel Nyman… And it doesn’t seem to be fading, rather the opposite:
“Interest related to glass has increased enormously,” states the museum director of the Finnish Glass Museum Hanna Mamia-Walther. “The enthusiasm for collecting is a really clear sign of this, and contemporary artists are also interested in glass as a material.”
Mamia-Walther cites as examples by Jasmin Anoschkin, by Kim Simonsson and Tommi Toija. Toija got to know glass at the invitation of the Glass Museum in 2021, and the result was the exhibition Metamorphoses. Also a well-known graffiti artist with EGS there has been an exhibition in Riihimäki.
Director of the Finnish Glass Museum, Hanna Mamia-Walther, has experienced an increase in interest. The museum’s previously maintained object recognition had to be stopped, the resources were not enough to answer the flood of inquiries.
Finnish Glass Museum tries to help in his part so that the skills based on craftsmanship do not disappear. The aim is to get the knowledge, technology and skill related to hand-made glass onto UNESCO’s intangible world heritage list. The international working group that worked closely together on the project submitted the application a year ago in March. The answer can be waited until December of this year.
Finland’s sauna (2020) and Kaustian violin tradition (2021). The Nordic glulam boat tradition was also added to the list in the second year as the first joint Nordic destination. Åland and the Faroe Islands were also included.
In addition to Finland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary and France, which has coordinated the application process, participated in the glass industry’s application.
As part of the project The Friends of the Finnish Glass Museum and the Finnish Glass Museum have decided to award a new award to encourage Finnish glass expertise, which has been named Pro vitrea. The first prize winner was announced on Friday. She is Matias Karsikas (b. 1989).
The recipient of the first Pro Vitrea award, Matias Karsikas (b. 1989) is a sculptor and designer who was awarded the Young Designer of the Year title in 2020.
“Karsikas makes modern sculptural works that stay in the mind. He is an artist who arouses interest in where his expression and creativity will take him next,” the award jury sums up in the press release.
Matias Karsikas: Golden Moss (2023). Ceramics, glass, gold, wood.
Karsikas says that he has been interested in glass and ceramics for a long time, and he applied to study the field at the University of Arts and Sciences.
“My goal was specifically to work with glass and be a glass artist,” Karsikas says over the phone. Since then, the place of study became Aalto University and design there. For practical reasons, the focus of my studies later shifted to ceramics, because working with it is easier and more independent, says Karsikas.
“At that time, making ceramics was not very media-sexy. Since then, the situation has changed.”
“Thanks to the targeted grants I received from Taike and the Culture Fund, I have also been able to work in glass studios.”
Karsikas also blows glass himself, but for more demanding jobs he has collaborated with the Nuutajärvi glass factory and the glassblower Jenni Sorsan with.
The Pro Vitrea award, given every two years, includes a cash prize of 3,000 euros, an exhibition at the Finnish Glass Museum and the opportunity to work in Iittala. Founded in 1881, the Iittala glass factory is the largest in the Nordic countries.
“I have never worked in Iittala and I am looking forward to it. The volume there is really much bigger than in previous studios, which enables new experiments.”
Karsikas considers domestic artists as his role models Right Toikka (1931–2019) in glass art and Birger from Kaipiai (1915–1988) in ceramics.
“With a prize we want to encourage the use of glass as the versatile material that it is. The master glassblowers of the Iittala glass factory will surely inspire the winner to create something magical that Finns can enjoy at the glass museum’s exhibition”, hopes the father of the idea and chairman of the award jury Jyrki Kippola About the friends of the Finnish Glass Museum in the bulletin.
In addition to her and Hanna Mamia-Walther, the jury included the amanuensis of the Finnish Glass Museum Uta Laurenproduct development manager of Iittala glass factory Minna Piispanen and an art connoisseur and collector invited as a guest member Rafaela Seppälä.
in the Glass Museum of Finland opens on Saturday except the big one Nanny Still’s (1926–2009) exhibition, also a forward-looking international collaboration project Glass – hand formed matter. It brings together glassblowers, artists, designers and students from Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, as well as Finland and Sweden. The idea is to reinterpret and develop the millennia-old art of glass making.
It can suddenly be under threat even in strong glass art countries. For example The news broke in Sweden recently about the fact that the only state educational institution in the field, the Riksglass School in Nybro in southern Sweden, is going to be demolished.
At the same time, young Swedish glass artists have received great international attention, such as for example Hanna Hansdotter (b. 1984). He is also involved in the Riihimäki exhibition with an object whose design language is familiar Avtryck-vase (2017). The vase in question has already entered the Nationalmuseum’s collections in Stockholm.
Hanna Hansdotter’s vase Avtryck (2017) belongs to the collections of the Nationalmuseum. – Donation from the Nationalmusei vänner association.
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