Exhibition in August 2025

 

Artists O has chosen me and Laura Itkonen as Artists of the Year 2025!

The Artist of the Year award is awarded annually to two members of Artists O for their significant work in the field of material-based art. Welcome to our joint exhibition opening next week at Lokal Galleria, Helsinki. The theme of the exhibition, which presents the work of two ceramic artists, is the dialogue between physical and psychological space.

The exhibition is open from August 5th to 16th 2025. and you can meet Veera at the gallery on August Thu 14th - Sat 16th 2025.

Artists of the Year 2025 - Artists O

Laura Itkonen & Veera Tamminen

5.-16.8.2025

Lokal Galleria @lokalhelsinki

Annankatu 9, Helsinki

Open Tue-Fri 13-18, Sat 12-16

Welcome to the opening on Tue August 5th at 18-20!

@laura_itkonen
@veeratamminen
@artistsory

Plakato font by @underwarefoundry

#vuodentaiteilijat2025 #artistso #taiteilijatory

Succesful firing

These artworks and more in our exhibition at Lokal: opening August 5th at 18-20.

Making of

 

I'm currently making our Artists O's Artists of the year exhibition. Opening on August 5th at 18-20. I will also be at Lokal during Thursday to Saturday August 14th to 16th 2025.

Exhibition is open:

5.-16.8.2025

Lokal Galleria

Annankatu 9

00120 Helsinki

Opening hours:

Tuesday-Friday 13 to 18 

Saturday 12 to 16

I'm Artists O's one of the Artists of The Year!

Good Mojo, porcelain, 2021

I was chosen to be one of the (two) artists of the year by Artists O. We are going to have an exhibition at Lokal in August. Warmly welcome to the opening on Tue August 5th 2025 at 18-20!

Lokal Galleria

Annankatu 9

00120 Helsinki

Open: August 5th - 16th 2025

Tue - Fri 13 - 18

Sat 12 - 16

Artists O did a little interview of us, here is my part translated in English: 

How did you get interested in the material you use?

"I was introduced to ceramics when I was little, but I applied to study at Aalto and got in. I am an obsessive advocate of my material and I am interested in everything related to ceramics (history of porcelain, ceramic tableware, contemporary ceramic art, material research, teaching and theory of ceramic art), I am a ceramics nerd. Porcelain became my own material during my exchange year in Ohio and it still fascinates me, although I call it a difficult lover. As a counterbalance to porcelain, black clay recently became part of the material selection - I also like it. Black clay reminds me of Wedgwood's black basalt."

What are the starting points of your art and the values ​​in your work?
"The starting point of my own art is material, but also the basic purpose of contemporary art to represent something: a thought, an idea, a feeling or some kind of perception of the world. I make very representational art, rarely abstract, in the sense that it not wouldn’t represent anything. There is always some underlying idea, statement or story. I make contemporary art based on material, the ancestor of my work is decorative art."

What have you been up to lately?

"I was part of the group exhibitions of Artists O and Fiber Art Sweden, the last of which was held in Stockholm. For the exhibition I made performative, photographically documented and also can be said that these were site-specific ceramic works at the Cité residency in Paris. My favourite piece in the series was Blue Fruit Exotique, which I had made with blue porcelain fruits and photographed at a fruit stand in the Marais in Paris. I also liked the spiral seashell I photographed in the park of Sceaux Castle: I sat on the edge of a fountain and poured water from the seashell."

Blue Fruit Exotique, 2023

What's new? 
"Lately I've been inspired by the plant world. My old works continue to inspire me, like IMPRINT/l'Herbier (2017-2021), which is about herbariums and pressed plants. On the other hand, I want to make autobiographical works, featuring my two cats, American George, and noteworthy coincidences from the last ten years. I've peeled the onion of my making and come to an agreement with myself about what's worth doing. (I try to avoid unnecessary work and hope that making would be somewhat effortless.) I also constantly developing on a material level and have done a lot of background work with the material in the studio, as I find self made glazes to be the most enjoyable for me to work with. However, I don't make the clay myself, I rely on the best clays on the market - that's especially important when it comes to porcelain. I want to hold my fifth solo exhibition at some point, but I haven't found a suitable space for it yet, and write a book on contemporary craft theory in ceramic art."

Stain party from Fermée

FERMÉE

Merry, happy from Fermée!

 

Fermée

"The World Is Your Oyster" -party by FERMÉE

https://www.instagram.com/fermeestouvert/

Fermée is Nordic design from Finland. It has basics in the minimalistic, organic shapes that are cast in black clay and glazed in lushious white opaque glaze. All the ware are hand made and are unique. 

Fermée does haute couture -parties (like this "The World Is Your Oyster" -party) with the tableware that are inspired by pirate ships, since royal companies and their ships used to ship only finest porcelain. What would've pirate ships ship to the ports? 

Fermée est ouvert! 

Currently, Fermée ware is not for sale, but to be enjoyed as applied art! 

Every other day glazes, Po & Po edition

 

Every other day glazes, part 2

Every other day glazes

https://www.instagram.com/everyotherdayglazes/

Metro stations in Paris: "Miel"

One year ago I was at Cité International des Art in Paris doing a recidency. I spent a many Wednesdays at Sévres archives and I still have a lot to write about the findings from the archive. To get around, the obvious way was to take a metro. At the stations there is the honey color glazed decorative tiles around the big advertisement porters and even lovelier deco on top of the frames (as seen in the photos). In French the glaze is called "Miel" for honey. 

There is a tiny plaque in one of the metro stations, which I tried to search every time exiting a metro shuffling around the city, which tells a bit of the history of the Miel glaze. The plaque was put there to celebrate the 100 years of Paris metro (1900-2000). In 1920's to 1930's the ceramics companies around the area made the tiles. Note the classic metro tile, as well!

Book about the exhibition at Princessehof Ceramics Museum

 

Still a month to see the Porcelain Fever exhibition in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. They have a lovely publication about the exhibition as well. It's the history of European porcelain between the covers of one book, accompanied with great photos of the objects exhibited at the museum. The book is written in Dutch but translated in English. 

A Ruan Hoffmann original in Café de Dokter in Amsterdam

There is a thing in Amsterdam called Bruin Café (Brown Cafés) and it's an old bar that has still cigarette stained walls and smudged paintings on these walls. It's said that it almost sacrilege to refurnish or clean so they stay this way. On our trip we bumped into one on a secret alley and of course went in! 

It was cozy and crowded and we just got two empty seats at the end of the bar's zinc. The place was so tiny that we were asked to move for a little while from our seats since the owner needed to access the cellar which was under a trapdoor on the floor. 

But, I noticed it immediately that there was a Ruan Hoffmann original on the wall designated for the place. I absolutely loved it!

 

Ceramic Museum Princessehof in Leeuwaarden, The Neatherlands

During our trip to Amsterdam to see Marina Abramovic's retrospective and re-performed pieces (by artists from Abramovic institute, yes, the piece was exhibited were you can squeeze through two nudes between columns) we took a two hour train trip to Leeuwarden where there is a ceramic museum in a place that has previously served as a castle for the Princess of Orange. 

The permanent collection is vast and the mini temporary exhibitions were very interesting. 

Even though the permanent collection wasn't the main reason to visit the lovely town of Leeuwarden: they had put together an exhibition of Augustus the Strong and Madame Pompadour's ceramics with loans from Dresden and Sèvres. I have been a frequent visitor in Sèvres during my Paris trips but I have never seen many of the exhibited pieces! And even if I have been a visitor in Sèvres archives I haven't been able to touch the notebook which they were showcasing. During the first three months they showed the formula for pâte tendre (soft paste porcelain) and apparently, we visited the museum during the last three, since they were showcasing it on the pages where there's secrets (tiny hand writing in French) about pigments/stains. In Sèvres I had an opportunity to flip through notes from the 18th century. And the news form the exhibition (about the note book too) were form The French Porcelain Society's Livingroom Lecture, as a member you will receive the latest news. 

The exhibition is on in Ceramic Museum of Princessehof in Leeuwarden in The Neatherlands until September 1st 2024. 

Thesis: Hartsikipsin käyttö ja värjäys keramiikan konservoinnissa - Case Jasperkeramiikka

My Bachelor Thesis (Metropolia 2024) is now on Theseus. It's in Finnish, but you can find the abstract in English.

Graduating as a conservator from Metropolia, Helsinki

 

Yesterday I left my thesis to be evaluated, so I'll be graduating next month as a conservator (of ceramics). My thesis is a study, if resin plaster can be used and dyed for the needs of conservation of ceramics. It is a case study to conserve this though-dyed ceramic, Wedgwood's tobacco jar. Upper photos are before treatments and the last photo is a detailed photo of conservation trial. I don't think that using resin plaster was too successful in this case, and since the resin plaster is needed to cast once right, it needs understanding and practical skills. It's not a minimal intervention type of a ceramics conservation process, but the object is mine!

Ketchup, chocolate sauce, pee soup

I created a new video, it can be found on Vimeo.

The Dresden Porcelain Project

The Dresden's Porcelain Collection by Augustus the Strong has been cataloged and it will be launched on this date!

Fermée est ouvert!

 

www.fermee.fi

Fermée does not have a web store or retailer yet, but if interested in buying one or Fermée creations, contact the maker: veera.s.tamminen (at) gmail.com!

Fermée is Nordic design from Finland. It has basics in the minimalistic, organic shapes that are cast in black clay and glazed in lushious white opaque glaze. All products are hand made and are unique.

Fermée is a manufactory single handed by a ceramicist, an artist and a designer Veera Tamminen. She creates her designs by hand in small batches in her studio in Finland.

The logo is inspired by pirate ships, since royal companies and their ships used to ship only finest porcelain. What would've pirate ships ship to the ports?