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Iiris Riihimäki (b. 1997, Finland) is a visual artist working with painting and installation. Mixing surreal elements with mundane spaces and objects from her surroundings, her work taps into themes of home and safety, human impact on flora and fauna, and the tensions in relationships, love and longing. To her studio she brings (pro)found objects such as milk powder jars, vintage hair rollers, viper snake skins and swimming caps mimicing hair, that make their way into her work.
By exploring the spiritual and emotional significance humans have given to their surroundings throughout history, and by connecting those to her own intimate memories, Riihimäki allows her work to establish its own imaginative realm. She works from a material, hands on base. This means working from a place of given knowledge and free association, rather than theoretical and analytical intelligence. The urge to do this stems from her research in Karelian indigenous knowledge, intuition and living in connection with one’s surroundings.
Her use of various pictorial decisions, specific materials, reference points and personal narratives point towards power relations, femininity, esoteric layers of our living environments and the sense of self within our contemporary reality.

Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Gerrit Rietveld Academie 2019-2023
Current participant De Ateliers, Amsterdam NL, 2024-2026

Exhibitions 2021-2025

CORNER INN; Act I
group exhibition
at Tramhouse Amsterdam NL, 2025

Top Floor
group show at NEO House,
Amsterdam NL, 2025

ANT MOSHPIT
Solo at Gallery Martin Van Zomeren
Amsterdam, NL 15/6-14/7/2024

it May blossom
group exhibition at Kyykky GalleryHelsinki, Finland 2024
Graduation show at Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, NL 2023

Opening
at M4gastatelier
group exhibition
Amsterdam, NL 2023

I Am In Charge of My Own Breathing
at Gallery When Site Lost The Plot Group exhibition. Amsterdam, NL 2022

Academy of Boulevard
at Bulevardi 61 Group exhibition.
Helsinki, Finland, 2021

Heatpulp
at the Orangerie, Amstelpark
Group exhibition and 3-week residency. Amsterdam, NL 2021

press

https://www.metropolism.com/nl/reviews/50212_graduation_shows_2023_gerrit_rietveld_academie

https://vimeo.com/844917754

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Instructions for dancing Instructions for dancing, 2025 Plastic ants underneath window films on the ceiling lights of the Tramhouse. Shown in a group exhibition CORNER INN; act I together with Jette Kelholt, Inkeri Virtanen, Aido Wall and Margarita Kosareva

Instructions for dancing

Instructions for dancing, 2025
Plastic ants underneath window films on the ceiling lights of the Tramhouse. Shown in a group exhibition CORNER INN; act I together with Jette Kelholt, Inkeri Virtanen, Aido Wall and Margarita Kosareva