Kristina Riska | Parallel

Kristina Riska is one of the most significant contemporary ceramic artists in the Nordic countries, and a long-standing member of the Arabia Art Department Society. Since the 1980s she has explored, challenged and redefined the traditional premises of ceramic sculpture.

Drawing inspiration from nature, she creates large-scale works characterized by undulating and organic forms. The surfaces are clearly marked by the touch of the artist’s hand, and decorated in a minimalist manner with glazes and stencilled patterns. Riska takes the vessel, a hollow form, as her starting point, but transforms it into something more architectural and bodily. The resulting objects seem to breathe, expand, or slowly collapse under their own weight. 

Riska always begins by sketching her works on paper, but the final form emerges spontaneously as the work proceeds. She describes the process as a journey into the unknown, and embraces the physical challenge it entails. Balance is one of her central concerns—between lightness and weight, beauty and imperfection, emptiness and solidity. 

The title of the exhibition, Parallel, points to the relationships between the works. Rather than existing as isolated objects, the sculptures reflect, complement and complete one another. For this exhibition in particular, Riska has thought of the sculptures in terms of pairs, with each work having a counterpart that mirrors something of its form or character. Together, the works create a shifting dialogue, where parallels are drawn between the sculptures, their similarities and differences.

Kristina Riska (b. 1960) lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. For more than 40 years, she has exhibited her work internationally, with numerous exhibitions across Europe, Japan, and the United States. Her works has been presented at leading museums and cultural institutions including Scandinavia House, New York (2023), EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, FI (2022, 2009), Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (2017), The Finnish Embassy in Washington D.C. (2015), Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (2008), and Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. (2003). Riska’s work is held in many important collections, including those of HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Aalto University Foundation, Saastamoinen Foundation, Helsinki Design Museum, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Public Art Agency Sweden, Ulster Museum in Belfast, and the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Gifu, Japan.