Päivi Rintaniemi, born Blomberg, was born in Nurmo (Seinäjoki), Finland, in 1956. She graduated as Master of Arts from the Helsinki School of Arts, Design and Architecture, today known as the Aalto University. The varied art disciplines at university gave her solid professional skills for both design and sculpture. After her studies, Rintaniemi concentrated mainly on designing and manufacturing utility articles. She has taken her Amfora products to important international design exhibitions and collaborated with stores and galleries, for example the Conran Shop in Europe, and Actus Interior in Japan.
Sculpture was always an important counterbalance for her rational and systematic work, and thanks to a three-year award granted to her in 2003, she was able to focus more on her art. Rintaniemi’s starting point for structuring her works of art are shape and dimensions. Her works are characterized by her manner of processing clay, which is also often an important factor in the nature and narrative of her sculptures. Along the years, colours have been replaced by structured surfaces and earthy tones. Rintaniemi’s artistic work is meditative and there is an interaction between the material and the themes of the artworks.
Rintaniemi looks at people from a psychological perspective. She is interested in how people function, their relationship with existence and life, moods, reactions, and also the causal connections in it all. Through her work, Rintaniemi wants to unveil her relationship with nature, and to let her audience appreciate the uniqueness and miracles of life. She wants to bring forth the great importance of the little things in life, and everyone’s need to be heard and accepted.
An alliance of power and fragility is central in Rintaniemi’s large and visually delicate sculptures, and it is also the very effect that often first draws the watchers’ attention. Opposites and counterforces, their relations and interaction, are a way for the artist to speak out and to process the chaos in both the society and the individual. Humor also forms part of her attitude towards the world.
Päivi Rintaniemi’s work has been recognized both nationally and abroad. She received the Finnish designer award in 2008, and the first prize at the International Competition of Contemporary Ceramic Art in Faenza, Italy, in 2013. The media has published numerous articles and news items about her works, and she has participated in many juried art shows in Finland and abroad. Her works can be found in Finnish national collections and museums, as well as in private collections.
Visit Päivi Rintaniemi’s website and Instagram page.
Featured work
Calix, 2021
