Tuija HP (Hirvonen-Puhakka)
Basic information
b. 1965, Eno
Visual Artist, Environmental Artist
Residence: Eno
Contact information
Phone number: +358 50 304 78 65
Email: tuijahp@gmail.com
Artist’s Statement
Tuija HP is a visual artist based in North Karelia, Finland. She has worked professionally for over 30 years, presenting numerous solo exhibitions and participating in group and joint exhibitions in Finland and internationally. Since 2000, her practice has expanded to include environmental and community art projects as well as international collaborations. She is actively engaged in artists’ associations and in the development of the visual arts field.
Tuija HP’s artistic practice is rooted in painting, which she expands through spatial solutions and video art. Her works are structured around a dialogue between surface and emotion. Surface is not merely a visual element but a bodily and experiential field where material, light, and rhythm generate meaning.
The surfaces of her works are tactile and layered—rug-like, smooth, translucent, or intense. They are built through variations in thickness and transparency, the fine texture of pigments, and the movement of light and shadow. Her materials include acrylic and oil paints, pigments, gold leaf, marble dust, and self-produced ash pigment.
The ash pigment is made from her earlier paintings (1988–2026), which she has burned and transformed into new material. This circular method does not signify destruction but renewal: the old becomes part of the new. The ash carries time, memory, and artistic history, functioning as a material and conceptual starting point. The process reflects ecological responsibility and principles of sustainable art-making.
Emotion is both the starting point and the aim of her work. A work must evoke and transmit feeling—it must be felt. Drawing from the contemporary atmosphere marked by uncertainty and social pressure, Tuija HP emphasizes celebration, community, and human connection. Her works address fundamental questions of love, humanity, and togetherness, leaving space for the viewer’s own interpretation. Each viewer’s experience is equally valid.
During 2026–2027, her practice integrates painting and video. The processes of burning and painting are documented on video, creating installations in which the finished work and its temporal formation interact. In this way, her art unfolds simultaneously as material presence, emotional experience, and time-based process.
She has received the City of Joensuu Cultural Award (2024) and numerous grants and recognitions.
Tuija HP’s artistic practice is rooted in painting, which she expands through spatial solutions and video art. Her works are structured around a dialogue between surface and emotion. Surface is not merely a visual element but a bodily and experiential field where material, light, and rhythm generate meaning.
The surfaces of her works are tactile and layered—rug-like, smooth, translucent, or intense. They are built through variations in thickness and transparency, the fine texture of pigments, and the movement of light and shadow. Her materials include acrylic and oil paints, pigments, gold leaf, marble dust, and self-produced ash pigment.
The ash pigment is made from her earlier paintings (1988–2026), which she has burned and transformed into new material. This circular method does not signify destruction but renewal: the old becomes part of the new. The ash carries time, memory, and artistic history, functioning as a material and conceptual starting point. The process reflects ecological responsibility and principles of sustainable art-making.
Emotion is both the starting point and the aim of her work. A work must evoke and transmit feeling—it must be felt. Drawing from the contemporary atmosphere marked by uncertainty and social pressure, Tuija HP emphasizes celebration, community, and human connection. Her works address fundamental questions of love, humanity, and togetherness, leaving space for the viewer’s own interpretation. Each viewer’s experience is equally valid.
During 2026–2027, her practice integrates painting and video. The processes of burning and painting are documented on video, creating installations in which the finished work and its temporal formation interact. In this way, her art unfolds simultaneously as material presence, emotional experience, and time-based process.
She has received the City of Joensuu Cultural Award (2024) and numerous grants and recognitions.
Current information
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS AND ACTIVITIETyko Gallery, Nurmes, 1.8.-31.8.2026
NEN Group, Galleria Uusikulma, Kotka, May 2026A2 Gallery, Helsinki. 27.7.-16.8.2026.
Louhitalo, 1.7.-31.8.2027, Art Today - group exhibitionSteam Gallery, Korpilahti, Jyväskylä, December 2027, NEN group exhibitionVoices of Peace online art exhibition
Galleria Arthur, Helsinki, 2030
Galleria Rikhard, Helsinki, 2032
