graal – Contemporary Glass

21/11/201913/01/2020

Dreams exhibition opens in Gallery Pictor

H.E. Gabriele Altana, the ambassador of Italy in Finland opened the Dreams exhibition in Gallery Pictor, where my glass is exhibited together with the ceramic art of Heini Riitahuhta.

It was a fun coincidence that Italy has been an important part of my year. There was a golden award from Italian A’Design Award and invitation to Venice glass Week. In 2020 I’ll also exhibit some new works in Milan Design Week. So maybe fate is trying to get me to stay in Italy.

The beautiful gallery space used to be a fire station and they still had the original fire truck door and large windows. It was great to meet many friendly people at the event and open the stories behind the glass sculptures.

Roller coaster sculpture was blown in Riihimäki. There is intensive dark blue color behind the soda bubbles. When the sculpture is illuminated from the right angle, the shadow has a surprising hue. The sculpture is solid glass.

Earlier version of the icebergs was also exhibited in Venice. Glacier is a icy landscape that mirrors the nordic mood.

Hedge Maze graal piece has multiple image layers with lots of hidden details. On the reverse side, the images are dark blue, like a shadows of a forest.

Thank you all for the fun opening! The exhibition is open till 7.12.2019. So there is still time to visit and dream along!

29/12/201630/12/2016

Glass adventures

I’m really looking forward to the year 2017 that is actually the 100-year anniversary of Finland. Many exciting new opportunities are awaiting for example in Ohio, Japan and England. The 100 year theme has inspired me to start a new narrative on glass that is based on Finnish national epic Kalevala. It will be a surreal and dreamlike story about independence and finding one’s true self.

When looking back I find that the year 2016 has been full of glass adventures. Last summer I had my first solo exhibition in Gallery G12 in Helsinki where I exhibited a glass story about a flying boat. Even there has been many expo’s before this, it was in a way my first step as a independent glass artist. That step was important to take, because a solo show gave the glass story harmony that it needed. After this the year got really busy; I had a change to travel around and see different kind of events, shows, fairs and festivals that were concentrated on design, glass and contemporary art.

G12 was my first solo show in Helsinki. It really opened many doors! — G12 was my first solo show in Helsinki. The exhibition was about a story told on glass.

I visited abandoned castle in Scotland while exhibiting in London. It is one of the places that inspired me to create a new story on glass that mixes up memories and places into fairytale scenes that follow dream logic.

Every exhibition in 2016 has been memorable: For example in Glasrijk Tubbergen it was delightful to see a small Dutch town full of modern glass. Art from multiple European masters were exhibited all around the town; in glass houses in the middle of the town square to magical illuminated glass forests. I travelled to Tubbergen with my fellow glass artists Marja Hepo-aho and Kari Alakoski. In November our group also had a great opportunity to show our art in beautiful Galerie De Lintelo, in Haaksbergen.

Many of the events I have taken part have been about contemporary art. This is why it was really refreshing to visit also Tendence fair in Frankfurt and immerse in a world of design. At the moment I’m concentrating on developing further some of my design objects, for example Polar Night-lamp. It would be cool to have a small lamp series in the future. Let’s see how it goes!

Open-air glass exhibition in Glasrijk tubbergen had a magical athmosphere.

Our group had lots of fun demonstrating in Leerdam.

I'm hoping to create new versions from my lamps. — I’m hoping to create new versions of my lamps. Something simple and predigested.

During the X-mas holidays I have had many surprises in my letterbox: Design magazines that I have given interviews have travelled to my breakfast table from UK, Spain and Netherlands. It is always exiting to talk with writers, because it is a change to really stop and think about all the things behind the art. The most peculiar interview lately have been in Finnish Karjala magazine, where I was asked to tell about my family heritage and how my roots have influenced my creativity. Because of the interview I realised that so many of my dearest artistic themes springs from the old believes, stories and dreams that are told by my family. They are in a way distant echoes of the past. This interview gave me many ideas for the Kalevala-story that I’m working with at the moment. It was also great fun to give a very extensive interview to Huff Magazine from UK that opened my eyes on what my art is all about: dreams that are like puzzles and poems: Build up piece by piece – layer by layer. What is hidden, is the most important.

It was great to see the Foezzz Magazine with a great article about our group in Tubbergen. It was also fun to find glass story sculptures on the front page. So nice! It’s surprisingly easy to read Dutch without any language skills and also interesting to see all the dutch glass design on the magazine.

06/07/201608/08/2016

Summer exhibitions

G12 HELSINKI

Sini Majuri: Flying boat. 11.6 – 7.7.2016. G12 Annankatu 16, Helsinki

Open Tue-Thu 12-17, Fri-Sun 12-16

Meet the artist: Saturday 2.7 at 14-16 PM.

My first ever solo exhibition opens in Gallery G12 in Helsinki city center. The Flying Boat exhibition is a cartoon story on glass. It is a lucid dream with swaying rooms and rooftops. Every glass sculpture has multiple layers of images and the pieces are handcrafted in Helsinki with 100 years old Graal technique mixed with modern 3D design.

Helsingin Sanomat: Lasinpuhaltaja tekee sarjakuvia sata vuotta vanhalla tekniikalla

TL-Magazine: Sini Majuri: Tales on Glass -article

GUMBOSTRAND KONST & FORM

Summer in Gumbostrand. 2.6 – 4.9.2016. Vainuddintie 72-28, Söderkulla

Open: Friday–Saturday 11–17 and Sunday 11–16

In Gumbostrand I’m exhibiting playful glass sculptures as a part of the group exhibition. Horses, trees and childhood memories are the main themes for the summer exhibition. The venue is beautiful. It’s close to the sea and in a historic industrial setting. Konst & Form is situated in restored 1950s Hartwall factory building in the Gumbostrand district of Sipoo. It is only a 30-minute trip from the Helsinki city centre.

Sipoon Sanomat: Majuri puhaltaa kuin kesyttäisi villieläintä

MAILA- TALVIO SALONKI

9.6. – 21.8.2016. Vanha-Koskipään kartano, Hartola

The romantic Maila-Talvio Salon is located in an old country side mansion in Hartola. I’m participating the summer exhibition with some poetry-themed works from the years 2013 – 2015. There will also be our Comic Art In Glass-exhibition in Itä-Häme Museum that is very close by the salon. The salon is one of the few Finnish art exhibitions that is fully organiced by the local municipality.

NUUTAJÄRVI

Peep show -Toinen todellisuus. 28.5. – 14.8.2016. Nuutajärven lasikylä, Vanhan hytin halli

Open 29.5.–14.8.2016 at 11.00 – 17.00

Glass has been manufactured in Nuutajärvi longer than anywhere else in Finland. The glass village is internationally known for the glass and the picturesque environment. So the summer exhibition in there has also very unique theme: it’s a peep show. All the works are hidden inside black wooden boxes and you need to peek trough a small peep hole to have a glimse of the art exhibited.

LONDON

Tales on glass exhibition shows fairytales that are captures between layers of glass. The logic of dreams and surrealism are the main inspirations for the exhibition. The storylines come together from bits and pieces that slowly evolve like songs or poems. The stories are blown between layers of glass by using a century-old Swedish Graal technique that is mixed up with modern 3D-design. The layered images are created layer by layer during a slow process that takes months.

Tales on glass exhibition is a fairytale under the glass surface. It’s about an animal that travels inside our dreams and bends time, until the dream lasts forever. There is always something hidden in each glass sculpture. Secrets that are revealed only when looked from the right angle thought the glass material.

Sini Majuri. Tales on glass exhibition. London

Parallax art fair, Chelsea Town Hall, King’s Road, London

22.7.2016 – 24.7.2016

12/05/2016

3-LAYERED GRAAL SCULPTURES

Summer exhibitions are soon opening. I have been working with graal’s that have 3 image layers on top of each other. These super thick pieces need 10 day annealing, so next Thursday will be really exiting day when the annealer is finally opened.

11/04/2016

Blowing the first piece for the European Glass Festival 2016

The theme for the European Glass Festival 2016 is Jekyll & Hyde. So something ominous and bloody is about to be blown under the layers of glass. All the invited artist are creating two glass sculptures with this topic and it has been truly interesting to strive to use glass in a bit twisted way. Today I was working at Mafka&Alakoski’s Glass Studio in Riihimäki. We pondered about how to create blood splatters inside the glass but still maintain the sculpture poetic, mystic and fresh. The solution was to add spoonfull of red colours on two layers of the glass sculpture.

Creating a glass sculpture with Kari Alakoski in Riihimäki. — Creating the first glass sculpture for European Glass Festival 2016 with Kari Alakoski in Riihimäki.

The blood splatters were added with a silver spoon!

I'm using multiple layered graal-technique in the sculpture. — I’m using multiple layered graal-technique in the first sculpture. The second sculpture will be a companion for this one.

The exhibition will be held in Wrocław Poland, European Capital of Culture 2016 in 15.10.2016 – 23.10.2016. After this the exhibition will tour in Łódź (the City Art Gallery in Łódź), Legnica (the Art Gallery in Legnica); Jelenia Góra (the Karkonosze Museum, Krakow (the BB Gallery).