Niina Hiltunen.

Textile artist. Textile designer. Visual artist.

Niina Hiltunen is a textile and fiber artist working and living in Pirkanmaa region, Finland. She holds a master’s degree in Art and Culture with weaving her specialty. She studied textile art at the University of Lapland 2020-2021 and starts there as a doctoral researcher in the autumn of 2022. Hiltunen is a member of the Finnish Association of New Textile Art UUTE, The Finnish Association of Textile Artists TEXO and Artists O.

Hiltunen’s background in classical music (cello) and linguistics (German, English and Spanish philology) is present in her art in many ways, both in the contents and in the names of the artworks. Hiltunen’s work has been seen in various group exhibitions both in Finland and abroad.

Hiltunen is also interested in multidisciplinary art and in community engaged art, which has led her having an exhibition at a psychiatric centre in Tampere in 2019, as well as leading art projects with the YMCA youth in 2019 and with dementia patients in 2021. Kädet kertovat, a multidisciplinary artwork combining textile / fiber art with contemporary dance, video and sound art, is her latest collaboration in the field of multidisciplinary art. The arttextile and the videotextile were juried to The 7th Riga International Triennial of Textile and Fiber Art Tradition&Innovation in the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in the summer of 2023.

Artist statement.

My artistry is profoundly multidisciplinary and combines different kinds of art forms. As a textile and fiber artist I heavily lean on my background in classical music and linguistics. I create abstract, three-dimensional art from yarns and textile materials by weaving them on a traditional countermarch loom, slowly, weft by weft. Despite the sculptural nature, my art reveals its true nature and its fine and delicate, almost fragile details only when looked at very closely.

Languages widely understood have become my main focus and the metaphor of my artistic work. A language means for me

  • the language I use when talking about my art and the language which connects me with other people and arts
  • the materials (media, colour, structures and textures) I use
  • the way to communicate with myself and my inner thoughts, which are then revealed in my hand woven, contemporary art

Yet, by the ancient method, weaving, I’m kept deeply rooted in the continuum: The language of weaving is universal.

Exhibitions.

2025

Äänestä / On Sound, solo exhibition, Gallery Rajatila, Tampere. Oct 11 – 28, 2025.

Valo, Pirkanmaa muotoilee IX group exhibition, Gallery Saskia, Tampere. Apr 25 – May 14, 2025.

On Senses, Artists O group exhibition, Craft Museum of Finland, Jyväskylä. Jan 11 –  Apr 27, 2025.

 

 

2024

Väritarinoita (Colour stories) Minitextiles by The Finnish Association of Textile Artists TEXO, Gallery Ronga, Tampere.  Sept 28 – Oct 17, 2024.

Touch, Contextile 2024 Contemporary Textile Art Biennial, Guimarães Portugal. Sept 7 – Dec 15, 2024.

Tolerance Limit, VIII International Triennial of Textile Arts 2024, Savaria Museum, Hungary. June 21 – Aug 31, 2024.

Verba Creant,  International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Biblioteca Ernesto Balducci in Barberino di Mugello, Florence, Italy. June 15 – July 13, 2024.

String Theory, 10-year anniversary exhibition of Finnish Association of New Textile Art, Haihara Art Centre / Talli, Tampere. July 6 – 28, 2024.

Pieces of Reality, Solo exhibition, Tampere Hall Winter garden. May 17 – June 4, 2024.

Sattuman vaara, Joint exhibition, Voipaala Art Centre, Valkeakoski. Dec 2, 2023 – Feb 4, 2024.