Ulrika Ferm is the common denominator of the two new contemporary art exhibitions 

Visual artist Ulrika Ferm (b. 1972) is known for her wide-ranging approach to artistic practice, blending archival research, historiography, and societal themes. She is particularly interested in weather and weather phenomena, which have been central themes in her recent works. Weather is also the focal theme of her solo exhibition Weather[ing], currently on display at the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art. In her new series of drawings, Ferm depicts cloudscapes over the sea near the centre of Vaasa, while her earlier video works explore weather-related phenomena, including Irish fog and Armenian metaphors of weather.

The works on display in the exhibition explore the historical weather of Ireland and Armenia through interviews, statistics, and archives. Weather is linked to atmospheric phenomena that depend on the sea, ocean currents, clouds, rainfall, glaciers, decomposing materials, and the carbon and carbon dioxide cycles. However, weather can also be experienced locally, personally, bodily, and affectively. Human activity and technology also affect weather phenomena by bringing about changes and disasters. Weather can be described as an interface between the Earth’s dimensions and the scale of living beings, where past climatic events are reflected in the present. Ferm’s cloud-drawings document these transformations, where the impacts of the past and the ghosts of earlier atmospheric events are present in the spirit of philosopher Jacques Derrida’s ideas.

Art influencer, professor, and teacher

Ferm has been active in the art scene in Vaasa since the early 2000s as a member and founder of the contemporary art association Platform. in 2002, she was the recipient of the Young Artist of the Year award and has since made an impact not only on Finnish contemporary art but also internationally.

From 2013 to 2020, Ferm worked as a professor of site- and context-specific art at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki, and most recently, she has taught the thematic theory course ‘Elements and Energy’ alongside Professor of Art History and Theory, Riikka Stewen. The course is based on the four classical elements: earth, water, air, and fire.

Alongside Ulrika Ferm’s solo exhibition, the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art will host the group exhibition Interferences, featuring current students of the course as well as alumni artists: Jenni Eskola, Alexa Illi, Shoji Kato, Johanna Ketola, Astri Laitinen, Helena Pulkkinen, Kati Roover, Ida Tomminen and Sofia Vuorenmaa.

The group exhibition Interferences features nine artists

The concept of interference refers to the overlapping of wave trains, the effect of which can be either amplifying or dampening. The nine artists in the exhibition examine encounters and intersections, the intertwining of ecospheres, and the cycles of energy, matter, and meaning, through themes such as plant energy production, different scales of time, and visual culture.

In the works displayed in the exhibition, observations and systems, along with materials and concepts, intersect like waves, revealing the layered nature of reality. The concept, which delves into new materialism, highlights materials as the energy of art.

Natural phenomena and layers of time

In his work, Shoji Kato juxtaposes ancient rock formations and the silk woven by silkworms, highlighting the intertwined scales of time. Kato graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 2007 and completed his doctoral degree in fine arts in 2015 at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki. His works are held in collections such as the Kiasma Museum, the Saastamoinen Foundation, and the Finnish State Art Collection.

In their art, Jenni Eskola and Astri Laitinen reflect on the role of plants as converters of light energy, as well as the role of the artist, who continues and makes visible the work of plants as enablers of life. Eskola graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki, in 2012. Laitinen graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki, in 2021.

Observations, colours, and concepts in art

Sofia Vuorenmaa’s work is like a diary, documenting the changing blue shades in the sky and the formation of the colour experience. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki.

Ida Tomminen also examines the formation of concepts and their meaning in relation to knowledge in her work, where the archetypal idea of the apple represents the power of concepts in shaping images and meanings. She is studying in the Time and Space Arts subject area at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki.

Identity, Images, and Subjectivity

Alexa Illi combines pop and advertising imagery with autobiographical storytelling through a transfeminine lens. In Illi’s work, imagery is linked to the construction of identities. The photographs create mirror images and reflective surfaces upon which layered subjectivities are constructed through a dialogue with visual meanings. Illi is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki.

In Helena Pulkkinen’s work, the tabletop-like surface evokes the table imagined by Mrs. Dalloway in Virginia Woolf’s eponymous novel, which does not appear as a complete form from any single perspective, but offers the possibility of encounters. Pulkkinen works with sound, spaces, and sculptural objects. She is finalising her master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki.

Nature, knowledge, and physicality

Kati Roover combines moving images, sound, and installations. A video essay filmed in the Amazon explores the impact of the surrounding environment on knowledge, as well as perceptions of nature-related knowledge and the nature of knowledge itself. Roover graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki, in 2016, and her works have been exhibited at various venues, including Kunsthalle Helsinki and WAM Turku City Art Museum.

Johanna Ketola’s multilayered video essay explores mimesis and the role of physicality in shaping various environments and realities. Ketola graduated from the department of Time and Space Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki, in 2013. Her works have been exhibited both in Finland and internationally, including at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art.

Curated in collaboration

The exhibition has been curated in collaboration with the Pro Artibus Foundation and the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki. Ulrika Ferm is working at the Pro Artibus Foundation’s artist residency at Academill, Vaasa, from 2024 to 2026. The foundation’s projects have a regional focus in Ostrobothnia in 2024–2025. The exhibitions have received support from the Finnish Heritage Agency, Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet, and the Eugène, Elisabeth and Birgit Nygrén Stiftelse foundation.

The exhibition team includes visual artist Ulrika Ferm, as well as the CEO of the Pro Artibus Foundation Mikaela Lostedt, Professor of Art History and Theory Riikka Stewen from the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki, and Head of Exhibitions Maaria Salo from Vaasa Museums.

The exhibitions will be on view at the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art from 26 April to 16 August 2025.

Artist talks will be held in conjunction with the exhibition

Saturday, 26 April at 12 – A discussion with the artists, moderated by Ulrika Ferm, about the themes of the exhibition. The discussion will be primarily in Finnish, with parts in English.

The Ulrika Ferm Artist Talk will be held on Saturday, 3 May at 13 in Swedish and at 14 in Finnish.