Ilona Niemi

Ilona Niemi depicts femininity in her works, often painting human animal figures. This approach is ancient in art – already in Lascaux’s cave there is a drawing of a human bird. Niemi draws on art history, myths, poetry and life in general: the natural and the artificial are mixed, gender is blurred, and animal and human are equal.
Niemi holds a Master of Fine Arts from Scotland and the United States (2007), and a degree in English Language and Literature and a Master of Arts (Åbo Akademi, 2001). Niemi’s work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London (2002), the Gescheidle Gallery in Chicago (2007) and the Royal Scottish Academy (2022). The artist has had solo exhibitions at the Joensuu and Salo Art Museums, and a large-scale commissioned work in front of EMMA (2019-2021). Niemi’s works are in the collections of the Royal Scottish Academy, EMMA and several other Finnish museums, as well as in numerous private collections in Finland and abroad.