Erja Hirvi | Experience

Year2024
MediumGouache on paper
Size40 x 30 cm
Categories

“The inspiration for the works comes from the frescoes of Ancient Greece. By using their formal style I want to express the relationship to nature and flowers that was important to them. I feel connection with a female goddess who made flowers bloom if she wanted to. Her sacred flower is the lily. Maybe we can learn something about the ancient Greeks’ admiration for nature, at least I’m touched by it.”

Erja Hirvi is a designer and textile artist who has designed mainly printed textiles, but also diverse objects out of cast iron, glass and ceramics, wood and beeswax. She graduated from the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 1997. Specialised in printed fabrics and patterns, she has created more than 160 patterns in collaboration with many Finnish companies, including Marimekko and Samuji. Her work has been showcased in a variety of exhibitions and publications around the world. Hirvi’s bold individual style has made a visible mark on Finnish pattern design since the 1990s, refreshing the visuality of printed fabrics and bringing pattern design to the mainstream.

“What I enjoy most is intense periods of work, in which one picture inspires the next and painting evolves without planning. Exploring art, history, and science is fascinating; it’s like a crazy whirlwind in your brain."

Erja Hirvi