Camilla Vuorenmaa

In her practice, Camilla Vuorenmaa challenges the physical and traditional boundaries of painting. Her carved wood paintings are hybrids of sculpture and painting that require time and physical strength to create. The style is rough and unvarnished, endowed with a playful decorativeness, the palette rich and striking. Some of the reliefs are like partitions, others feature elements of wall painting, a medium the artist likes for its immediacy, momentariness and spatiality. Vuorenmaa depicts people and humanity in her work. She searches for motifs in magazines and books and by taking photographs of her surroundings. In her working process, it has become increasingly important to face fundamental questions by meeting and observing her subjects in authentic situations.

Camilla Vuorenmaa (b. 1979) graduated from the Department of Painting at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2005. She lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. In 2017 Vuorenmaa was nominated for Finland's biggest art price Ars Fennica, among four other nominees. Vuorenmaa received the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts Prize in spring 2015, after which her solo exhibition was shown at EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art in spring 2016. In 2018 Vuorenmaa was awarded a William Thuring prize. Vuorenmaa also won a prize for her wooden works in the International Solo Awards 2013 at the Spring exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen. 

Vuorenmaa’s recent solo exhibitions include Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Finland (2023), Helsinki Contemporary, Helsinki, Finland (2022), Joensuu Art Museum, Joensuu, Finland (2021), Gallery Forum Box, Helsinki, Finland (2017), EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland (2016), Gallery C4 projects, Copenhagen, Denmark (2014), Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2014), Gallery Huuto, Helsinki, Finland (2011),  tm-galleria, Helsinki, Finland (2008). Her work has also been seen in group exhibitions at, to mention a few, Amos Rex in Helsinki (2024), Turku Art Museum, Finland (2020), Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden (2019), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland (2017), Gallery Thomassen, Gothenburg, Sweden (2017), Landskrona Konstmuseum (2017), Salo Art Museum, Finland, Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre, Manchester, England, Amos Andersons Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland (2015), Edsvik Konsthall, Sollentuna, Sweden, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2014). Vuorenmaa’s works are found in collections such as the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Saastamoinen Foundation, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Amos Anderson Art Museum, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki Art Museum and Niemistö Collection.