Outi and Jan Vapaavuori select Liisa-Irmelen Liwata as the winner of the Young Visual Artist Award
The Outi and Jan Vapaavuori Foundation granted the Young Visual Artist Award to Master of Fine Arts Liisa-Irmelen Liwata. Liwata received the award in the graduation ceremony of Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts on 13 December 2024.
The recipient of the Outi and Jan Vapaavuori Foundation’s award alternates each year between a young visual artist who is a graduate of Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts and a young dancer at the Finnish National Ballet. The recipient of the first Young Visual Artist Award was Iiri Poteri in December 2022. By giving out the award, Outi and Jan Vapaavuori want to support and encourage young people to advance in their careers and pursue international activities. The award is worth 5,000 euros.
The award was given out by the chair of the jury, Academy of Fine Arts Dean Leevi Haapala and Outi Vapaavuori. Besides Vapaavuori and Haapala, Lecturer of Sculpture James Prevett and Lecturer in Art and Technology Tuomo Rainio were also members of the jury.
According to the jury’s comments, this year’s master’s graduate Liwata (b. 1998) applies thinking that relies on her personal history and awareness of global issues, presenting a multipolar world map in which home cannot be tracked down to just one point.
Liwata is a Finnish-Congolese visual artist, whose work combines ceramics, sculpture and painting into a flowing whole. Her internationality is part of her personal history, and it comes up as an unanswered question of identity in her works. Broad global geopolitical issues, immigration, otherness and connection as well as originalities are positioned through subtle and delicate artistic language into ambiguous and open images, surfaces and spaces. Liwata sees the layers of language, culture and history in the landscape: in her works, the land is alive; it is shaped through currents, and it reflects our being. Liwata’s technical prowess and her way of combining glass, bronze and ceramics into an installation are extremely impressive. Her persistent work and personal approach dedicated to the subject matter at hand indicate that she has a very promising career in the arts ahead of her. Besides studying time and space arts at the Academy of Fine Arts, Liwata has completed art studies as an Erasmus exchange student at the Design Academy Eindhoven as well as a bachelor’s degree at Aalto University.
The Young Visual Artist Award is given to an under 30-year-old Master of Fine Arts who is about to graduate or who has graduated within the past two years and who has shown special talent or renewed the visual arts through their art.
The Outi and Jan Vapaavuori Foundation was founded in 2018. The purpose of the foundation is to support and inspire young artists from different artistic and cultural fields – especially from visual and dance arts – to succeed in their careers and find more international pathways. The awardee selected by the foundation alternates each year between a young visual artist and a young dancer.
Learn more about Liisa-Irmelen Liwata’s works: https://liisairmelenliwata.com/