Professor Oiva Toikka is one of the greatest names in Finnish glass. His imaginative, rich and bold glass art deviates from the streamlined aesthetic of Nordic design. He has worked in the performing arts for as long as he has in glass. The Birds collection is Toikka’s best-known work. He has enjoyed an international career and received numerous awards, among them Lunning Prize, Pro Finlandia Medal, World Glass Now 85 Award, Kaj Franck Design Prize and the Prince Eugen Medal.
Oiva Toikka is a Finnish artist of immense creative talent, vision and versatility, the creator of elaborate compositions and installations. Throughout a varied artistic career spanning over half a century, Toikka has worked in glass and ceramics, and has designed stage sets and costumes for theatre, ballet and opera, and even textiles for Marimekko.
Although Toikka is undoubtedly a Finnish artist through and through and readily acknowledges his debt to his peers and mentors his vision has, more significantly, taken him beyond national boundaries. With regards to influences and experience, he has always been an artist who looked at the art of the world at large and whose creative output is very much at home on the international stage. Perhaps the most erudite explanation of his unique approach to creativity and glass in particular is provided by the artist himself who constantly makes reference to the expressive and emotional aspects of the creative process and the need to constantly experiment and push the boundaries of accepted taste. In practice, Toikka gives the impression that he likes to do what might at first appear to others to be senseless or stupid, but which for him may be the park that sets off a whole new theme to explore. Most of all it has always been Toikka’s mission to communicate with his audience, and to try and convey some of the excitement and uncertainty that is such an important aspect of his creative journey.
Shop products designed by Oiva Toikka:
