Tommi Ketonen
Glass artist Tommi Ketonen specializes in unique solid glass sculptures made using the Graal technique. Ketonen designs and makes all the sculptures himself. The colorful sculptures often conceal female faces and have an organic form and a distinctive style. Ketonen’s work has a pop artistic nuance and influences from tattoo culture. The watchmaker’s craftsmanship and goldsmith’s skills are reflected in a certain unwavering precision in his glass art. As a tattoo artist, Tommi Ketonen brings a certain openness to using colours and handling molten glass. Each sculpture has a unique color combination that creates a background and inspiration for the engraved and blown motifs in the glass. In the final stage of the working process, when the glass mass is melted, the outer surface coating of the sculpture is brought into its final form by gravity and rotational movement, without tools. The resulting free organic form takes on an aesthetic natural beauty and an optic that contributes to the whole work. It takes at least a week to complete a single sculpture due to the many cooling and heating phases as the material is extremely sensitive to the slightest disturbance in the manufacturing process.
PRIVATE EXHIBITIONS
2022 Gallery Tommi Ketonen, changing exhibitions, Nuutajärvi Glass Village
2022 Loviisa Art Society, Almintalo’s Great Halls. Moments of Humanity 5.12.-22.12.2022, Loviisa
COLLABORATIVE AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 ARS Longa Gallery, Sale collection, Multiple sculptures, 10/2022-
2022 Nuutajärvi Lux -Light event, Collection ”Haaveen liekki mua kuljettaa, oon vapaa luokses saapumaan” (glass and steel pieces) 26.11.-18.12.2022
2022 The Glass Age, Exhibition of New Glass Art, Nuutajärvi Gallery Cooperative NuGo 27.5-11.9.2022, Nuutajärvi
2022 Voipaala Art Center, Curated Glass Art Theme Exhibition, Human – Stories in Glass 12.2.-10.4.2022, Sääksmäki.
2021 The Finnish Glass Museum, Degrees, Collaborative Exhibition, Riihimäki
2021 Gallery Colmio, Clarity Glass Art Exhibition, Porvoo Old City
MEMBERSHIPS
2022- Nuutajärvi Glassworkers Association, Lasikomppania
AWARDS
2021 Regenerative Project for Technology Properties, Art Competition, BioCity Parking Hall Artistic Implementation, Turku
HONORARY MENTIONS
Tommi Ketonen has received the honorary mention of Luxembourg Pinacothéque “Recognition of achievements and encouragement to continue in this direction” 1.12.2021 and 1.12.2022.
- February 20, 2023
