"Love your work, enjoy dialogue, stay curious and experiment new ideas. Let yourself be self-critical, but not at the beginning of the project. think everything is possible and never give up. Take care of your beloved and nosce te ipsum - know yourself."
Professor Riitta Nelimarkka’s multifacetedness makes her one of the most exciting Finnish visual artists. Her art is characterized by a fearless use of colour and form, as well as virtuoso drawing skills and using music in her art.
She has studied painting in Paris, animation and photography in Stockholm, art history and music theory at the Helsinki University and piano performance at the Sibelius Academy. Nelimarkka holds a doctorate degree in the arts (AALTO University Helsinki, 2001). She has received the honorary title professor from the president of Finland 2008. She has held several positions of trust a.o. been the chairman of Nelimarkka-Foundation since 1987.
During years Riitta Nelimarkka has written 20 books: art books, children's books, poetry, made several films, f.i. the first feature animation of Finland Seven Brothers, has had major exhibitions at venues including Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki; Kunsthalle Helsinki; Wäinö Aaltonen museum, Turku ,Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm; Museo de la Nacion, Lima, the Russian Academy of Arts’ Tsereteli Art Gallery, Moscow, EXPO 2000 in Hannover; FIDM Museum, Los Angeles, La Maison de l´Amerique de Monaco and Maison de l’Europe, Paris. Bonga Castle, an aristocratic building that she has renovated with her husband, Jaakko Seeck, in Loviisa, near Helsinki also houses a permanent exhibition of some three hundred works.
Nelimarkka has received numerous awards and prizes at international biennales and film festivals. In 2016 she was awarded by the Order of France with the distinction of Officier des Arts et Lettres.
