Museum showcases Maija Lavonen’s fiber-optic artworks

Fiber-optic-based art pieces created by Finnish textile artist Maija Lavonen will be highlighted in the “Quietly Monumental” exhibition at the Architecture and Design Museum in Helsinki, Finland, through Sept. 14, 2025.

The exhibition features more than 20 artworks from Lavonen’s artist archive, which the museum received as a donation after Lavonen’s death Dec. 9, 2023. “Quietly Monumental” also features the works of other artists from the museum’s collections.

Throughout her career, Lavonen was known for her inventive methods, such as using light and space to create unique colors and shadows and incorporating fiber optics. She was also a prominent figure in the textile art boom in Finland in the 1980s. Among her artistic achievements, she modernized the traditional Finnish rya rug; these colorful long-tufted tapestries often depict regional motifs. Initially, the rugs were used in Scandinavian countries as bedding, but as time went on and more colors were incorporated, they evolved into wedding rugs and hanging art pieces, often handed down as heirlooms.

“Thanks to Lavonen, textile art is no longer seen in Finland as a niche field but as an integral part of contemporary art,” says Harry Kivilinna, Architecture and Design Museum curator.

Lavonen also developed a technique to combine handwoven wide ribbons into large textile artworks, often featuring light. In Corridor of Light, she wove linen yarn and acrylic rods on a fiber-optic loom and projected light on the piece to create different shapes. She deliberately broke the fibers so that when the light projected on them, they reflected the shape she desired.

Lavonen’s works were inspired by her childhood experiences in Kemi, Finland, and the landscapes of northern Finland. In 1982, she was commissioned to complete artworks for Finland’s Parliament House and the Ministry of the Interior in Helsinki. Textile on Three Surfaces is displayed in the waiting room of the Speaker’s Office in the Parliament House, and Nature as the Source is in the second-floor lobby of the Ministry of the Interior, where it often serves as a backdrop for media interviews. She also designed Haukivesi in 1985 for the newly built Varkaus City Library, which was inspired by the city’s Lake Haukivesi. 

Lavonen was also a professor at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki and was named Textile Artist of the Year in 1996.