Annikki Hovisaari

Annikki Hovisaari (1918-2004) was a prominent Finnish ceramicist who worked at Arabia. She studied at the Central School of Art and Design in Helsinki from 1946 to 1949 and then joined Arabia's industrial art department. In 1963 she moved to Arabia's artistic department, where she began working with chamotte clay, porcelain and stoneware. Her work is characterized by robust forms and textured surfaces, often with glazes in earthy colors such as cobalt blue, copper sulfide green and brown tones. She often used chamotte clay to create a rough and tactile surface. Hovisaari participated in international exhibitions in the 1950s and 1960s and won several prizes, including first prize at the Gualdo Tadino ceramics competition in Italy in 1962 and in Vallauris, France, in 1972. She worked at Arabia until 1975, and her work is today highly valued by collectors and represented in several Nordic museums.