Erwin Laiho is represented by Zetterberg Gallery.
Please contact the gallery for further info & available works.
artist statement
Erwin Laiho is a sculptor grappling with the fundamental matter and deep time implications of digital media. The palette of his conceptual practice is the material lineage that connects raw minerals in the Earth’s crust to consumer technology and the global internet infrastructure. Treating devices and components as pure stocks of matter, Laiho refutes the narrative of a “wireless” everyday in favor of disentangling the muddy “wired” underside.
Though his studio looks like a computer chop shop, for Laiho the goal is not to destroy the objects’ image but rather to salvage an intrinsic worth from within. Disfiguring the “black boxes”, as most people relate to their devices, he strips them of their pristine state of consumerist desire and physical autonomy in order to reveal an immanent vitality of the raw materials. What’s left are incredibly refined mineral materials with a palpable potential and an unobstructed honesty to them - much like their predecessors under our feet and in the night skies.
As we reckon with global supply chains and depleting mineral resources critical to technology, Laiho’s works embody these commonly invisible non-human agents of change and set a stage for material performativity. Combining elements of Land Art and Institutional Critique, the artworks are disillusioned from the familiar ways of seeing our devices and subvert spatial expectations. At times the deadpan misuse and misplacement of devices fringes on comedy — perhaps something akin to Wilson (Cast Away) made by a cave dweller in a disconnected future. In the long lineage of technology as a vessel for immortality, Laiho’s artworks frame it as a form of inheritance from the stones that are its building blocks.
header photo by Simo Pukkinen,
portrait by Jutta Jokinen
erwin joel elias laiho
2018 -
PrintShop Master & Model-maker, Aalto Design Factory
Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
2018
BFA in Sculpture
Minors in Art History, Sustainability & Built Environment. Graduated with Honors & the Celeste Roberge Sculpture Award
University of Florida, United States of America
2014
International Baccalaureate
United World College, Costa Rica
b. 1995
based in Helsinki, Finland
public collections
Kiasma Museum The Finnish National Gallery
Art and Design Collection The National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
solo & two person exhibitions
November 2023
Extra Terrestrial Zetterberg Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
July 2021
Great & Exciting Things People Will Be Doing with PCs in 30 Years
Aalto Design Factory, Otaniemi, Finland
September 2021
probably nothing (Finland’s 1st NFT-exhibition) Kuusamo, Finland
September 2018
Spaces with Nora Sayyad Turku Main Library, Finland
December 2017
iOre (ideas of rare earth) Satellite Art Show, Miami, US
June 2017
Työmaa / Worksite B-Galleria, Turku, Finland
April 2016
The Life of HÄN WARPhaus Gallery, Gainesville, US
group exhibitions
2024
Weightlessness.GLB Computer Art Auction House, Oncyber.io
2023
Future Artefacts Espoo Cultural Center, Espoo
Freedom Zetterberg Gallery, Helsinki
Summer 2023 Zetterberg Gallery, Helsinki
2022
REFLECTIONS Zetterberg Gallery, Helsinki
Art for Ukraine Online Charity Exhibition, curated by artist collective Organic Material and organized by Tezos NFT collector @DeadPanZoom in collaboration with OBJKT-platform
2021
Design+Sustainability Glasshouse, Helsinki Design Week, Helsinki
2020
Designs for a Cooler Planet Design Bites, Helsinki Design Week, Aalto University VARE Lobby, Espoo
Design in Quarantine Online Exhibition, V&A/RCA History of Design MA Project
VILLD permanent site-specific artwork, VILLD Restaurant, Helsinki
2019
Illusion PTNKY x Danny Wu, Hietsun Paviljonki, Helsinki
We are not Spectacular Anymore Aalto University VARE Lobby, Espoo
2018
Perception Change Studio Baustelle, Berlin
Strange Matter CADE Museum for Creativity & Invention, Gainesville
2017
Suggestions for You Gallery Protocol, Gainesville
Studiolab III: Experiments in Art & Science WARPhaus Gallery, Gainesville
TED x UF Art Showcase Phillips Center, Gainesville
FACC's Juried Student Arts Exhibition University Gallery, Gainesville
2016
TED x UF Art Showcase Superfun, Gainesville
Eleven Eleven Superfun, Gainesville
FACC's Juried Student Arts Exhibition University Gallery, Gainesville
HOT MESS a showcase by the UF Sculpture Club Superfun, Gainesville
2015
Gravity & Boyancy Sculpture Exhibit WARPhaus Gallery, Gainesville
2014
WARP Fall Final Student Exhibition WARPhaus Gallery, Gainesville FLA
Visual Arts Exhibition United World College Campus, Costa Rica
publications
2021
Attraction Magazine Veli Studios, Helsinki
2020
Aalto University Magazine Otaniemi, Espoo
2018
dinner SA+AH, University of Florida, Gainesville