BUD UP, Tero Kuitunen?

Contemporary art and yummy design oozing delicious colors and imaginative joyfulness. Designer Tero Kuitunen’s world is full of inspiring, creative flavors – how does wall sausages and ceramic smileys sound to you? 

Hello Tero! How are you and what gets you inspired? 

– Hello, I’m good! As of late, I’ve been very inspired about New York City and its iconic logos, water tanks, hot dogs and more. Before my show here in BUD, I just spent 6 weeks in an artist residency in New York. These works got their inspirations from there.

If you were a flower, what flower would you be – and why?

– I really love tulips, so I would be an orange Parrot tulip. I’m a spring child, so I really love the tulip season! Also, the history of tulip mania in the Dutch Golden Age is very interesting.

Your work really moves and touches people – we saw everyone smiling when enjoying of your art pieces. How does your creative process unfold? 

– In general, I love to use bold colors, unexpected forms, and humor. I’m quite spontaneous and usually just start experimenting. I rarely calculate anything too much beforehand, like with these wall sausages. Also, when you make ceramic work, you have to leave space for coincidences –all the work gets glazed and then fired, so there’s a lot that happens during the process that you can’t quite control. That’s exciting. 

Are there any artists that you look especially up to? 

– I’m not a fan-kind-of-a-person by nature, but of course there are many doers and phenomena that inspire me. Pop culture is a big one and in that scene Andy Warhol, for sure. Salvador Dali is another interesting character: my partner is from Spain, from Dali’s hoods, and I love the sense of surrealism.   

What else do you do with your life? 

Haha, like do I have a life outside of being an artist? Yes, I love cooking, my family had a bakery and a donut factory. I’ve made an exhibition called Ceramic Deli – there’s a lot of similarities in baking and making ceramic work. 

What’s on your bucketlist? 

I wanna go to Koko Suomi leipoo -program (British version is Bake off!) one day. 

What would you say to young Tero? 

Oh Jesus. Haha, not that. I’d tell him to trust the process and your doings – and not think or worry too much about the future. You’ll get to have great adventures and meet amazing people. 

How about to creatives in general? 

That things take time and there needs to be a certain passion to keep things alive in a longer time span. And to collaborate and be open for help and support. It’s more about supporting people than competing with them. 

Cool. Thanks so much Tero!

Jonnekin? 

Tero Kuitunen (1986) is a designer inspired by the interface of design and art, the unprejudiced apposition of things and the exploration about the meaning of touch, humor and surprising situations. He’s best known of his colorful ceramic products and fringe mirrors. Alongside product design, Tero is known for concept and space planning as well as projects of contemporary art and design. www.terokuitunen.com.