Melissa Sammalvaara

Melissa Sammalvaara is an adventurous artist based in Helsinki and various campsites around Finland. Currently she is experimenting on rya, finding new approaches and techniques to combine with more traditional working methods. Sammalvaara creates her artworks – the rya rugs – by hand with various techniques: weaving, knotting and tufting, sometimes even knitting. Nature and our relation to it is a large inspiration for her, which can be seen in her mossy, luscious artworks and the preference in ecological and second hand materials.

Sammalvaaras artworks can be found in the Finnish State Art Deposit, Institut Finlandais in Paris, and as well as the largest private textile art collection in Finland. The Tuomas Sopanen Collection was exhibited at the MOMAK the Museum of Modern Art Kyoto in the Spring 2023. Sammalvaara has also received numerous grants including working grants from the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, the Arts Promotion Centre and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Sammalvaara has also visited several residencies in Finland and most recently in Cité des Arts in Paris, France in 2022. She has exhibited her works in Paris at Institut Finlandais, in Ireland Design Week 2022 and widely around Finland.