This article was originally published (in Finnish) in Kritiikin Uutiset magazine on 11 December 2025. It has also been published in Ars Photonica.
"There’s no criticism of light art" is a phrase I often hear. It may be true. What should this criticism be like and what should its writer know? And why should one even write reviews of light art?
"Almost the 'purest' material in art"
What exactly is light art? For some it means a spectacular light show, for others a beautiful reflection of light from a window, or a cosy candlelight. I have been pushing the definition I developed for my thesis, with some success: light art is visual art in which light plays a defining role, either as a material or a theme. Light is not present just for the sake of visibility, and its quality matters.
Sounds simple, but isn’t.
The world-embracing claim that all art is light art, because without light the work would not even be seen, is not true. Lighting conditions affect artworks, but visibility is just one of the functions of light. If light is not significant for the content of the work, the work is not light art.
Light art is not a separate genre from other visual arts, but can take almost any form. Most light art works may be classified as sculptures or installations, but a light art work can also be a performance, a land art work, a painting, an intervention or a textile art work. For example, the creations by Maija Lavonen (1931–2023) that contain optical fibers, seen in last year's exhibition at the Architecture and Design Museum, easily fall into the category of light art.
In some definitions, light art is limited to electric light – without arguments whatsoever. Sun, fire or other natural light can be material for light art, and even darkness is not always necessary. The gallery for Anu Raatikainen's Phototaxis exhibition (2024) was Pitkäkoskenniitty field, bathing in sunlight, and some of the works were based on the reflections of Sun.
Maija Lavonen's exhibition Silent Monuments (2025) at the Museum of Architecture and Design combined textile and light art. Photo: Mia Kivinen
Light art is not just about large festival works, it can be very small, subtle and even conceptual. Jenni Eskola's chlorophyll paintings, which are changed by light over time, were included in the Material Light light art exhibitions (2020 and 2021), based on the defining role of light in the work. So light art does not necessarily even have to have its own light to shine.
In Anu Raatikainen's Phototaxis exhibition (2024), Raatikainen used sunlight as the material for her works. Photo: Mia Kivinen
"There’s a likelihood of light art and go-go dancers to be seen in the space"
Light art has many related genres and they are often confused with each other. Drawing the line is not exactly simple.
The clearest difference between light art and lighting design is that lighting design takes place in a performance and serves the performance. The easiest way to distinguish lighting design from light art is to check whether there are performers in the space, perhaps even on a stage. No matter how excellent or unique the lighting design is, this does not make it light art. It is not a question of quality or prestige, but of classification.
Borderline cases here include, for example, light-based performance art and performances that take place in an existing light art work. The artwork Artgeologists (2019) by the art collective KUNST, with its eerily glowing performers, falls interestingly between performance and installation.
The difference between lighting and light art is also related to the instrumental value: the task of lighting is to present the illuminated object in a certain, pre-defined way, usually pretty, which is not the task of art. It is especially difficult to draw the line in architectural lighting: sometimes the lighting creates a completely different impression when it gets dark than how the building looks during the day. The facade work of the Folks Hotel in Helsinki (2020) by Sun Effects functions both as lighting and as an artwork in itself. It uses light to draw an entity that repeats the shapes of the building, in its own unique way, that would also work sans the house.
It is even more difficult to draw a line between light art and video art, and the distinction is not made easier by the fact that video art is also a regular guest at light art events. Both belong to the media arts and use some of the same equipment; the light of a video projector can be a figurative image or an abstract light shape and a monitor can be an image source or a shining light cube. As a rough guideline: in video art the content of the image is more important and in light art the light itself plays the leading role.
Terike Haapoja has puzzled classifiers with several artworks of hers, the most famous of which is probably Entropy (2004), which has also been seen at light art events. In it, a horse carcas cooling down after death is filmed with a thermal camera, and the image becomes more unrecognizable and abstract the cooler the horse gets.
Sometimes decorative lights and festive lighting are also called light art, but I assume that's just frivolous foolery, stiffen my upper lip and walk on by.
Artgeologists (2017), seen at the FLASH1 Biennial, by the artist collective KUNST, was both an installation and a performance. Between performances, the glowing costumes were charged with lights in the exhibition space. Photo: Hannu Iso-Oja
"A huge final spurt to the light art event"
The traditional division in light art has been festival and gallery art. In this division, festival art is big and spectacular, while gallery art is intimate and profound. This division, which has never been entirely clear, has become even more blurred as artists have started to work in both fields. Festivals also come in different sizes and styles; I’ve curated both the largest and the smallest light art festivals in Finland. Thesmallest Vallila (2025) was less than one percent of size, budget and audience of Lux Helsinki, and quite literally more minimalist in style as well.
However, the division still has its reasons.
A large part of light art festivals are organised by cities and municipalities, and their most important goal is to provide pleasant experiences for as large a part of the tax payer population as possible and to appeal to tourists as well. And light does appeal. The most visible difference between light art and other visual arts is its popularity with the audience. It is also its biggest curse. Few galleries have to consider their exhibition selections based on the logistics of hundreds of thousands of people. Also, few galleries choose their artworks with the goal of the whole city liking them.
From this point of view, it is risky to choose the most experimental cutting edge of light art for events aimed at the general public, and the focus is usually on visual splendour. Especially at the most crowded events, the works must be large and possible to be experienced quickly, with the crowd pushing the viewer towards the next artwork. This does not exclude profound content, but it does limit the choice of artworks.
"Beyond Intellectualization"
The alleged entertainment-heaviness of light art is a sore point among light art professionals, especially at festivals. Curators discuss content and lack thereof among themselves, but still the artworks that end up at festivals are often those that rely on visual impact or technical ingenuity.
Festival works can also be small and subtle. Salla Salin's site-specific work Rift (2025) at Thesmallest Vallila light art event 2025. Photo: Mia Kivinen
With some of the artworks, we could talk openly about entertainment. Entertainment has its own, strong value that is easy to justify, especially in these endlessly bleak and apocalyptic times. Why not just give people a moment of delight instead of requiring them to dwell in the deepest of thoughts?
The industry of light art has shaped up here. As if by a common decision, the custom of naming events either light events or light art events, depending on their goals in terms of artistic values, has spread. Criticism should be in line with this. Just as a theater critic approaches a farce and a contemporary theater piece with different expectations, so should they with light entertainment and light art. There’s nothing wrong with a spectacle, as long as it is done properly.
"A trend approaching a photo-theoretical observation tool"
The question of valuing light art is also related to who makes it. And that field is a broad one. There’s no formal training program for light art, but individual courses and training with some relation to light can be found all over Finland.
Traditionally, light art artists have been some kind of gyro gearlooses of the art world and its fringes, who have done what they like and supported each other in technical and artistic issues. There has been a close connection to kinetic art; for example, long-time light artist Annikki Luukela (b. 1944) has been working in the Dimensio group, known especially for kinetic art, and was its founding member. The kinetic works of Eino Ruutsalo (1921–2001) were also light art works.
Jaakko Niemelä's kinetic light work Model of an imagined structure (2010) projected onto the wall of the MO Museum at the Vilnius Light Festival 2025. Photo: Mia Kivinen
As lighting design education has developed, it has become a foundation for many artists. Lighting design background unites, among others, Kaisa Salmi (b. 1968), Terike Haapoja (b. 1974), Alexander Salvesen (b. 1990) and Jani-Matti Salo (b. 1984). Light unites many art genres and the group of artists who use light is also diverse: in addition to the above mentioned, it includes architects, graphic designers, set designers, video visualizers, engineers, photographers and musicians. To begin with. The groups have remained quite separate, but in recent years – especially due to the influence of the Finnish Light Art Society FLASH – they have started to find each other. This can only be beneficial, for everyone.
Not all artists who use light use the title of light artist. Often this is because artists work with other materials as well, but the stigma of light art also plays a part. One artist vehemently denied that he was doing light art, even though I caught him red-handed designing a work that had only light as material. Obviously, I don't understand this light art shaming, but the artists decide for themselves what their title is or how they name their art.
"Light art can sometimes be amazingly direct and efficient"
Why aren't there any reviews written about light art? This is a kind of a trick question, since reviews are indeed written about light art, it’s just not called light art in them. And when it is, the text is usually a blurb or a piece of news, not a review.
There are a considerable number of undercover light artists in Finland. Usually, for example Jaakko Niemelä (b. 1959), Maaria Wirkkala (b. 1954), Vappu Rossi (b. 1976) or the Grönlund-Nisunen artist duo are not marketed as the leading light artists, even though they often use light in their works. And they use it brilliantly, I might add. The expression light art is not necessarily mentioned in the review, and it thus cannot be found by searching for light art online. When these reviews are taken into account, light art does not necessarily suffer from underrepresentation any more than other art forms – especially when you consider the ever-decreasing number of reviews in general.
Festivals and larger artworks, especially those displayed in public spaces, often end up on city news instead of the culture section. Because of this emphasis, the writer rushes to say perhaps a few off-handed words about art, in order to get to the real point, which is the number of visitors and lamps and electricity consumption, and in the winter also the cold weather and bringing light into the darkness. There are a lot of these fluff-like texts written about light art.
I believe and hope that Maaria Wirkkala is not asked how many lamps there are in her exhibitions.
"In addition to food for the eyes, fuel for thoughts"
In recent years, light art, which is openly called light art, has also found its way into the halls of museums and galleries, in group exhibitions especially dedicated to light art. Lux & Umbra at WAM Turku City Art Museum in 2024 and Boisterous Light at Museum Center Taika in 2023 brought together works by artists from different backgrounds specifically in the context of light. The FLASH biennials of the Finnish Light Art Society FLASH have presented Finnish contemporary light art in three editions since 2017, and the fourth edition, New Darkness (2024), expanded the coverage to older works, too. The Material Light exhibitions of FLASH, MUU ry and the Northern Photography Center (2020 and 2021) focused on light as an element. In addition, individual artists have held exhibitions focused on light art.
At the first FLASH Biennial of the Finnish Light Art Society FLASH in Suomenlinna in 2017, Grönlund-Nisunen's site-specific work Critical Level was placed in the shipyard's empty pump well. Photo: Tommi Grönlund
It would be difficult to write about these exhibitions without specifically considering light as an art medium, and they cannot be accounted for by an audience report. They have indeed led to a slow but steady movement of articles about light art towards the culture sections of magazines. Even the prestigious Finnish art magazine Taide has published Pessi Rautio's review of the light art exhibitions of the 2023–2024 season.
Rautio has also paid commendable attention to light art over the years, and he is not the only one. Several names come to mind: Rosa Kuosmanen relates light art to other art genres and art history in an elegant way in her reviews. Kulttuuritoimitus magazine has reported on light events in an interesting way, especially with the pen of Päivi Vasara and Eli Harju, and Sanna Lipponen has approached light art from the perspective of a member of the audience.
“In the end, only light”
Light art needs criticism. Both inciting and challenging. Perhaps even more of the latter. What should a critic know about light art, then? Basically, no more or less than about other art forms. However, there are a few light-specific wishes.
It is good for the critic to be familiar with the scope and diversity of the field of light art. Any comment about "light art in general" is usually as moot as "painting in general".
When writing about light art, the focus is often on the technology, which is not always essential to the content of the work. Exhibition texts also repeatedly concentrate on the new and wonderful equipment and the scale of the work. One of the tasks of criticism is to challenge this emphasis and ask what the artwork actually wants to say.
Light art is not a separate, special art form, although it is sometimes treated as such – for better or worse. Light is a common art material, and light art is art among other art forms. It deserves the same rigorous and understanding gaze.
Do not let us off easy.
• • •
More information about light art:
The Finnish Light Art Society FLASH and SARV have jointly and separately held various training courses on light art and its criticism. It is worth following the information from both! Information on light art has also been compiled on the Light Art Society's website .
Sources:
The essay uses as sources discussions with curator colleagues, artists who use light and critic Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo, reviews of light and other art published in Finland, as well as other articles, artworks and events seen, own experiences and Kivinen’s thesis for the Academy of Fine Arts, and the FLASH and SARV Light Art Criticism seminar on 23 November 2024.
The titles are taken from light art reviews and other light culture related articles.
Mia Kivinen is a Helsinki-based curator, teacher and advocate of light art.
