About

Hello!

I’m a visual artist from Helsinki, Finland. Camera is my main medium. I specialize in contemporary Fine Art Photography with a focus on large-format gallery-grade prints that explore abstract, conceptual and surreal themes. My work challenges conventions and evokes a wide range of emotions. It often plays with movement, texture, scale and form — transforming real subjects into unexpected visual experiences.

The path to becoming an artist has been anything but traditional. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a major in visual communications and international brand building, and spent several years working in various marketing and project management roles — often in short-term positions — across different companies and among both domestic and international brands. That background in commercial visual communication definitely influenced my approach to art, especially in the way I think about composition, clarity or message.

For the past 15 years, alongside family life, I’ve been an entrepreneur specializing in high-end product photography and retouching, and I’m also the co-owner of the family business www.HurmeDesign.com, a font foundry and a design company. Throughout these years, I’ve been creating my own art alongside everything else in my life.

My commercial photography experience has influenced me to push beyond boundaries and explore more creative daring and experimental approaches. I love to mix and break the rules, incorporating diverse photography and retouching techniques that bend pixels in visually captivating ways. As one of my favorite artists, Pablo Picasso, once said: “You have to learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” This advice fuels my creative process, where disruption and experimentation are key.

Over time, that commercial foundation evolved into a more personal and abstract visual language. Abstraction, to me, is both freedom and control. It doesn’t follow a strict logic or set expectations. Sometimes I come across something unexpected and capture it in the moment, without overthinking. Other times, it’s a highly intentional process where every element is carefully considered — and even when a piece begins spontaneously, I often take it further in post-processing. I never add anything that wasn’t already there. I simply emphasize, stretch, morph or even replicate elements that are already present — amplifying their form, rhythm or visual tension.

The outcome is Pictorialist, Surreal and often also quite Impressionistic, resulting in a unique abstract collection that challenges conventions and embraces the unexpected.

Over time, the body of work I created led to the need for an online gallery, and that’s how Galleria Green was born — a space to house and share my photography art with the world. It is a growing collection and many new artworks will be displayed here soon.

Thank you for your interest in my work and I hope you enjoy exploring Galleria Green!

Sincerely,
Irina Hurme