Hop to Hope – Afra Eisma

Afra Eisma brings Hop to Hope and WAMx to a close

Artist Afra Eisma will conclude the WAMx exhibition programme with immersive installations of large tapestries and colourful ceramics, using the techniques of textile and ceramic arts in a whole new way.  

Through her pieces, Eisma tells personal stories. She combines sensuality with lightness, and her source of inspiration are imaginary friends. When dealing with gloomier moods and experiences, she relies on colour and playfulness, allowing space for ambiguity and reflection, and even difficult emotions such as anger. Alongside her work as an artist, Eisma is actively taking a stand on societal issues and problems. 

Afra Eisma (b. 1993) lives and works in The Hague and Amsterdam. She has held several solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions around the world, at, for example, The Tetley, in Leeds, Great Britain (2023), the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, in Delhi, India (2023), the Fundació Joan Miró, in Barcelona, Spain (2023) and The Kyushu Ceramic Museum, in Arita, Japan (2022). 

Eisma’s exhibition is the last in the exhibition series Hop to Hope, based on the theme of friendship and a belief in the future. The Turku Museum Centre has once a year invited an international expert to plan an exhibition series for the WAMX space. The 2023 exhibition series ending the WAMX programme was planned together with Roos Gortzak, director of the Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art in the Netherlands. The series featured artists working in the Netherlands and in Finland: Rory Pilgrim, Mounira Al Solh, Iona Roisin, the Home Alone Collective (Emma Sarpaniemi and Adele Hyry), as well as Afra Eisma. 

Photo: Ville Mäkilä, Museum Centre of Turku.