Marjut Tuulia Numminen
Marjut Tuulia Numminen is a ceremonial artist from Janakkala, Finland. She has been working professionally in the field of art for 17 years, showcasing her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions.
Numminen’s art is deeply rooted in her Baltic-Finnic heritage, the ancient wisdom of Mother Earth, and an inseparable connection with nature. In recent years, she has taken her artistic practice even deeper by incorporating a ceremonial aspect into her work. She walks in the footsteps of the ancestral mothers of the North—shamans, seers, and healers who traveled between worlds through ceremonies and rituals, moving from the middle world to the lower and upper realms. Numminen has revived this ability within herself and creates her art through ceremonial methods. She hopes her works serve as reminders of sacred connection and unity.
Nature is a recurring theme in her work, and her creations have become increasingly spiritually attuned. As she puts it, her art could be nothing but—because everything in the universe is spiritual. We are spirits in bodies, and therefore, everything we create originates from spirituality. Numminen perceives spirit in everything, and through her art, she aims to channel this unseen energy to the viewer.
Numminen is best known for her goddess sculptures, which depict the goddesses of the North (Pohjola). Baltic-Finnic culture was a matriarchy, and its powerful goddesses serve as an endless source of inspiration for her work. However, the core message of her art is not gender, but rather the Great Mother, the Sacred Feminine—the life-sustaining, protective creative force that exists within us all and in all things. Through the figures of mothers, matriarchs, and goddesses, her sculptures embody the return of the Mother Goddess to human consciousness after thousands of years of disconnection. At the same time, they invite us to return—to nature, to connection, and to our own innate power.
Numminen sees her art as an act of service—to nature and to strengthening our bond with it. She seeks to awaken hope, because, in her view, this planet desperately needs it. A hopeless person lacks the ability to take action for the things they care about—such as protecting nature. And yet, we all have so many opportunities to do good. Hope empowers, and hope fuels action. That is why hope is the central message of her art. She wishes it will be heard.
Numminen primarily works with blown, hot-sculpted, and flame-worked glass, wire art, and stone, and she is now planning to incorporate ceramics into her pieces. She is also a photographer, capturing the power of Northern women alongside her main artistic work.