Past exhibitions

Yrjö Kukkapuro Retrospective Exhibition
Design Museum Helsinki 2008

Design Embassy Event in Berlin 2022

Yrjö Kukkapuro’s curriculum vitae

Born in Vyborg (Finland) in 1933
Imatra Draft School, art studies, 1951–1952
Institute of Industrial Art, Interior architect, designer 1955–1958
Married to Irmeli Kukkapuro (1934–2022), graphic artist and painter, 1956–
Studio Kukkapuro, 1959–

Main chair model series

1956 Moderno series
1963 Ateljee seating series
1964 Karuselli
1966–69 Saturnus series
1966–69 Chair 415, 416 (Junior) and several other glass fibre and plastic chairs
1969 Piling Chair 419
1969 Remmi
1978 Fysio
1980 Skaala
1982 Experiment series
1982–85 Sirkus series
1984 Cloud and Vino -chairs
1985-87 A500 series
1986-1996 Nelonen series
1991–92 Funktus series
1995 Alnus, ecological series
1997–99 Tattooed chairs
2002 Bamboo series
2008–12 CNC-chair series
2010–17 Color Element series
2011 Architecture YKA2 -chair
2019 Simple Chair, steel and wood
2020 Collaboration with Moomin Characters, printed Plywood (Tattooed Chair)

Lamps and Lightnings

100A  Floor lamp series 1969-72
Perhonen (butterfly) 1983 
340Y, led-working light 2014
Sculpture Lamp 2019

Marks of Esteem

Royal Society of Arts (RSA), London, membership 2002
University of Art and Design Helsinki (Aalto University), Doctor honoris causa, 2001
Nanjing University of Forestry and Wuxi University of Light Industry, China,
Honorary professor of University of Art and Design Helsinki, 1999

Awards and distinctions

Award of the Finnish Foreign Trade Association 1959 and 1961
Scholarship of the Industrial Design Association Ornamo, 1961
Grant of Kaunis Koti Fund, 1961
Scholarship for Art and Literature, Helsinki City, 1963
Lunning Prize, 1966
State Award of Design, Finland, 1970
Furniture Competition of Scandinavian interior Magazines, 1st Prize, 1972
International Chair Design Competition, Italy, 1st Prize, 1972
Tokyo International Lighting Design Competition, recognition, 1973
The New York Magazine Chair Competition, 1st Prize, 1974
Illum Prize, Copenhagen, 1977
International Fair, Brno, gold medal, 1981
Artek Award, Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1982
Pro Finlandia Medal, 1983
IBD Award, USA, 1984
Furniture Designer Of the year (A 500 series chairs), Interior Designers SIO, 1985
Ornamo Ball, Industrial Designers Association, 1991
Kaj Frank Design Prize, 1995
Best Selection: Office design, Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen, Essen, 2001
Landesbaupreis Mecklenburg (Konzerthalle Marienkirche, Neubrandenburg), 2002
The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Eminentia Grant, 2009
Finnish State Prize for life’s work, 2017

Educational Career

Institute of Craft and Design, Helsinki, lecturer 1963–1969
Helsinki University of Technology, architecture department, lecturer 1969–1974
University of Arts and Design Helsinki, professor 1974–1980
University of Arts and Design Helsinki, rector, 1978–1980
University of Art and design Helsinki, specialist lecturer 1983–2019
University of Art and design Helsinki, Artist professor 1988–1993

Solo Exhibitions

Design Center, Helsinki, 1962
Galleri Vognremissen, Oslo, 1985
Magic Room, Galerie Binnen, Amsterdam 1987
Surrum, Röhsska museet, Göteborg, 1990
Das Nordik Haus, Düsseldorf, 1992
Chairs (Kaj Franck Design Award Exhibition) Design Forum, Helsinki, 1995
Tattooed Chairs, Centre Culturel de la Finlande, Paris, 2005
Retrospective exhibition, Design Museum Helsinki 2008
Retrospective exhibition, Design Museum Gent, Belgium 2009
Studio Kukkapuro, permanent collection, China 2010
Retrospective exhibition, Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseum, 2013
Solo Exhibition ”Experiment” Gallery Lemmetti, Helsinki, 2017
Yrjö Kukkapuro: Magic Room, Emma museum of modern art Espoo, 2023–2024

Group Exhibitions

Home for the Future (curator Antti Nurmesniemi), Helsinki,1957
Craft and Design Exhibition, Helsinki Art Hall, 1959
XII Milano Triennale, 1960
Ornamo 50th Anniversary Exhibition, 1962
75 Years of Finnish Design, Jubileum Exhibition Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, 1963
Touring Exhibition Finlandia, 1963-1969
Contemporary Furniture, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1965
Eurodomus I, Genova, 1966
Vijftig jaar Zitten, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1966
Art of Living, SAD, Grand Palais, Paris, 1967
Touring Exhibition, Long Beach Museum of Art, USA, 1967–1968
Eurodomus II, Torino, 1968
XIV Milano Triennale, (also architecture of the finnish section), 1968
Espace et Lumiére, Grand Palais, Paris, 1969
Eurodomus III, Milan, 1970
Modern Chair, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1970
Design and Plastics, Umelecko prümuslové museum, Prague, 1972
Finsk miljø, Kunstindustrimuseum, Copenhagen, 1972
S’assessoir, Musée de Grenoble, 1974
Finnterior, Ryodo Center, Tokio, 1974
Finnish Design, Weeks of Finnish Culture, Warsaw, 1974
Finski Dizajn, Muzej savreme umetnosti, Belgrade, 1975
Finnish Society of Art and Craft 100 years,
Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, 1975
Metamorphoses Finlandaises, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1978
Form und Structure, Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, 1981
Homo decorans, Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst, Denmark, 1985
Design Industriel Finlandais, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1990
Nordform-90, Malmö, 1990
Design and Identity, Aspects of European Design, Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst, Denmark, 1996
Design Nordic Way, Kalmar, Sweden, 1996
The Most Important 99 Design Objects in the 20th Century, Louvre, Paris, 1999
5X5 Stoelen, de Klassiekers van het Finse modernisme, Design Museum Gent, Belgium, 1999
European Cultural Cities of the Year 2000 exhibition Find, simultaneously in Helsinki, Avignon, Bergen, Bologna, Brussels, Krakow, Prague, Santiago de Compostela, Reykjavik, 2000
Finnish Design, Fiskars, Finland, 2000
From Bakelite to Composite, Design museum Gent, Belgium, 2002
Tattooed Chairs, Museo Casabianca – Museo della grafica d’arte, Malo Vicenza, Italy 2002
Tattooed Chairs, Piccolo Museo, Crespano del Grappa, Italy, 2003
Q-Designing the Quietness: Contemporary Finnish Design, Living design Center, Tokio, 2003
Chairs – International Exhibition, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, 2006
Tattooed Chairs, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisboa, Portugal, 2006
25-Jubilee Collection, Galerie Binnen, Amsterdam, 2007
Ecodesign exhibition, curator, Habitare Fair, Helsinki, 2009
Ecodesign Light exhibition, Habitare Fair, Helsinki, 2010
Jäätulituoli, Someron Kivimeijeri, 2012
10 000 years of design – man, matter, metamorphosis,The National Museum of Finland 2018 Kuud Lamp Collection, Eesti Tarbekunsti- ja  Disainimuuseum 2019

Works in Permanent Collections

Museum Of Modern Art, New York, 1965 (Ateljee)
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1971, 1984 (Karuselli, Remmi)
Designmuseum Helsinki, 1979, 1981 (Karuselli, Remmi)
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, 1983, 1996 (Fysio, Alnus Poster)
Kunstindustrimuseum, Copenhagen, 1983, 1987 (Experiment free form, A 500)Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, 1985
Kunstindustrimuseet, Oslo, 1985
Röhsska museet, Göteborg, 1987 (A 504)
Nationalmuseet, Stockholm, 1989, (Experiment Free Diagonal)
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1990 (Sirkus)
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 1991, (Karuselli, Saturnus C, Chair 415)
Listasafn Islands, Reykjavik, 1999 (Long Chair)
Design Museum Gent, 2000 (Karuselli)
Museo Casabianca, Museo della grafica d’arte, Malo Vicenza, 2002 (Tattood Chair)
Kukkapuro Museum established 2013, Guangzhou, China
Möbeldesignmuseum Stockholm, 2018, several works