For the seventh time, some 100 works from 32 artists were judged by Suomiart, the Association of Finnish Artists in Sweden (Sverigefinska Bildkonstnärernas Förening in Swedish or
Ruotsinsuomalaisten Kuvataiteilijoiden Yhdistys in Finnish), and winners were announced last Monday at the Finnish Institute in Stockholm.

Bilingual and raised in Västerås with a Swedish mother and a Finnish father, Helena Piippo Larsson was named Swedish-Finish artist of the year 2010. Her winning submission, a pencil and ink drawing entitled "Nordic Pavilion," received praise by the selection jury for its "broken down landscape" and "tensions in the image: gloomy recesses" and mirage-like visions with "sharply defined surfaces and organic forms that reach beyond the geometric shapes."

The jury also named Anton Wiraeus from Solna as Young Artist of 2010 for his animation entitled "UV-City," which the public also voted for as their favorite.

For more information on the artist, see: www.piippolarsson.se
Source: www.suomiart.se / The Finnish Institute in Sweden: http://www.institute.fi/en/tukholma.php or www.finlandsinstitutet.se

Footnote: The connection between Sweden and Finland has always been strong. The countries 'were one' from the Kalmar Union to the Napoleonic wars, or the period from the 14th to the 18th century. The strong connection continues to this day, in spite of strong rivalry in winter sports, such as skiing and even more so, hockey.
In 2008 there were over 675,000 people in Sweden who was either born in Finland or have at least one parent or grandparent who was born in Finland. Other estimates say that approximately 5.1% (roughly 470,000) of the Swedish population are sverigefinnar - Sweden Finns. The group has its own unofficial flag, right.
'Finland-Swedes': Also interesting is that Swedish is the mother tongue of about 275,000 people in mainland Finland and of about 25,000 people on the island Åland, together representing about 5.5% of the total population (according to official statistics for 2005). This minority speaks Finlandssvenska Finland Swedish