Noelle Vainikka artwork featured at DSU

January 21, 2025

“Impulse,” an exhibition by Noelle Vainikka, is on display in Dakota State’s First Bank & Trust Gallery now through March 20.

Vainikka, an interdisciplinary contemporary artist based in Watertown, South Dakota, explores themes of consumerism, nostalgia, femininity, popular culture, materialism, sustainability, and family.

“‘Impulse’ is about spontaneity, and the psychological effect that advertising and marketing have on our consumer habits,” according to the exhibition statement. “With playful use of color, pattern, and materials, Vainikka’s work explores and documents the (sometimes dark) humor and joy of everyday life; observing and commenting on the complexities of how we shop and consume the endless products available to us in modern life.”

A high school art teacher, Vainikka earned a B.A. in art education and English education from South Dakota State University in 2016. Prior to starting her teaching career, Vainikka worked retail and customer service jobs, including spending 10 years in visual merchandising, product staging, and creative window display installations for local businesses in downtown Brookings, South Dakota.

Additionally, she has been commissioned to design murals for retail and home spaces and participated in various print portfolio exchanges, exhibitions, and artist collaborations throughout the United States.

Much of Vainikka’s artwork is inspired by everyday curiosities and amusements and created from found materials or reworked canvas/panels and frames.

Her advice to others interested in creating art is to not be intimidated by expensive tools or supplies.

“Art can be made with anything,” Vainikka wrote of her studio process. “Don’t let the high price of the most expensive oil paint stop you from painting. You can do a lot with a ream of printer paper and a pencil or Sharpie and crayons.”

“Impulse” will be on display in the First Bank & Trust Gallery on the second floor of the Karl E. Mundt Library room 202 through Thursday, March 20. The gallery is open during regular library hours.