Graphic Designer of the Year 2026 Exhibition: Viivi Prokofjev – Chop Chop

Known as an art director, illustrator and book designer, Viivi Prokofjev transforms Luonnos Gallery into a space where historical styles converge, and spends a month chopping vegetables as part of an ongoing performance. Alongside the performance and spatial design, the exhibition features a printed publication that delves deeper into its themes. Chop Chop, the exhibition of the 2026 Graphic Designer of the Year, is on view at Luonnos from 3 October to 22 November 2026.

“Chop chop” means to hurry or rush, yet the exhibition is an exercise in the opposite. Drawing on French culinary traditions, Chop Chop plays with the simple geometric form and explores the relationship between the decorative and the practical. Tracing the history of dicing onions, celery and carrots, the performance brings rituals of the past into the present.

Focused chopping is a centuries-old practice. Rather than the finished and polished result, Chop Chop turns its attention to the process of preparation. The exhibition brings the often invisible labour of making to the centre of attention. The performance explores the relationship between parts and the whole, as well as the nature of work, and serves as an ode to the beauty of details that are destined to disappear. By carefully shaping vegetable cubes whose ultimate purpose is to dissolve into the whole, the performance highlights the significance of individual details within the larger composition of a design.

Chop Chop is an exhibition, a space and an act. It is a study of mixing and merging. It is a tribute to concentration. – Viivi Prokofjev

In addition to the performance, the exhibition consists of spatial design and a printed publication. The third issue of the Tropism explores the themes of the exhibition and will be published at the end of October, after the performance has concluded. In Tropism 3 (Chop Chop), Benjamin Mouly, Maya Byskov and Sara Karppinen write about the relationship between form and matter, as well as culinary practices and rituals.

According to the jury of the 2026 Graphic Designer of the Year award, Viivi Prokofjev’s design demonstrates that true quality comes from care and a willingness to experiment. Every one of Prokofjev’s design decisions conveys the presence of its maker. Grafia awards the Graphic Designer of the Year distinction annually in recognition of outstanding work in the field of visual communication design.

CHOP CHOP
Luonnos Gallery, Uudenmaankatu 13, Helsinki. Free admission.

• Exhibition: open Wednesday to Sunday from 3 October to 22 November 2026, Wed–Fri 12–17, Sat–Sun 12–16
• Performance: Viivi Prokofjev’s chopping performance takes place at the gallery until 31 October, every Thursday, Friday and Saturday during Luonnos Gallery’s opening hours.
• Tropism 3 (Chop Chop) publication: the launch of the printed publication will take place on Friday 30 October from 17–19 at Luonnos Gallery, welcome! After the launch, the publication will be available at the gallery free of charge.

Welcome to celebrate the opening of the Chop Chop exhibition on Friday 2 October from 17–19 at Grafia’s Luonnos Gallery!