2011 GALERIE ANHAVA

EMERGING

Jenni Eskola – Joseph James – Egill Sæbjörnsson – Kari Vehosalo

3. – 27.11.2011

Galerie Anhava continues its 20th-anniversary celebrations by presenting a number of interesting young artists:

Jenni Eskola (born1982) draws copies of the same picture again and again, or fills the surface of the image with numerous loop designs. Meticulous repetition, starting from scratch each time, is a recurring theme in Eskola's work. For the artist, repetition is an event that in its termination always returns to its starting point. Time is one of the main materials of her works, for the series that is produced as a result requires, without exception, long-term concentration. Despite the precision of her work, Eskola is interested in the minute details that distinguish mechanical replication from unique work.

Eskola will display at Galerie Anhava a series of drawings, each of which corresponds to one day. The empty white part of each of these "light drawings" is defined by the amount of daylight. In the Studio at Galerie Anhava, the turning points of the seasons, such as the spring equinox, are in the four corners of the room. The time of the exhibition, the month of November, forms a pause in the artwork, being placed in the doorway, an empty part of the room. Also on display will be Eskola's video piece entitled Loop.

Joseph James (born 1979) is an artist born in the United States and residing in Finland. His medium is paper cutting with drawings cut out of their background, leaving a cobweb-like design, line separated from paper. James combines an unrestrained style of drawing and the relaxed mark of his hand with precise cutting, merging the expressiveness of drawing with the delicateness of the final work. While his works may derive from figurative subjects, they are reduced to an almost abstract state. Occasionally, they emphasize the movement of drawing and there is no figurative starting point. Partly assembled in layers and mounted with ample space, the artist's works create the illusion of designs drawn in the air that defy gravity.

The Icelandic artist Egill Sæbjörnsson (born 1973), who currently resides in Berlin, combines installation, video, performance and animation. His works on display at Galerie Anhava mostly consist of quite average, everyday objects, such as chicken netting and plastic buckets. Kugeln is composed of cleaning equipment. The nature of the objects, however, changes when the artist projects rays of light, designs and colours on them, creating a scene for them. In a dark space, the silhouettes and reflections of the objects on the walls transform composed still-lifes of everyday items into small dramas. Sæbjörnsson is also a musician, and sound, occasionally live performances, often play an important role in his works.

Kari Vehosalo's (born 1982) paintings combine realistic, photographically accurate portrayal with the unreal nature of the depicted events. References to past decades and black and white work distance the images into their own reality. At the same time, these nostalgic, richly detailed paintings of accomplished technique appeal to the viewer. Viewing them, however, involved a contradiction. The situation becomes uncomfortable when attention is drawn in the paintings to occasionally distasteful events or moments that are felt to be embarrassing. Strangeness overturns the viewing situation. The exhibition features new paintings from the artist's series Fear of Violent Death.

Piia Oksanen

Galerie Anhava
Mannerheiminaukio 3
FIN-00100 Helsinki

Photos: Jussi Tiainen

STATEMENT:

The next exhibition of Favardin & de Verneuil wants to bare witness to this renewed interest of the emerging art scene for figurative painting.

Following their will to promote artists little-exposed in France, the gallery will present Joe Becker (Canadian), Jarmo Mäkilä (Finnish), David O’Kane (Irish), Eamon O’Kane (Irish), Axel Pahlavi (Iranian), Sebastian Schrader (German) and Kari Vehosalo (Finnish).

The gallery chose this exhibition title to echo one of the key books by Enrique Vila-Matas. Montano’s Malady is described by the author as a literature obsessive sickness affecting a writer obsessed with literature and unable to distinguish between real life and fictional reality. In this sort of intimate diary, calling forth the notion of Doppelgänger, the narrator is embodied in the double form of a critic of literature mixing schizophrenically his inmost thoughts and memories with those of other authors and a writer who can only describe the world through quotations and literary references.

Peering into the various contemporary approaches to the medium to find a common denominator to those international artists, the gallery wanted to stress this mise-en-abyme of a literature talking about literature to compare it to this empathy phenomenon shared by many contemporary artists nowadays, in their emotional relationships to the world and to history. Like Montano’s character, these artists embed elements of the past as far as to merge them with their own history. Where the viewer is not called upon to recognize images or styles but to recall.

In their practices, the artists presented in this exhibition get close to this psychological process close to empathy. They are nurtured by pre-existing images and shapes inundating contemporary society : photography, movies, TV images, video games, highbrow and pop cultures. But far from a mere collage, quotation or parody, those artists create syncretic works which don’t call for erudition but memory.

Didn’t Christian Boltanski confide us recently that an artist cannot represent reality ? He has just to deal with memory, this deteriorated vision, and possibly distorted part of reality. Those traces of memory and the past are founding elements of our Present.

Laurent de Verneuil

www.favardin-verneuil.com

PRESS RELEASE:

16.6.-29.8.
PAIN

Jari Juvonen, Markku Hakuri, Timo Heino, Maija Helasvuo, Mikko Ijäs, Mika Karhu, Peter Maury, Teemu Mäki, Heli Ryhänen, Niina Räty, Ari Saarto, Juha Sääski, Antti Tanttu, Kari Vehosalo, Henry Wuorila-Stenberg and students of the Aalto University.

The experience of pain is private, but can it also have a collectively shareable form? The question is explored by a group of acclaimed artists, some of whom are personally familiar with the experience of pain. The exhibition also includes an educational and community art aspect that will be organised in collaboration with pain organisations. Among other things, visitors will have an opportunity to measure the intensity of their own pain.

Exhibition about pain, curated by researcher / artist Mika Karhu at Kerava art Museum.


www.keravantaidemuseo.fi

2010 HELSINKI ART MUSEUM, MEILAHTI:

PRESS RELEASE:

9.6.–29.8.2010
VIRTUALLY REAL

A skilfully executed figurative painting is captivating, but also misleading. Things that seem “real” may not actually be real. Instead of imitating, contemporary figurative painting challenges and conceptualises the visible reality. The world often appears mysterious or odd, out of kilter. A “virtually real” painting challenges us to think, to use our imaginations and to interpret the work ourselves.

Virtually Real examines the scene of figurative painting in Finland through the work of 12 artists. They are Petri Ala-Maunus, Markus Heikkerö, Juha Hälikkä, Minna Jatkola, Markku Laakso, Sami Lukkarinen, Ville Löppönen, Tiina Mielonen, Paula Ollikainen, Stiina Saaristo, Minna Sjöholm and Kari Vehosalo.

The show features works completed in the past 15 years. The very same period in which the Internet, computers, digital photography and digital imaging have become a part of everyday life. They have altered our relationship with pictures and been adopted as tools by an increasing number of artists. Art has always drawn influences from the surrounding world, and other forms of visual culture reciprocally from art. Digital technology has speeded up this exchange of imagery and motifs to an unprecedented degree.

www.hel.fi