International Art News

From May 16 to June 3, 2012 – 00130Gallery
Self-portraiture is about treating personal history and documenting a process of self-exploration and self-discovery. Taking pictures of others seems very different from self-portraiture but I approach it as different way of documenting myself. My photographs always have a part of me in them; they contain my personal history, no matter whom they are of.

The emotions reflected in my art are also a common issue for all human beings, so that they can see their own reflection in my work and in the sympathy it evokes

Born in Seoul, South Korea, HyeKyong Yun has been living and working in Montreal since 2003. She holds a BFA in cinema at Sangmyung University in Seoul, Korea as well as a BFA in photography at Concordia University. For several years the focus of HyeKyong’s photography has been self-portrait. In her latest project, “Boys”, she uses this self-portrait approach to portray others.

00130Gallery

Lauri Laine, Visitor, 2011oil on canvas, 255 x 165 cm. Photo: Jussi Tiainen

From March 10 to April 22, 2012 – Kunsthalle Helsinki
Lauri Laine is one of the most prestigious and internationally famous Finnish artists of his generation. The retrospective exhibition showcases Laine’s paintings from the mid-1980s to the present. Working in Helsinki and Rome, the artist’s large-scale, opulent abstractions are inspired by the way Italian and Spanish masters of Renaissance and Baroque painting handled light and space in their work.

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Carl Larsson: Self-portrait ( in the new studio), 1912. Malmö Art Museum. Photo: Andreas Nilsson, Malmö Art Museum

From February 10 to April 29, 2012 – Finnish National Gallery
The aim of this beloved Swedish artist was to paint himself into the hearts of his audience. The art of Carl Larsson (1853–1919) and his atelier home in Sundborn have indeed had an enormous impact on the perceptions of Swedes and other Europeans of what constitutes a better everyday life. Carl Larsson’s visual imagery – which owed a great deal also to the input of his wife Karin – has provided the inspiration for light and well-lit interior decoration for generations.

The exhibition at Ateneum focuses on themes related to the home, as well as on the large watercolours that Larsson painted in Gréz-sur-Loing in France which first marked his artistic breakthrough. Filling the entire second floor of the Ateneum Art Museum, the exhibition includes over a hundred paintings. The exhibition also presents Carl and Karin Larsson as designers of furniture and art handicrafts.

Larsson’s guiding principles were light, lightness and joy, even though his own childhood was dark and he was prone to depression. In a way he created his own happiness, and this exhibition invites viewers to consider what in fact constitutes a good life. Factors that connect contemporary viewers to Larsson’s life include the home, the family, a sense of community, children, gardening and interior decoration.

The exhibition is produced in collaboration with the Turku Art Museum, and an accompanying book was published in September 2011. Ateneum’s exhibition Carl Larsson – In Search of the Good Life is curated by Timo Huusko, Curator at the museum, and the exhibition architect is Minna Santakari.

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Heli Vehkaperä: Curtain Shop / Verhokauppa / Gardinaffär, 2007 © Helsingin taidemuseo / Helsinki konstmuseum / Helsinki Art Museum, kuva: Yehia Eweis

From December 16, 2011 to February 12, 2012 – Art Museum Meilahti
The exhibition showcases new acquisitions of the Helsinki Art Museum from 2007 to 2011. In the past five years, the museum has acquired almost 400 works for its collection, over 50 of which are featured in this show. The museum also augments its collection by commissioning public artworks that are sited in parks, for example. Under the Percent for Art programme, works are also acquired for new buildings such as day-care centres, schools and hospitals. Around 40 per cent of the collection of the Helsinki Art Museum is permanently on exhibit in various municipal offices and institutions.

There are as many topics and messages in the exhibition as there are artists and artworks. Yet there are also things in common, for many of the works address issues relating to beliefs and values. Many works refer to the tradition of Christian art and to art history in general. In the hands of contemporary artists, old subjects are given new meanings. On the other hand, many artists seize contemporary themes and offer fresh viewpoints on them. The works in the exhibition can also evoke powerful emotions in themselves, without any background information or analytical reflection.

The artists are Petri Eskelinen, Jenni Eskola, Jussi Goman, Terike Haapoja, Mikko Hintz, Antti Keitilä, Anne Koskinen, Maarit Kotiranta, Sami Lukkarinen, Heikki Marila, Elina Merenmies, Juhana Moisander, Reima Nevalainen, Anssi Pulkkinen, Kyösti Pärkinen, Jani Ruscica, Antti Tanttu, Milla Toivanen, Tatu Tuominen, Timo Vaittinen, Heli Vehkaperä, Jarno Vesala, Henry Wuorila-Stenberg and Petri Yrjölä.

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Joan Miró: Personage, 1978 bronze, 220 x 100 x 75 cm 26422 Courtesy Galerie Lelong / Photo Fabrice Gibert © Successió Miró, ADA

Until the 12th of June – EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art
The exhibition of the work of the Catalonian artist Joan Miro (1893-1983) concentrates on his sculptures but also feature paintings, drawings and prints linked to the form language of the sculptures.

Alongside his fellow countryman Picasso, Joan Miró was one of the most brilliant and productive artists of the 20th century.  His talents were many; he was a painter, sculptor, ceramic and textile artist who switched easily from one medium to another throughout his career. Miró’s blue, red, yellow, green and black palette have become famous through his paintings, lithographs, etchings and sculptures. Animals, plants, insects, male and female genitals, stars and comets are recurring themes in his work.

At the end of the 1920s Miró expanded the boundaries of his painting in a three-dimensional direction through compilations and collages.  From the 1940s in his sculptures Miró concentrated on individual bronze and other sculptural pieces directly inspired by his surrealist paintings. The 1960s saw the birth of large outdoor sculptures and monumental public works which expressed Miro´s axiom “art is of and for people”.
As an artist Miró is an imaginative individualist, a descriptive poet. In surrealist style his work drew its inspiration from the world of dreams and the imagination although he refused to see himself as the representative of any specific art movement.

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Excess and Ascesis (sponge), c-print, 2010

From 14 of January 2011 to 13 of March 2011 – Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma | Finnish National Gallery
Saara Ekström (b. 1965) creates innovative combinations using different techniques in her videos, photographs and installations. She is interested in natural and artificial materials that embody strong symbolic values.
This major exhibition presents a review of the artist’s wide-ranging work over the course of ten years. The charged moods in the works range from the poetic to the grotesque, from exposed to concealed. Ekström shows how familiar everyday things and objects can have a secret
life.

The themes in the works include humanity and femininity, which the artist approaches through the use of metaphors. “I like the unpredictability and surprising qualities of materials. Some of the works can become fragile or disappear, others are preserved forever. I do not use materials as an end in themselves, they support the themes I address in my work. I use them in an attempt to create a whole that is simultaneously seductive and repulsive,” Ekström says.

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