PETRI HYTÖNENSomething about us... 12.9.2015 – 11.10.2015

Girl in the Sky, 2015
watercolor on canvas
137 x 120 cm

Even though this isn´t about observing people, it´s about people.
People as characters, silhouettes, the blotch that´s left after successfully swatting a fly - here people are a part of the big picture - the big picture around me that I have learnt to much appreciate.
Room, light, space, water, oxygen, colour and cosmos - the whole planet in the universe as we understand it to date. The cosmic beauty of existence unfolds unconditionally, fuelling my subconscious as my conscious ego falls silent. Naturally, I view the latest achievements in natural science and technology with admiration and wonder as I seek to take them in.

I´ve begun to wonder about the essence of people, what they do to themselves and to others. I try to see humanity as an external extra-terrestrial being without relinquishing my own humanity.
Like an attempt to view it from afar and at close hand. Our spirituality and animality live in a strange co-existence like Ghandi and the Alien in the same body, destroying and protecting our planet at the same time.

Nordic existentialism and expressionism are in the background supporting my painting process. They pave the way to my inner self, which has grown up in a time of pop, minimalist and postmodernism, to find something that questions in the spirit of magic realism, romanticism, symbolism and colourism for my painting terrain.
In a spirit where canvas has replaced paper in this exhibition. My paintings are water colour on canvas. The process has required a new approach to painting and given the painter the joy of finding something new...

The sky, air, water and empty space form the backdrop for my paintings, forcing aside the nightmare of materialistic junk and the feeling of happiness it creates. The question is: what´s left?
Is it people with their personal impressions who fill the void and versions of the people that the world today has driven outside society?
How does humanism fare today when humanity around us is driven by strict demands and ever stricter working hours? Medieval serfs had more time to themselves than people do today.
Villages of tents on wasteland eke out a meager existence in developed and developing countries in a world fighting against overpopulation where the number of humans has increased to almost 10 thousand million individuals….

Where is humanism today?
This is what I have asked myself when painting inside in my study, where ground-source heat keeps my fingers warm in the town, or when outside in the great outdoors, where the cold deviously gradually sneaks inside my body.
Or abroad, on the peripheries of the EU, where floods of refugees embellish the seashore and have sneaked into my consciousness to stay.

The painting process does not question the painting itself, but humanity: has Homo sapiens recently transformed from a human into an ape, robot or a toy?
Or into a merciless terminator devoid of its own values, a creation that destroys unknown individuals around it without a grain of sense, constantly repeating the only truth that has been programmed in the chip card implanted in its brainwashed mind - the terminator´s truth.

There it is, something about us, humanity, wretchedness and loveliness...

Porvoo, Petri Hytönen 17 August 2015

 
  • hytonen/2015/1_PETRI_HYTONEN_Carousel-_of-Life_and_Death_2015

    Carousel of Life and Death, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    166 x 300 cm

  • hytonen/2015/2_PETRI_HYTONEN_The_Last_Survivors_2015

    The Last Survivors, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    100 x 81 cm

  • hytonen/2015/3_PETRI_HYTONEN_Birth_of_Curiousity_2015

    Birth of Curiosity, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    150 x 150 cm

  • hytonen/2015/5_PETRI_HYTONEN_Floating_2014

    Floating, 2014
    watercolor on canvas
    65 x 55 cm

  • hytonen/2015/5_PETRI_HYTONEN_Man_and_the-Stick_2015

    The Man and the Stick, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    65 x 55 cm

  • hytonen/2015/7_PETRI_HYTONEN_The_Box_2015

    The Box, 2015
    watercolor and collage on canvas
    45 x 55 cm

  • hytonen/2015/8_PETRI_HYTONEN_Sleeping_2015

    Sleeping, 2015
    watercolor and collage on canvas
    45 x 55 cm

  • hytonen/2015/9_PETRI_HYTONEN_Long_distance_Swimmer_

    Long Distance Swimmer, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    70 x 50 cm

  • hytonen/2015/10_PETRI_HYTONEN_Mermaid_of_Darkness_2015

    Mermaid of Darkness, 2015
    watercolor and collage on canvas
    127 x 100 cm

  • hytonen/2015/11_PETRI_HYTONEN_Mermaid_of_Light_2015

    Mermaid of Light, 2015
    watercolor and collage on canvas
    127 x 100 cm

  • hytonen/2015/12_PETRI_HYTONEN_The_Wash_2015

    The Wash, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    203 x 260 cm

  • hytonen/2015/13_PETRI_HYTONEN_The_Gravity_2015

    The Gravity, 2015
    ink on canvas
    150 x 300 cm

  • hytonen/2015/14_PETRI_HYTONEN_On_the_Beach_2015

    On the Beach, 2015
    watercolor and collage on canvas
    95 x 190 cm

  • hytonen/2015/16_PETRI_HYTONEN_Beach-Party-is-over_2014

    Beach Party is over, 2014
    watercolor on canvas
    30 x 70 cm

  • hytonen/2015/18_PETRI_HYTONEN_Friends_in_the_Slush_2014

    Friends in the Slush, 2014
    watecolor on canvas
    33 x 41 cm

  • hytonen/2015/20_PETRI_HYTONEN_The_Greed_of_GAin_and_Mney_2015

    he Greed of Gain and Money, 2015
    watercolor and collage on canvas
    48 x 95 cm

  • hytonen/2015/22_PETRI_HYTONEN_The_Beggar_Newborn_and_the_Sky_2014

    The Beggar, Newborn and the Sky, 2014
    watecolor on canvas
    37 x 46 cm

  • hytonen/2015/23_PETRI_HYTONEN_Nameless_2015

    Nameless, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    115 x 115 cm

  • hytonen/2015/28_PETRI_HYTONEN_Beautiful_Beggar_and_the_Mug_2014

    Beautiful Beggar and the Mug, 2014
    watercolor on canvas
    46 x 38 cm

  • hytonen/2015/33_PETRI_HYTONEN_Huggers_in_the_Slush_2014

    Huggers in the Slush, 2014
    watercolor on canvas
    41 x 33 cm

  • hytonen/2015/35_PETRI_HYTONEN_The_Heavenly_Orchestra_2015

    The Heavenly Orchestra, 2015
    watercolor and collage on canvas
    48 x 95 cm

  • hytonen/2015/36_PETRI_HYTONEN_Man_in_the_Corner_2015

    Man in the Corner, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    32 x 25 cm

  • hytonen/2015/37__PETRI_HYTONEN_Booking_for_the_Heat_2014

    Looking for the Heat, 2014
    watercolor on canvas
    18 x 24 cm

  • hytonen/2015/42_PETRI_HYTONEN_The_Heaven_of_the_Falling_Ones_2015

    The Heaven of the Falling Ones, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    120 x 250 cm

  • hytonen/2015/PETRI_HYTONEN_Hanging_in_the_Air_2015_watercolour_on_canvas

    Hanging in the Air, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    100 x 130 cm

  • hytonen/2015/46_PETRI_HYTONEN_Packages_of_hristmas_2015

    Packages of the Christmas, 2015
    watercolor and collage on canvas
    47 x 95 cm

  • hytonen/2015/47_PETRI_HYTONEN_Packages_of_the_Winter_Landscape_2015_OK

    Packages of the Winter Landscape, 2015
    watercolor on canvas
    120 x 240 cm

  • hytonen/2015/48_PETRI_HYTONEN_About_the_Essence_of_Arts_2015

    About the Essence of Art, 2015
    watercolor and collage on canvas
    166 x 300 cm

 
 
 
 
 
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