Art Copenhagen 200819.-21.9.2008, Forum Copenhagen / stand 06

Galleria Heino will present works by the following artists:

AXEL ANTAS

BO HAGLUND

PETRI HYTÖNEN

TOPI RUOTSALAINEN

KIM SIMONSSON

 

AXEL ANTAS

The Interventions series by Axel Antas draws its inspiration from 18-century romantic paintings. The photographs are dramatized landscapes, containing artificially created atmospheres in the form of mist or clouds. The work becomes surreal, comical and beautiful at the same time.

Axel Antas (b. 1976) was born and raised in Finland but has resided in London since 1997. After studies at the Nordic School of Art in Finland he enrolled in the prestigious Goldsmiths College in London, from which he graduated in 2000. Antas uses videos and photographs as his media. A skilled graphic artist, Antas is also known for his delicate grey pencil sketches. He has exhibited extensively in Scandinavia and Europe, most notably London. Antas has been selected e.g. to represent Finland at year´s 2006 Statements section of the Paris Photo and nominated there for the annual BMW Photography Prize.

BO HAGLUND

Artist Bo Haglund mainly works with drawings and drawn installations. He constructs his works by using cartoon-like statements and creating special events which are in-between figurative and non-figurative art. His landscape drawings can be either mental or physical events in nature.

Artist Bo Haglund (b. 1963) gained his MA at the University of Art and Design Helsinki (2000).

PETRI HYTÖNEN

Artist Petri Hytönen has used both traditional brushes and spray painting techniques in his watercolours. His newer works incorporate digital photography - large inkjet printouts - and watercolours. The artist takes his own photographs and processes them with Photoshop on computer to "wipe clear" an empty space, where he paints after making a paper print of the photo.

The imagery in the works of Petri Hytönen - who is a parent of three - reflects the imagination, stories, games and dreams of children. Hytönen is multi-dimensional storyteller. His works also have a gloriously picturesque quality to them: the effect comes from moods created by light, from shades of purple and surfaces soft as cotton.

Petri Hytönen (b.1963) is one the leading contemporary painters in Finland. He has e.g. gained his MA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki (1988). Hytönen has used watercolour paints as his medium since 1993. In recent years, Petri Hytönen has held extensive exhibitions at various art museums in Sweden including the Nordic Watercolour Museum and Göteborg Museum of Art, as well as at the Amos Anderson Art Museum in Finland. In 2000, Hytönen received third prize in the Carnegie Art Award showing Nordic art.

KIM SIMONSSON

Ceramics is the central vehicle of expression for sculptor Kim Simonsson. Simonsson uses clay and glass to model his figures, materials that are still rarely used in contemporary sculpture. Simonsson's nearly life-sized figurative sculptures of children and animals have been influenced by the imagery and visual idiom of Japanese manga comics.

A graduate of the Ceramics and Glass Department at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Kim Simonsson (b. 1974) received one of the most prestigious Finnish prizes, the Young Artist of the Year Award in 2004.

TOPI RUOTSALAINEN

Topi Ruotsalainen depicts mainly everyday motifs, capturing moments where a seemingly random assemblage of characters is brought together to form what seems almost like a group portrait, often viewed from behind. The viewer is rendered an outsider, the figures´ gaze is turned the other way.

"I am fascinated by the early German Romantics and their determination to romanticise all that is familiar and everyday, to show it in a new light. I try to incorporate into all my work an element of the unexpected, the non-existent even. I seek to depict the invisible action, the tension and the hierarchies that arise between people, the way people inhabit their own bodies and their responses to other bodies around them."

"A good example of this is my tourist series where the figures, flocking on city streets, have all their attention focused on their external environment, thereby unwittingly creating something resembling a spectacle or an impromptu choreography with parallels to animals´ herd behaviour.

"At times, the tourists´ attention is turned away from their surroundings towards a map or a guide book, a stand-in for the original sight or attraction. Their attention might also be directed purely at other members of the group. It is as though the figures are striking a pose - not for the painter but rather at and in relation to each other. Indeed, it is the relationships and dynamics between the figures that give rise to the action in my paintings. With their turned backs, the figures are of course also a reflection on the very act of viewing art. Like the tourists, the viewer is left to search for meaning and to create their own personal relationship with what they are seeing."

Artist Topi Ruotsalainen (b. 1979) gained his MA at the University of Art and Design Helsinki (2005), gaining a further MA at the Finnish Academy of Fine Art. In 2008, he was Art Centre Salmela´s Young Artist of the Summer.

Rauli Heino