RISTO SUOMIPaintings 3.3.2012 – 25.3.2012

RISTO SUOMI

Les nuits de la pleine lune - Nights of the full moon

Artist Risto Suomi (b. 1951) is one of our best-known and well-liked contemporary artists. His breakthrough came in the early 1980s. Now, as he turns 60 years of age, certain recognisable elements have become trademarks of his work, such as animal characters in place of humans, the artist himself as the central character in his work and various tangible symbols. Often the background is a blue, endless starry sky, bright blue sky or bluish sea.

In his paintings, Risto Suomi is a storyteller, a depicter of basic human feelings dealing with the fundamental questions in life. We can often catch a glimpse of the world of dreams, imagination and the unconscious in his works. They tell how man wonders at life's mysteries and of our experiences of loneliness, alienation and longing of existence. His works are as much pictures of the artist's own feelings as they are of feelings common to all of us. Topics range from childhood to old age.

The atmosphere in the paintings is romantic and poetic, but often melancholic. It is expectant, still and quiet - highly emotionally charged. The mental landscape of the artist's mind or soul appear in his works. It is formed from his experiences and imagination into pictures which correspond to his emotions.

Rauli Heino