WINTER COLLECTION 28.11.2020 – 20.12.2020

Winter Collection is an exhibition of works by 15 Finnish artists, encompassing a wide range of styles, themes and techniques, including painting, printing, drawing and photography.

Axel Antas depicts the long-extinct passenger pigeon in a series of images inspired by legendary English photographer Eadweard Muybridge’s motion studies. The work refers to the last known passenger pigeon which died in a zoo in 1914. Sami Parkkinen’s Limbo series is a commentary on our consumer society: here a polished car bonnet and petrol-stained stretch of pavement have been re-imagined as painterly components for non-figurative art.

Elina Brotherus presents photographs from her new series Sebaldiana.Memento Mori, inspired by W G Sebald’s writings on Corsica. His Campo Santo acted as a tour guide for Brotherus during her visit to the island and helped her to discover its forests, beaches, mountains and the traditional burial sites in people’s private gardens and farms, often found in meaningful sites under a large tree or on the mountainside. Inspired by this practice, Brotherus began to seek out other scenic spots that also could have served as a permanent resting place.

In Marja Pirilä’s dream-like camera obscura photograph, a summer’s day has been projected into the interior of a room, while Martti Jämsä has photographed a series of individual objects – a Santa mask, a Christmas tree topper, a plate and a spoon – heightening their symbolic significance. Yuletide is also present in Stiina Saaristo’s large-scale prints showing a praying but decidedly earthly angel. Hanna Pohjola’s still-life inspired floral arrangements bloom with hidden symbolism, and Mika Karhu’s drawings are a layered exploration of tragic events in our shared history.

Petri Hytönen has coloured in black and white renditions of old postcards, and Anne Tompuri has continued to expand her Faces series. Topi Ruotsalainen brings us an urban crowd of people, while Antti Tanttu’s woodcuts are portraits of individuals, captured in a variety of situations and settings. Markku Laakso presents a magic-tinged portrait of twin girls shown against the backdrop of a wintry forest executed in a national romantic style.

Samu Raatikainen’s pointillist painting is a playful exploration of texture, light and shadow, while Alvar Gullichsen’s works speak the abstract and universal language of geometry, his shapes creating a stage-like space, complete with light and shadow.

Rauli Heino