Summer Collection 21.5.2021 – 20.6.2021

The Summer Collection exhibition shows works by nine of the gallery’s artists and features a selection of newer and older works in different styles, themes and techniques from the artists’ studios: painting, sculpture and photography.

The room in the painting by visual artist Marko Backman reflects an image of Finland’s national landscape, which a person seems to look at even though they are present in the painting only through their absence. Artist photographer Miklos Gaál presents extensive beach views in which he takes advantage of the possibilities offered by a view camera to give perspective. The partly blurry and partly sharp areas in Gaál’s landscapes, which are photographed at a distance, create insights into a daily world not normally to discernible to the eye.

Visual artist Bo Haglund presents picturesque drawings that he collates from cartoon-like elements and figures to create imaginative theatrical scenes. Visual artist Samuli Heimonen’s painting is based on the painting Plains of Heaven 1851-3 part of a triptych of canvasses by English painter John Martin. This painting is especially important to Heimonen, who has often studied it at the Tate Britain in London. He has repainted the work from memory while changing many of the details. The name of his work, Etsijä/Seeker, alludes to the rider appearing in the painting with their dog but also to Heimonen himself as a painter. By repainting the work, he has sought to unravel the mystery of the painting and to discover why it fascinates him so much. Only in this way has he managed to open up for himself the numerous spaces and caches in the work and by doing so perhaps also understand himself more.

Sculptor Aaron Heino exhibits sculptures depicting organic natural forms or fruit on which the flawless glossy painted surface is combined with the contrasting rough untreated aluminium. Heino was the recipient of the Fine Arts Academy of Finland Prize in 2019 and his solo exhibition, Off Topic, which largely comprises Heino’s newest sculptures, can be seen at EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art from 2 June to 12 December 2021.

A work is on display from painter Lauri Laine’s series of paintings portraying female figures which evoke the history of painting. The exhibition features a painting alluding to sculptural human figures which ponders questions of humankind’s existence in the world.

Painter Kristiina Uusitalo has a scenic view on display in which the view is more of an experience than a picture of a place. Like the other works in the exhibition, this work shows the experience of summer and its moods, lights and colours. A surprise – a dialogue between the viewer and the work - awaits the viewer in visual artist Jan Kenneth Weckman’s “modernist” paintings which can be read with a QR code.

Rauli Heino