Art Brussels 200720.-23.4.2007, Brussels Expo / osasto 12e-18

Galleria Heino esittelee seuraavien taiteilijoiden teoksia:

PETRI HYTÖNEN

MARTTI JÄMSÄ

MARJA PIRILÄ

KIM SIMONSSON

 

PETRI HYTONEN

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. 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.

MARTTI JÄMSÄ

Martti Jämsä's world of photographs consists of small, yet important things. Dominated by a certain sense of inert melancholy, his photographs are often of summer and small boys busy playing. His works aren't portraits however. The figures are usually so detached they seem to depict an idea of some idyllic life. Likewise, in their minimalist sensitivity, Jämsä's nature photos create unique opportunities to contemplate.

Nature itself constitutes an important element for Jämsä and it is interesting to note how vividly he portrays it in black and white, with even the smallest details gaining importance. A composition can take on a new significance through, for example, the clear graphic line of a branch or some other detail suddenly penetrating a landscape. Also he reflects the different angles of light amazingly in the black and whiteness of the images. Even though the colours are left to the imagination, it's easy to sense the strong, lasting sunshine of childhood in Jämsä's photographs. Or the sparkling water and reflections falling on it. On the other hand, his inimitable skill of creating contrasts dramatically conveys the mystic depth of darkness.

Leena Kuumola

Martti Jämsä (b.1959) has earned particular acclaim for the fine images depicting his own family on summer holiday in Finland, which earned him a place in the Fotofinlandia finals in 2004. The lights and shadows of black and white imagery have always been a hallmark of the work of Jämsä. In this era of large-scale digital prints, Jämsä is definitely a representative of the ‘old school'.

MARJA PIRILA

In the Speaking House series, I have transformed spaces in a large abandoned house into dark rooms, camera obscuras. Camera Obscura (Latin "dark room") signifies a dark room where windows are covered. I use black plastic, make a hole in it and place a convex lens in front of the hole. This way, the outside world is reflected upside down in the room, where I then photograph the person living there or just the room. Scientists, artists and philosophers have used the phenomenon for centuries in their work.

Marja Pirilä

Marja Pirilä (b. 1957) is one of the leading photographic artists in Finland. She is known for the Camera Obscura Interior/Exterior project she started in 1993. In 2000, she received the State Photography Award.

KIM SIMONSSON

Kim Simonsson's works are figurative with child and animal motifs. In the child theme, the artist has been influenced by the imagery and visual idiom of Japanese manga cartoons. "Manga is rather violent and even pornish. I have always been intrigued by its visual idiom, the conflict between the innocence and toughness of the figures." Kim Simonsson's art seems to be contructed of conflicts and crossing of boundaries, to the point of becoming his trademark.

Tapani Pennanen

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

Rauli Heino