Positions and directions 🗺️ 🧭

Positions and directions 🗺️ 🧭

1.11.2023–31.12.2023

🖊️ Space – Positions and directions

About the artists

Alves Ludovico‘s artistic practice explores the vague connections between material consumption, interspecies well-being, and ecological harmony. His creations intertwine the realms of everyday objects, sculpture and moving imagery, drawing inspiration from fiction and technology. Ludovico explores how humankind would be intrigued by other life forms. He finds reaching out to alien life an exciting possibility. However, at the moment, he is most excited about how we convey humanity ourselves – what would we like to disclose about our society? Alves Ludovico (b.1990) lives and works in Helsinki. He is pursuing a master of fine arts in sculpture at Kuva UniArts and has previously completed a Master of Arts program at Aalto University in Helsinki. Ludovico has participated in various group exhibitions worldwide. His creative contribution has been acknowledged through awards like the “Young Nordic Designer Award” by Adorno in Denmark and the “Hello Future Award” received during Tokyo Designer’s Week in Tokyo.

Tiina Raitanen‘s sculptures consist of many parts and materials. She deals with questions such as observation, human traces, time, and the existential struggle. While shaping her works, Raitanen uses worn and faulty objects she has found in the urban environment. She works on the material by taking moulds, casting objects and rearranging their parts. Using her hands and body is an integral part of her creative artistic process. Materials, moulds and details of the sculpture evolve slowly through different stages into an entity where they support each other both during the working process and in the final installation. Tiina Raitanen (b. 1983) is a visual artist living and working in Helsinki. Tiina Raitanen has graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Raitanen has also studied sculpture for professional artists at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Raitanen has participated in group exhibitions, held solo exhibitions in Finland, and worked in several artist residencies abroad. Raitanen is a member of the Association of Finnish Sculptors.

Katri Paunu tends to create spatial and experimental sculptures. Paunu’s practice revolves around ceramics, often combined with living materials such as fungi or yeast. This process involves looking into these materials’ layered stories and their intricate relation to the senses. Her MFA- project ‘The Probing Realm of the Other’ explores these themes through combinations of yeast and amorphous fountain-like forms. By letting the yeasts participate and create guidance for her works, she aims to give them a voice of their own in a playful way. Her artistic interest lies in the meeting point of architectural objects colliding with the bodily, a search to form a more profound sense of our surroundings and fellow creatures. Katri Paunu (b. 1993) lives and works in Rauma. Paunu has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and a master’s degree from the Oslo National University of the Arts. Her works are part of private collections in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and Finland.

Kati Peltola works with flameworking techniques, melting the glass locally in a flame. She makes small sculptures and jewellery. Candleholder ‘Kys’ (kiss in Danish) refers to the candle dents that look like kisses. Kati Peltola (b. 1989) lives and works in Helsinki. She graduated with a master’s degree in art from Aalto University. Her works are part of private collections, and her glass rings are for sale in Helsinki, Turku, Pori, Lahti, Paris and Berlin.

Leena Hyttinen works mainly with ceramics, which she occasionally combines with other materials. She bases her artistic work on observing the environment, dealing with the landscape and the viewer’s experience. She reflects on the momentary nature of perception and continuous movement with the layered and fragmented structures where observation and introspection are constantly present. Hyttinen’s works are usually non-representative, but behind them is always a background idea of some state of mind embodied in the shape and structure of the work. Leena Hyttinen (b. 1976) lives and works in Tampere. Hyttinen has studied glass and ceramic design at Tallin Academy, Lapin yliopisto and Häme University of Applied Sciences. Her work has been exhibited in group, joint and solo exhibitions in Finland and Great Britain.

Helena Tuura paints oil pastels on paper and board. In her works, Tuura describes the emotional experiences of life both through the human figure and abstraction. The artist’s emotion and truth are the starting points of the pieces, and symbolism is strongly present in the results. Each painting is a story, and several minor works form a larger narrative. Own space has become essential in the new phase of life for Tuura – she lives alone for the first time. Now she has the freedom to do what she wants. Her apartment has become a haven for her, where the evil world does not reach and cannot enter. The sofa has become a safe nest where she sleeps. The sofa often appears in her works. Recently, she has noticed that she has moved away from the couch and tried a chair to sit, a new possible “place of refuge”. Helena Tuura (b. 1956) lives and works in Joensuu. She has exhibited all over Finland.

Emilie Kanervo explores the intersection of abstraction and figurative painting. ‘Abstract Tension’ is an exploration of the wild, a reminder of our primal roots, and a testament to the ever-present forces that shape the world around us. Emilie Kanervo (b. 1992) lives and works in Helsinki. Kanervo studie at Turku Academy of Art. Kanervo has participated in several group exhibitions in Finland and abroad, e.g., in Latvia, Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina. She has had solo exhibitions in Turku and Tampere. She has also participated in artist residencies in Finland and Latvia. Kanervo’s works are in private collections and the art collection of Viļaka Museum, Latvia.

Appe Leppänen places the connection with nature in the spectrum of contemporary spirituality and esotericism, where man is looking for an experience of enchantment in a particular time and place. She describes the relativity of unity and the interaction of physical position and mental space rather than a realistic world. The direction is to seek connection to the collective consciousness, and the position is an undefined edge, a liminal space. The plants depicted in Spindles are fireweed, thistle, and northern dock – all species that live in an urban environment flourishing in lowlands and wastelands, vacant and undefined fringes. In addition to identifiable plants, the painting features semi-abstract flowers or butterflies’ interpretive patterns that point to the pattern’s centre created by knot dyeing – these helping spirits that lead to the other side. Appe Leppänen (b. 1982) lives and works in Turku. Leppänen has graduated from the Turku Academy of Arts in 2020. She has held solo exhibitions in Finland. Her works are in the Finnish State Art Commission collections.

Marika Lahdenperä finds painterly freedom in space, which creates and awakens creative ways of using the watercolour technique as an extension of emotional expression. Nature and vegetation are often the starting points in her art. She explores space as a self-constructed reality, and her works form unique aesthetics of theatre staging. Her pieces take the viewer to the mountains’ tops, the forest’s depths, under the water’s surface and into the beautiful world of shadows. The portals show a child-like focus on the small details of nature. Marika Lahdenperä (b. 1998) lives and works in Tampere. Lahdenperä gratuated as painter from Vapaa Taidekoulu. She has exhibited all over Finland and in Berlin. Her works are in the collection of the Finnish National Gallery.

Sofie Carlson‘s practice deals with relationships between the natural, human, and supernatural. She is interested in the meeting points in the folklore and handicraft traditions of the people inhabiting the pan-Baltic area in past and present times. Recently, Carlson has been rotating around the hexagon. She is into the aesthetic and ascetic sophistication of geometry as it relates to the structures of the world. The hexagon intercepts us, whether we are aware of it or not, in our bodies and outside of it. Carlson has been tentatively working with these ideas in an ongoing work, ‘Himmeli: The Heavenly Body’. She uses the handicraft technique and explores the hexagon. Instead of using straw, as is customary for constructing a ‘himmeli’, Carlson uses dandelion stems. She chose the dandelion for its cyclical nature and its being a nurturing plant that is often overlooked, disregarded, and sometimes even combatted. The dandelion also connects to the celestial bodies: the sun and the moon. Carlson keeps returning to the idea of the net and keeping things out or in, connecting and disconnecting membranes, passages, honeycombs, and constellations. Sofie Carlson (b.1999) lives, works, and studies in Helsinki. Carlson grew up in Nyköping, Sweden, on the opposite shore of the Baltic Sea. In 2022, she moved to Finland to study at Kuvataideakatemia after a few years of studying sculpture at Konstskolan Idun Lovén in Stockholm and a short stint in the South of France. Over the years, she has been part of various exhibitions in Sweden, France, and Finland.

Rasmus Mäkelä deals with intertwined themes in his work, such as time, change, space, and light. His works are reactions to momentary anxiety and helplessness. Experimentation and playfulness, as well as the incompleteness and recycling of works, play a central role in his work. Mäkelä tries to emphasize the intrinsic value of art and its essential role in shaping identity and communities. Rasmus Mäkelä (b.1991) lives and works in Helsinki. He works with photography and video. Mäkelä graduated with a master’s in photography from Aalto University. He has had solo exhibitions in Finland and participated in numerous group exhibitions and video screenings in various parts of Europe.

For Timo Andersson, aesthetics are the most essential guideline; the representation comes secondary. The grid he uses on the surface of the canvas gives his works a rough texture, an antithesis of flatness, a voluntarily wanted digital effect delivering the paintings a dimensional feel. The ribbon fixed around the painted canvas defines a finished piece. Andersson paints in a continuum of creative variation, testing the visual boundaries and forever experimenting with visual approaches. Timo Andersson (b.1989) lives and works in Espoo. He studied at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. He has held solo exhibitions in Finland and abroad and participated in group and joint exhibitions. His works are in collections of the Academy of Fine Arts, Kiasma, Saastamoinen Foundation, Pori Art Museum and various private collections.

Max Montaman is a self-taught visual artist whose creative journey focuses on uncovering the beauty in the abstract interplay of lines, shapes, and colours. Through his paintings, Montaman explores the allure of imperfections, allowing artistic expressions to flourish without confinement. His current focus is embracing imperfection and allowing unexpected elements to shine. Montaman’s creations embody a unique perspective, revealing deeper narratives within seemingly ordinary scenes. Max Montaman (b. 1992) lives and works in Helsinki. 

A playful approach towards painting and sculpting characterises Niklas Sandberg’s work. He looks at things through sensitivity, empathy and humour, creating a colourful yet melancholic world in his art. In his work, Sandberg aims for a certain kind of directionlessness to find what he needs to know he is missing. Niklas Sandberg (b. 1994) lives and works in Helsinki. He studies art education at Aalto University. He has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Helsinki, Malmö, and Uppsala.

The subjects of Johanna Lumme‘s art often spring from the sensitive and changeable nature of the North and ponder the movements of living things in this rapid change. Lumme studies the bottom of the forest, the undergrowth, and the roots. Are there directions? What about the beginnings and endings? Is only constant change and cyclicality inevitable? Where are the memories stored? What’s going on at the bottom? Lumme ponders through shapes and colours in nature, thus also hidden connections, routes, and traces in humans. She also carves wood as a material and builds painting bases from it. Johanna Lumme (b. 1990) lives and works in Helsinki. She has a master’s in art from Aalto University, School of Arts and Design. She has exhibited in solo exhibitions in Helsinki and Lapland, and she has participated in several group exhibitions in different parts of Finland. She has participated in art fairs in Sweden and Germany.

Antti Raitala‘s artistic work is multidisciplinary – he paints, makes sculptures, assemblages, and installations. Raitala uses a wide range of materials for his works. His pieces are without importance for unified style, resulting from the need for a particular expression. For Raitala, the artistic path is a dialogue between conscious and subconscious thinking, a journey of discovery to the unknown. The work ‘Lento’ flies towards the unknown and unconscious through traditions of art history. In the collection of objects, Raitala refers to Kazimir Malevits and Suprematism and Yves Klein monochromatically in the form of a painted black rectangle. The flight will likely experience turbulence and location, and the goal is shrouded in obscurity, as it should be in art making. Antti Raitala (b. 1964) lives and works in Helsinki. Raitala has graduated from Kankaanpää art school. He has held solo exhibitions and participated in group and joint exhibitions in Finland and abroad. Raitala’s works are in private collections and the collections of cities, municipalities, and companies in Finland and abroad.