Every year a country is central during Huntenkunst. This year it is Finland. The work of 8 artists can be seen at a central point in the SSP hall from the land of the northern lights and the Nokia telephone.
The Finnish artists are: Anna Aho, Elina Forsti, Ylva Holländer, Kirsi Porrassalmi, Marjaana Rantama, Timo Sailaranta, Elina Sarlin en Anne Tompur.
Anna Aho (1979): “In my paintings there are mostly human characters. The models I use are people close to me or myself. Sometimes hard things are easier to present with self-portraits than using other people as models. My models don’t usually represent their own personalities in my paintings. They are portrayed as characters. However, I find it important that my models are ‘real people’ and not just some pictures I have found on the magazines.”
Anne Tompuri (1958) is known for her black and white canvases in gouache and pigment. The works in her Window -series are a juxtapositioning of two elements; black and white, light and dark, the material and the spiritual. The works, concerned with life´s most fundamental questions, inhabit a border territory between two worlds. Tompuri herself says that she is speaking for life and hope. For her, the dark serves to accentuate the light.
Elina Forsti (1971) has a strong local bond . “For me art is created by the environment where I live. Many of the barns I have painted were destroyed already long ago. In my paintings they got another life. To some extent my paintings are also documentaries of something that once existed.”
Elina Sarlin (1977): “My works display a world that is rich, abundant and colorful in its details – and a person in it living their everyday life, in their most ordinary, exposed. Every moment is defined by itself creating a new context to what is essential and what is irrelevant. The paintings flirt with the concepts of trivial and meaningful, trying to break away from conventionality, rigid thinking and unnecessary severity.”
Ylva Holländer (1955) works are often characterized by humor and playfulness, yet always with undertones of more serious existential concerns. Nature and art history are constant sources of inspiration. She thinks in pictures and her works thus serve as material for philosophical reflections. Holländers multifaceted sculptures appear as large encyclopedias, investigating the nature of life. Everything seems to fit inside a single entity. Holländer is technically versatile and chooses her form of expression based on the idea. Even her vibrant paintings strive towards three-dimensionality.
