GalleriA

Teemu Kangas: Hyperborea

Hyperborea is an ancient Greek myth of the origin of the North Wind in a far away land in the north
where the sun is said to set once a year. The exhibition aims to juxtapose the Arctic environment with the
presumed mental landscape of personalities who lived and explored these extreme regions. What kind of a
personality gravitates towards these conditions and does the harsh environment depict the mental
landscape of these people? The portraits in the exhibition aim to draw new interpretations from photos taken of known Arctic explorers and personalities.
The pieces in the exhibition have been produced by drawing and painting with ink, brushes and airbrush.
In the method a paper is creased in a specific manner suiting to the aimed result. The technique resembles the surrealist method of frottage in which the artist rubs out pictures of objects and shapes under a paper
or canvas. Similarly, a brush dipped in ink draws out forms and narratives from the creased plane as the
mind wanders freely in the empty paper. The creases in the paper are like topography from which a
mountain range or a rugged portrait can spring out of.

Teemu Kangas (b. 1980, Kuopio) is a visual artist living and working in Tampere, Finland. Kangas is
interested in the intersectioning of internal mental images and outer reality. His primary artistic method is a certain type of frottage in which drawing/painting with ink on paper gives out impressions of three
dimensional shapes and textures. Kangas has an M.F.A in visual arts from the University of Arts in
Helsinki. He also works as a licensed nurse in an adolescent psychiatric unit with especially difficult to
care patients.

The exhibition has received support from the Arts Promotion Centre Finland

Photo:
Arktinen hurtta (Sepp), 2022.

 

GalleriA
Kuopion taidemuseo
Kauppakatu 35, 70100 Kuopio
Free entrance

Minna Markkanen: Skin

Opening 15.6., 17!

”Skin”-solo exhibition follows Markkanen’s previous solo exhibitions theme exhibiting jewelry works that
draw their inspiration from the human body. Works presented in the exhibition are from the last few years
and have themes such as the skin microbiome and body trends in the media.

“Skin Flora” series was done with a grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation North Savo Regional fund in 2021. It explores the bacteria living on our skin and ponders on the relationships between ourselves and the skin microbiome.

“Carved from the skins of the girls we once were” is a series of brooches that takes a dive into aging, the
cycle of body trends in media and girlhood. One interesting subject to the artist was the term “preventative botox” which is injections aimed for 20-year-old women, and which enforces the idea that a woman with wrinkles is less of a person than a woman who doesn’t have them. This series was done in 2022 with the support of the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Minna Markkanen (MFA in Gemstone and Jewelry), born 1989, has been active in the jewelry art field for over a decade. Her works are balanced yet vibrant combinations of material use that arranges from plastics to clay, from wood to discarded paper and to everything in between them.

Photo:
“The folds between flowers and youth”, 2022.

 

GalleriA
Kuopion taidemuseo
Kauppakatu 35, 70100 Kuopio
Free entrance