Eeva-Riitta Eerola

Contemporary painter Eeva-Riitta Eerola is FCINY’s and ISCP’s artist-in-residence for July–December 2016. Operating in the interface in between representational and abstract, visible and invisible, Eerola’s paintings contain traces of recognizable subjects and a strong feeling of something happening.

Eerola’s paintings are imprints of intuitive working processes during which solutions are found through the physical act of painting. The artist tells that she often seeks a kind of tension, even irritation, or at least a little discomfort in her work. Emphasizing the significance of the creative process itself, Eerola allows her work to emerge as much as possible “on its own terms, somehow organically.”

Window, vista, opening, overlapping and parallel space are some of the themes Eerola’s recent work has been revolving around. Using refined color palettes and dark backgrounds from which the visual messages emerge, Eerola skillfully creates a feeling that the paintings contain more than they show. For the artist herself, a successful painting is capable of evoking different interpretations, depending on the viewer’s gaze.

ISCP is a residency-based contemporary art institution in New York that aims to support international exchange between artists and curators. The ISCP residency is enabled by the collaboration between The Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and the Alfred Kordelin foundation.

http://www.eevariittaeerola.com/

The text is partially based on Eerola’s conversation with Mika Hannula.