From MoMA PS1:

For the last 15 years, Iiu Susiraja (b. 1975, Turku, Finland) has taken photographs of herself in domestic settings, most often in her home in Turku, Finland. MoMA PS1 presents the first solo museum exhibition of Susiraja’s work in the US, bringing together a focused selection of photographs and videos that highlight the trajectory of her practice since 2007. Simultaneously seductive, abject, stylized, and vulnerable, Susiraja’s works are grounded in unabashed, yet private, performances for the camera. In these stagings, household objects—tablecloths, umbrellas, hotdogs, bananas, treadmills, rubber duckies, and dead fish, to name a few such items—become co-conspirators in her confrontations with the lens. Susiraja’s bodily manipulations torque the symbolisms of these objects, crafting incongruous and bold-faced tableaux. Situated between the slapstick and the deadpan, Susiraja’s works locate uneasiness in the comfortable, and vice versa.

Iiu Susiraja lives and works in Turku, Finland. She earned an MFA from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2018 and has held solo exhibitions at venues including: Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma/Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Finland; SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway; Makasiini Contemporary, Turku, Finland; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles; Ramiken, New York; and Francois Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the University of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma/Finnish National Gallery, Rubell Family Collection, Gothenburg Museum of Art, and the Finnish Museum of Photography.

Opening Reception: November 16, 6 - 8pm

From HB381:
HB381 is pleased to announce Hidden, a solo exhibition of Kristina Riska’s latest body of work. Riska (Finnish, b. 1960) is one of Scandinavia’s foremost contemporary ceramic artists and has been studying, defying, and redefining the traditional tenets of the medium since the 1980s. Hidden is her first exhibition at HB381, and third solo show with gallery principals Juliet Burrows and Kim Hostler, who have represented Riska at Hostler Burrows for the past decade. This new group of large scale hand-built stoneware sculptures—arresting in their technical mastery—marks an important departure for the artist in her approach to color and form. A selection of ink drawings will also be on view, presented for the first time in dialogue with the ceramic works. More than simply sketching as a functional necessity, Riska distills sensations into shapes on the paper. There is a palpable serenity in her work—an energy that emanates from the undulating, fluid curves—at once fragile and full of power. She says of Hidden, “We all carry a certain private spot inside of us, a hidden place. Our thoughts, our history, our desire, who we really are: a source of life, maybe it is the soul. In this restless and relentless world, maybe more than ever, I feel the importance of finding the peace of mind to be able to survive. Working is the hidden place for me..”

DIALOGUES – Creating New Textile Futures brings together leading universities from Finland and the United States to reimagine the landscape of textile and fashion industries of tomorrow. 

 
Dialogues is an exhibition showcasing works that discuss topical themes in textile design by students of Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture and Parsons School of Design. The exhibition presents curated textile design works in various fields such as fashion, interior, art and science, with a focus on research and future solutions. The students explore the mechanisms of textile design by developing technical knowledge and artistic expression, which has raised their design expertise to an internationally acknowledged level. This serves as a drive for the students to reach a common dialogue, spanning over continents and into the future.

Dialogues is supported by The Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, The Consulate General of Finland in New York, Juni Communications, and New York Textile Month.

On view from NOV 2 - 6 @ 80W Broadway, New York.

October 15 - November 13, 2022

Opening reception: Saturday, October 15 from 6–8pm

A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce SOCIAL PORTRAIT, an exhibition of a socially engaged art project by artist Katriina Haikala. This is Haikala’s first solo exhibition in New York City.

Find out more here.

The exhibition is the latest iteration of the artist’s ongoing Social Portrait project, in which she aims to equalize the art canon by drawing one-thousand portraits of everyday women around the world. It is also the first presentation of the project in the United States. The exhibition presents approximately one-thousand of Haikala’s drawings, dated 2017–2022, as well as new portraits drawn during performances that will occur throughout the course of the exhibition.

Haikala says: “I developed a strong need to work with portraits after realizing that the history of art is the history of power. Historically, portraits have been mostly painted of people who have had a high status in society. If we look at the history of Europe, or any other continent, we all know what the faces of power have typically looked like—they have been men. With this project, I counterbalance art history by drawing a thousand portraits of people who identify as women.”

The exhibition includes five durational drawing performances in which women visiting the gallery may model for one of Haikala’s portraits. Haikala observes her model carefully and draws what she sees, without taking her eyes off the sitter. “When I draw, I don’t look at the paper at all, but instead look intensely at the sitter in front of me. With this method, I want to emphasize the experiences of being seen and acknowledged,” she says.

Haikala began her project at Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland, in 2017. Since then, she has drawn in numerous Finnish art museums, as well as in Spiral Art Center in Tokyo, Japan, Thyssen-Bornemisza National Gallery in Madrid, Spain, and Fondazione Volume! in Rome, Italy.

FLAHERTY NYC

LET’S ALL BE LICHEN

programmed by asinnajaq

October 10–November 10

image by asinnajaq

‘let’s all be lichen’ is an Inukjuamiut’s response to 100 years of our namesake’s seminal film*. Featuring the works of largely circumpolar (Inuk, Sámi, Evenk and Sakha) filmmakers, the series weaves together works by artists who have harnessed their own power and distinct voice through the moving image. The series shimmers with personal histories, the spiritual anthropocene, questions of agency, memory, and urbanization, as well as a fierce and love-filled reclaiming of the arctic imaginary.

With works by Siku Allooloo, Zinnia Naqvi, Sunna Nousuniemi, Lindsay McIntyre, Chris Marker, Nivi Pedersen, Svetlana Romanova, Lada Suomenrinne, Zulaa Urchuud, asinnajaq, and her father, world-renown filmmaker Jobie Weetaluktuk.

‘let’s all be lichen’ is a five-part series that runs from October 10 to November 10, 2022 at Anthology Film Archives, e-flux Screening Room. Online programs will be announced shortly.

The Opening Night will take place on Indigenous People’s Day, October 10, and will be hosted by Anthology Film Archives. The screening will be preceded by Inuit games in First Street Art Park — all are welcome, RSVP required. Our closing event on November 10th will be at e-flux Screening Room. 

Additional screenings will be hosted on campuses thanks to the Colgate/Flaherty Distinguished Global Filmmaker Residency program, NYU Cinema Studies Department Friday Night Screening Series & NYU Center for Media, Culture and History, and on The Flaherty’s custom-built platform virtual.theflaherty.org. Audiences all around the world, stay tuned: details of the hybrid and online components will be forthcoming!

ALLIES FOR ART

Political instability can bring about unexpected and engaging art. It can influence an individual artist’s career for a lifetime. The current upheaval in the Ukraine and the security concerns of neighboring European countries suggests echoes experiences of artists exhibited by browngrotta arts who have lived in, fled, or emigrated from repressive regimes. It weighs, too, on the minds of those working in the surrounding nations.

The nearly 50 artists in the exhibition reflect diverse perspectives and experiences. Allies for Art: Work from NATO-related Countries will include art created under occupation, in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, art by those who left Hungary, Romania and Spain while occupied, and art by other artists who left Russia in later years.

Mindful of circumstances abroad browngrotta arts is highlighting artists from Europe including Agneta Hobin, Markku Kosonen, Ulla-Maija Vikman, Merja Winqvist from Finland.

LINK HERE

An exhibition of 20 Female Artists from Iceland and New York.

Whether the artist is working in the bustling urban jungle of New York City or in the raw and intense landscape of Iceland, their need is the same: to tell the story of their human experience through their textile art. Textiles often have a utilitarian purpose, and one of the concepts of this show points to the role of textiles in overconsumption, fast fashion, and waste. Materials and raw materials that would otherwise become discarded become the clay, the paint, and the pencil. Textiles, one of the oldest mediums on earth, have a history that is complex and serves as a powerful reflection of time itself.

The dynamic of the city of New York is similar to the dynamic of the natural forces in Iceland: Strong weather, intense weather, and constant changes in short times. When one looks at the Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn, it is a similar awe-inspiring experience to peering at a mountain range in Iceland. Each interlacement, fold, and layer, tell a story, like the Icelandic landscape and the New York cityscape.

Closing Reception, September 24th

3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Open

4:00 PM Guided Tour with Ragna Froda

Exhibition Hours

Monday through Saturday 1:00 - 5:00 PM

This is an in-person exhibition, no registration is required!

Mana Contemporary, Monira Foundation Gallery, 4th floor.

HB381 is pleased to announce Children of the Flood, an exhibition of new work by Sakari Kannosto (Finnish, b. 1973). This is Kannosto’s first solo presentation in the United States and marks the debut of a suite of nearly thirty figurative sculptures in stoneware. The artist will be present for an opening reception on September 9th, from 5 to 8 pm.

FIND OUT MORE HERE

Massey Klein Gallery is pleased to present Estranged, a solo exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Sami Havia. The exhibition will be on view from September 2nd through October 8th. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 10th from 4-7pm. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

FIND OUT MORE HERE

Find out more here!

Summer Group Show

Selected Works by Veera Kulju, Marianne Huotari and Hanne G.

HB381 is pleased to announce our summer exhibition, a group show of three Nordic artists emphasizing the parallels between intensive hand crafts, traditional textile techniques, and ceramics. The show will run from June 24th to August 19th at the gallery’s New York location in Tribeca. Recent works by Marianne Huotari (Finnish, b. 1986), Veera Kulju (Finnish, b. 1975), and Hanne G. (Danish, b. 1963) are to be included.

Sewing, mending, stitching: all refer to “handicrafts” that have bred deep textile traditions and patterns for creation. The three featured artists pull on that history, transposing textile and handicraft techniques to the medium of ceramics, as they darn sculptures and glaze tapestries. By foregrounding repetitive and detail oriented practices, they each pause hectic daily life to invite in a therapeutic pace that centers creating by hand.

The hundreds of beads and medallions required in Marianne Huotari’s works pass individually through her fingers before they are sewn onto a metal frame with wire. The beads ruffle and layer at will, quilting themselves. Huotari references the Finnish textile technique of ryijy, meaning thick cloth, where a loom is used to weave tapestries featuring geometric shapes and florals. Colors traditionally ranged from gray and white, to red, yellow, green and blue once plant dyes were introduced. Her palate stays true to this precedent, while she continually experiments with materiality and composition.

Veera Kulju’s hand is evidenced through texture. Her collaboration with the clay begins with her fingers and ends with a thimble. Leaves pressed to the shape of her palm, pinholes created with the prongs of a fork, and clay pushed through a sieve, adorn the edges of her non reflective “mirror” series. The space created in between the details provides an opportunity to linger and reflect, to turn inwards. Intensive texture carries through to her larger vessels, whose porous sides are prickled with countless needle width indentations, citing the surface of coral.

Finally, Hanne G. has pioneered a process for freezing fabric to form grooved, ceramic-like textile sculptures. Viewed from afar, her wall works mirror topographical maps and satellite images. When seen closer up, the felted fabric mimics the curvature of stones and sand. An expert at crochet and embroidery, she meticulously works the wool through her fingers to help it build mass and find form. In Biocentric she crochets a base of wool and polyester before felting a final top layer of raw sheep’s wool. The whole shape is then coated with acrylic paints to achieve a lacquered, sculpted, finish. Her tactile involvement addresses the viewer’s natural sense of perception, head on and with humor.

In these artists we witness the adeptness and versatility of work done by hand. The final forms are engendered with humanist sensibilities that call to mind the usefulness of mending, of renewing what is already there.

Exhibition

June 10 – July 16, 2022

NOON Projects
951 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Find the original exhibition posting and introduction at the NOON Projects website here.

NOON Projects is thrilled to present Plasticenta, a site-specific installation by Finnish artist Hertta Kiiski. Plasticenta is Kiiski’s American debut, with a new series of photographs, textile works, clay reliefs, and the first showing of Hydra, a new film made for the exhibition.

Plasticenta imagines an alternative future, in which all life forms on the planet mingle with each other in harmony, with dreams of new alliances between species, transforming existing hierarchies. The work depicts a new kinship between the human and the inhuman, the organic and the inorganic, the animate and inanimate.

The exhibition title is a reference to new research where microplastic particles have been found in the placentas of unborn babies. Kiiski has worked with her 2 daughters and niece for 10 years, creating work together collaboratively.

The site-sensitive installation features a series of photographs, textile works, and clay reliefs that establish a space for breathing and listening. By blurring the everyday with fiction, speculative futures, and aesthetics, Kiiski aims to heighten one's senses – creating a balm for the soul, in which to approach dark topics.

A series of 7 photo works in vermillion frames focus on the growth of plants, animals, humanimals, and the metamorphoses and symbiosis of bodies. Pictured are familiar yet altered landscapes, plants with eyes, heads levitating in the forest, and eyes depicted on a red-tinted seafloor.

Hydra, a new film created for the exhibition explores the love and companionship between two girls and their relationship with an immortal polyp found on a remote island. The film features a score created by Lau Nau.

New York-based Finnish photographer captures the sensuality of Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto’s masterpieces in their shared hometown, Jyväskylä, in a new exhibition taking place in The Consulate General of Finland in New York.

Surrounded by lakes and forests in the heart of Central Finland, the Jyväskylä region creates the backdrop for the series of photographs by Finnish photographer Janne Tuunanen. After years of working in New York City, Tuunanen shifts his focus back to his former hometown, known for the exceptional heritage of modern architecture by the renowned Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto. The resulting series provides a unique and unexpected perspective on Aalto’s architecture – the precise composition and insightful angles draw the viewer’s attention to exquisite details often left out of images in architecture books and magazines.

The exhibition is presented by The Consulate General of Finland in New York, The Embassy of Finland in Washington, D.C., and The Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, in collaboration with Alvar Aalto Foundation.

Open Monday-Friday by appointment, please check the website for more details.

Learn more at finlandabroad.fi/USA.

https://festival.nycxdesign.org/

The NYCxDESIGN Festival returns on May 10-20, 2022 for its tenth anniversary edition. For almost a decade, the Festival has attracted thousands of national and international visitors to New York City to celebrate creative accomplishments, share new ideas, and inspire through design.

This special anniversary edition of the Festival will showcase the immense talent and diversity of the city’s designers, makers, and manufacturers, along with cutting-edge design businesses and districts, and world-class cultural and academic design institutions. National and international designers are invited to participate in this milestone year to showcase their work–through group exhibitions, design fairs, consulate-organized events, international trade associations, and more. 

Each year, the Festival encompasses renowned trade shows including WantedDesign and ICFF, as well as immersive public design experiences like Design Pavilion, and hundreds of additional partner events across the five boroughs of New York City. These once-a-year events attract thousands of national and international visitors to the city, making for the perfect opportunity for the creative industry to unite. The most recent Festival in November 2021 included 120 events across the five boroughs with 263 participating organizations, earning a significant media reach of over 590 million. 

This spring, the FCINY is partnering with Frame Contemporary Art Finland and EXPO CHICAGO to bring a group of Finland-based contemporary art curators to Chicago.

The trip in April will be joined by four institutionally affiliated curators in collaboration with Frame, and one independent curator taking part in the FCINY's new Curatorial Residency Program in collaboration with Residency Unlimited.

Read more about the project here.

Consensus presupposes that a question has a single answer: the truth. More and more we understand those truths to be dogmatic, follow biases or are results of single minded ways of thinking. What was once considered normal may have been societal constructions and therefore changeable. Instead of going back to a dual world, the artists move forward into new dimensions by building a dynamic reality in their creative open ended processes.

Artists include:

Ana Biolchini, Tom Capobianco, Gabriel Castro, Bel Falleiros, Linda King Ferguson, Peter Fulop, Will Hutnick, Sara Jimenez, Laura Lappi, Parker Manis, Karen Margolis, Anna Parisi, Diogo Pimentao, Brigitta Varadi

The exhibition is curated by Hayley Ferber, Anita Goes and Luciana Solano.