Autori: Petri Hytönen, Marika Kaarna
Naziv izložbe: DIVINE COMEDY
Trajanje izložbe: 24.3. – 6.4.2023.
Umjetnički dvojac Kaarna-Hytönen živi i djeluje u gradiću Porvoou nadomak Helsinkija. Njihov životni i radni prostor smješten je u samom povijesnom centru, u tipičnoj lokalnoj stoljetnoj drvenoj kući pastelnih boja. Zagrebačkoj će publici predstaviti svoju recentnu slikarsku produkciju koja u mnogočemu odražava kontekst i lokaciju njezina nastajanja.
Sanjive slike ovećih formata Marike Kaarne evociraju dugu tradiciju figurativnog slikarstva, ali i kulturološko naslijeđe nadrealizma. Na prvi pogled stilski naivna, a tematski djetinje zaigrana, Kaarnina ulja i akrili na platnu više su od prikaza svakodnevnog života. Svojim živim bojama toplog, veselog spektra i mnoštvom često nespojivih figura, grade simbolički, a nerijetko i enigmatsko dvosmisleni, društveni komentar. Ugledat ćemo na njima odbjegle utvare bajkovitih princeza u proslavi Valentinova iza bodljikavih žica, psihodelični party uz ples mrtvaca i leteće tanjure, kričavo rozog Bambija na vrtnoj zabavi koja okuplja ženske arhetipske figure, drsko ili smjerno uperene ka nama, odbjeglog puža iz klimatski zagrijanog vrta s kojima se mora tek naučiti surađivati; pregršt je to pop referenci smještenih u začudnim pejzažima, koje se slijevaju i prelijevaju sa svijetlim, ali i tamnijim stranama današnjice. Ponekad je u životu bitno naopako okrenuti oči !, reći će autorica.
Petri Hytönen u svojim plutajućim, mobilnim slikarskim instalacijama, spaja tehniku akvarela, crteža i fotografije s grafiti sprejom, miješajući humor, psihodeliju, studiju ljudske prirode, te srednjovjekovnu ikonografiju. Za rad Na zemlji, kao na nebu i negdje između izradio je trodimenzionalne, pokretne slike u akvarelu u kojima u prvi plan stavlja odbjegla, zagubljena ljudska bića i moralna pitanja s kojima se ona neprestano suočavaju. Hytönen sustavno puca u mjehuriće koje razdvojeni pojedinci grade oko sebe. Dok jedan od njih ima vjetar pod krilima, drugi se strmoglavljuje ravno prema nemilosrdnoj zemlji. Gotovo nevidljiv, ali središnji lik instalacije je pećinski čovjek; taj davni praotac koji živi u svima nama iz generacije u generaciju. Unatoč činjenici da se ljudska bića razvijaju i napreduju stvarajući tehnološke inovacije, kulturu, tradiciju svakodnevnog suživota, sustave vjerovanja i etičke putokaze, ona ipak, po Hytönenu, uvijek sa sobom nose čovjeka životinju, sa svim svojim nagonima i zakopanim željama, nerijetko stvaralačkih, ali i razarajuće destruktivnih motivacija po okoliš i druge u pozadini. Homo deus, homo sapiens i tamo negdje između.
Sve to čini Božanstvenu komediju 21. stoljeća, koja se u sinergiji ovo dvoje autora prelama pred našim očima.
O AUTORIMA:
Petri Hytönen (r. 1963.) diplomirao je 1988. godine na Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti u Helsinkiju, gdje je predavao slikarstvo u razdoblju od 2009.-2014. Osnivač je umjetničke skupine JoyMen i Gallery Rankka. Godine 2001. dobio je treću nagradu Carnegie Art Award. Imao je brojne samostalne i skupne izložbe u Finskoj i inozemstvu. Njegov rad je zastupljen u brojnim zbirkama uključujući: EMMA, Göteborg Museum of Art, Helsinki Art Museum, Malmö konstmuseum, Nordic Watercolor Museum, Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection, Finnish National Gallery – Kiasma, Pro Artibus Foundation, Uppsala Art Museum i Wihuri Art Collection. Jedan je od kustosa i organizatora Porvoo trijenala 2024.
Marika Kaarna (r. 1966.) diplomirala je 1989. na Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti u Helsinkiju. Izlagala je na brojnim izložbama u Finskoj i inozemstvu. Rad joj je zastupljen u zbirkama: Helsinki Art Museum, Paulo Foundation, Haaga-Helia. Jedna je od osnivačica umjetničke grupe Gallery Rankka.
English
The artist couple Kaarna-Hytönen lives and works in the small town of Porvoo near Helsinki. Their living and working space is located in the very historic center, in a typical local hundred-year-old wooden house in pastel colors. In Galerija Događanja, they will face the audience with their recent paintings, clearly reflecting the context and geographies of their creation. Marika Kaarna’s dreamy large-format paintings evoke the long tradition of figurative painting, but also the cultural legacy of surrealism. At first glance, stylistically naive, and thematically childishly playful, Kaarna’s oils and acrylics on canvas are more than depictions of everyday life. With their vivid colors of a warm, cheerful spectrum and a multitude of often incompatible figures, they build a symbolic, and enigmatically ambiguous, social commentary. On them, we will see ghost like apparitions of fairy-tale princesses celebrating Valentine’s Day behind barbed wire, a psychedelic party with a dead man’s dance and flying saucers, a flashy pink Bambi at a garden party that gathers female archetypal figures, brazenly or knowingly pointing at us, an escaped snail from a climate-heated garden with whom we have yet to learn to cooperate; it’s a handful of diverse pop references located in uncanny landscapes, overflown with the bright, but also darker sides of today’s existence. Sometimes in life it is important to turn your eyes upside down!, Kaarna states while commenting upon her paintings. On the other hand, in his floating, mobile painting installations, Petri Hytönen combines the technique of watercolor, drawing and photography with graffiti spray, mixing humor, psychedelia, the study of human nature, and medieval iconography. For the work On earth, as it is in heaven and something in between, he creates three-dimensional, floating watercolor paintings in which he foregrounds runaway, lost human beings and the moral questions they constantly face. Hytönen systematically bursts the bubbles that the anthropocentrism builds around itself. Some of his characters have wind under their wings, the others fall straight towards the merciless earth. Almost invisible, but the central character of the installation is a caveman, that ancient ancestor who lives in all of us from generation to generation. The human animal with all its primeval drives and latent desires, as artist may suggest. Despite the fact that human beings develop and progress by creating technological innovations, culture, traditions of everyday coexistence, belief systems and ethical guidelines, they repeatedly manifest themselves by their creative, but also devastatingly destructive motivations and exclusionary behaviors. Homo deus, homo sapiens and something in between. All this makes up the Divine Comedy of the 21st century, which unfolds before our eyes in the humorous and vivid encounter of these two artists and their pictorial universe. Ivana Meštrov
Petri Hytönen (b. 1963) graduated in 1988 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, where he taught painting from 2009-2014. He is the founder of the art group JoyMen and Gallery Rankka. In 2001, he received the third Carnegie Art Award. He had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad. His work is represented in numerous collections including: EMMA, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Helsinki Art Museum, Malmö konstmuseum, Nordic Watercolor Museum, Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection, Finnish National Gallery – Kiasma, Pro Artibus Foundation, Uppsala Art Museum and Wihuri Art Collection. He is one of the curators and organizers of the 2024 Porvoo Triennial.
Marika Kaarna (b. 1966) graduated in 1989 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki.She exhibited at numerous exhibitions in Finland and abroad. Her work is represented in the collections of Helsinki Art Museum, Paulo Foundation, Haaga-Helia. She is one of the co-founders of the Gallery Rankka art group.
