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Two Naive art exhibitions are now open at Emil Cedercreutz Museon in Harjavalta. Love and Romance (Rakkautta ja romantiikkaa) exhibits classic Naive artists in Suomen Gallup´s collections, and so called modern Naive artists are promenading in Garden of Joy (Ilon puutarha). I´m one of the artists in Garden of Joy. There was an article in Satakunnan Kansa newspaper.
Että on mukava välillä taas tehdä ihan pieni linopiirros kissasta. Tämä kuuluu sarjaani 15 x 10 cm kokoisia linoja. Kissa katsoo sivulle ja sillä on sydämenmuotoinen valkoinen kuvio rinnassa. Pientä mattoa oli myös hauska kaivertaa.
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So nice to carve for a change a very small linocut of a cat. This is one for my series of 15 x 10 cm sized linos. The cat is looking at her side and she has a white heart shaped pattern on her chest. It was also nice to cut a small rug.
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This cat painting by Polish-English Jerzy Malek (1925-2014) is aptly named "Ginger". This domestic cat sits contented on the table on a leaf-patterned tablecloth. "This is my place." Marek has painted two heavy, hefty and black vases on the table. But the white delicate flower stems are lightening their weight.
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I added a bit of colour to my four-piece linocut of Pispala ridge. The two upper parts are new. I coloured by hand the shot tower red and two cars at the foot of the observation tower yellowish and bluish. This picture is so full of small details, that next I want to carve something more straightforward, let´s see if I manage that. I think I got the details printed quite nice when the paper is smooth. The picture got a name: Battle of the Towers (Tornien taisto), one day of the year when birdwatchers are nationally competing with each other in bird towers.
Tampereen taidemuseossa on kaksi mielenkiintoista näyttelyä. Kaksi ylintä kerrosta ovat
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There are two interesting exhibitions at Tampere Art Museum. Two upper floors consist a group exhibition called Illusion, darkened rooms where you can meet ghosts, light and sounds resonating to spectators movements or you can not see yourself in the mirror. When you put your hand in a glass box, the movements of the hand are reflected as large pictures on the wall. If you spread a white cloth on your knees and sit on a chair, you get a crying baby on your lap. Quite another experience is waiting downstairs: Liisa Hietanen´s (b. 1981) crocheted people and objects. People are based on real people of Hietanen´s domicile Hämeenkyrö, and they are same size than real people, staggering. Crocheting and knitting have taken quite a lot of time and patience, but not so much than with a police car crocheted by Kaija Papu that I saw a few years back. Objects, cups, whole WC or peas on a plate can consist of many tiny details like one pea fallen off a plate. This exhibition leaves a somehow warm feeling.
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Terhi Asumaniemi´s exhibition at Gallery Saskia displays mostly photographs. But they are processed, cut and combined. The photographs are big like the one of blue forest and extending from the ceiling to the floor or tiny like the butterflies covering a whole wall, and every butterfly has on it a photo, landscape. A surprise is also, that there are small paintings in the exhibition. Asumaniemi can really also make art, otherwise that with a camera.
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The atmosphere of this painting is mysterious and green. It´s green inside and outside. Even on the white fur of the cat there is a reflection of green. The cat is staring straight at someone inside and looking mystical and omniscient . On a small drawer under the window there is a butterfly, perhaps a death`s-head moth, and it´s shadow seems to lift it in the air. One drawer is open and there is a small portrait on the wall. The painting by Almut Gernhardt (1940-1989) is called "I See What I Can Not See" (Ich höre was, was du nicht siehst) after a poem by Robert Gernhardt.
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Two parallel Naïve Art exhibitions are opening in Harjavalta at Emil Cederzreutz Museum March 28, 2022. I`m so glad to be of 14 artists in the part called Ilon puutarha / Garden of Joy. The other part is classic Naïve Art from Suomen Gallup´s collection called Rakkautta ja romantiikkaa / Love And Romance.
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Four-part linocut of Pispala ridge is now almost ready. The lino has been printed, 40 x 60 cm. Two bottom pieces are left from an earlier version, but the two upper parts are new, carved again. My aim to colour by hand the shot tower and two cars, because they are now drowning in the swamp of many details.
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| Aiempi versio / Earlier version |
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Next to the door at gallery Art Pispala there are now two of my linocuts: a high and narrow on with a hot air balloon over the Pispala ridge and one linocut of Pispala shot tower. From the window by these works you can almost see the shot tower, and the ridge is rising behind the gallery, where the steps are a real fitness test.
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This Christmas picture from 1905 is painted by Dutch-Belgian Romantic artist Henrietta Ronneri (1821-1909) and it´s called A Happy Mother. I´m nor sure if mother cat´s expression is just happy, more like worried. And why not? Four wild kittens are tumbling around. The picture is a soft praise of the colour brown, like melted chocolate in honor of Christmas.
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I started to print my four-part linocut, where the upper part is new and there are many of Pispala`s landmarks. When I taped to part together, the older bottom parts were darker after previous printing and the new ones were light. Spreading new ink on lighter lino plates is a fine feeling. the sound of the ink and roll is fascinating. Now the whole linocut is dark. Next the paper!
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A Naïve art group exhibition at Gallery Neliö in Oulu is ending on Sunday March,13,2022. There was a fine article in the newspaper Kaleva. This is really rare delight, article like this, because the newspapers have more or less completely stopped to publish visiting art exhibitions. Why? You have to gather information of especially smaller art exhibitions like in small crumbs in the Internet, sometimes you don´t have time and exhibitions have already ended, what a pity!
Naivismin talvi -näyttelyssä on Hannu Riikosen maalausten lisäksi Stefan Bremerin valokuvia, Suvi Vasaman paperiveistoksia ja kokoelma ns. nykynaivistien töitä. Itselläni on seinällä kolme linopiirros/pastellityötä, joista yksi oli saanut punaisen täplän/ myyty. Kaksi muuta ovat vielä naivistisessa taidelainaamossa.
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In addition to Hannu Riikonen´s paintings there are at the Naïve Art Winter exhibition also Stefan Bremer`s photograps, Suvi Vasama´s paper sculpture and so calaled modern Naïve artists works. I have three linocut & pastels on the wall, and one of them had got a red dot/sold. The two others are still in the Naïve Art Loan Service.
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Two new A4 sized pieces for my four-part linocut of Pispala ridge are now carved. In these two there are almost all of the main landmarks of Pispala: Pispala shot tower, Pispala school, Näsinneula, Siilinkari, Pyynikki observation tower and the old jumping hill Hoppa, which is already demolished and also Pispalan stairs and houses topsy-turvy. I will colour by hand the shot tower red and two cars by the observation tower blue or green and yellow.
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Is now again time to visit exhibitions when the pandemic eases. That would be wonderful! At least we stopped in Kangasala at Kimmo Pyykkö Museum. where there is a fascinating exhibition " Circus People". The exhibition is really comprehensive, the time line is from the beginning of the 1900´s to today and different art styles are nice to explore side by side all the way to even Naïve Art. There are exhibited in addition to paintings also graphics, sculptures and textile art. The experience is somehow intimate, circus art is often addressing issues like feelings, sadness, courage and fear. And there is a lot of colour.
