Mari and Marila – hot names of the Finnish art scene

Mari Sunna: Untitled, 2010. Oil on canvas, 60 x 51 cm.

Today – at last - I visited two galleries in Helsinki and saw two suberb exhibitions by Finnish painters. Both are open only to the end of this month, so hurry!

Mari Sunna shows her new, amazing work in Galerie Anhava. What has happened to those doll-like, frightening faces with almost paralyzed expression in their red-rimmed eyes?

Now her females foam, burn, grow like trees or bushes, get wounded. They are still very vulnerable and their secrets are well hidden. I liked a lot the way they were painted: thinly, like putting make-up on with soft fingers and tender colours.
But am I ready to accept the truth under the beautiful surface, to honour the solitude and flames of a suffering soul?

Mari Sunna: Cage, 2011. Oil on canvas, 64 x 60 cm.

Find the details of Mari Sunna exhibition in www.anhava.com    

Totally different attitude to painting meets you in Korjaamo Galleria, where Carnegie Art Award 2012 winner Heikki Marila shows his new tactile flowers.  

Heikki Marila: Kukat XL. Oil on canvas, 200 x 250 cm. 

These modern interpretations on Henri Fantin-Latour´s flower still lifes are painted so thickly that the petals are three-dimensional, almost real. The colours are juicy, shining.

I found them very comforting. Even if they are still lifes they are not still - they are in a constant movement. All the time you find something new in them and start to wonder: are they living, are they really fresher than life? Still lifes have been meant to remind us of our mortality, but these paintings remind us how to enjoy life.

You find Heikki Marila in www.korjaamo.fi/fi/galleria

I had to take a detail photo of the same painting to show you the artist´s  almost fierce way to use colour.

New Fashion in Finland, part 4: Tiia Vanhatapio

Congratulations!

In the Finnish Elle Style Award gala 2011 on Wednesday the Best Collection Prize went to Tiia Vanhatapio and her lovely "Girls on Film".

Here are my favorites of the collection: the Opera dress and jacket, perfect for every body.

Do we need more to become a bird of paradise?

http://www.vanhatapio.fi/collections/girls-on-film-aw1112/

Fresh food from the neighbourhood

Greetings from the cabbage heaven in Vihti: Tuomas Kekki sells his cabbages at Aitokauppa.

Food is nowadays travelling a lot more than we people of this planet. And that is in most cases SOOO stupid. (Strawberries from Belgium in July when our own strawberries are at their best!!! That is true, I saw it with my own eyes last summer in the supermarkets in Middle Finland.)
Luckily we are now getting more aware of our health and the importance of good unprocessed food. And it means that we are having even in Helsinki more and more shops selling fresh “neighbourhood” food.
One of the ethical and ecological newcomers is Aitokauppa (Real Shop) which opened it´s doors officially today. From it´s fresh selection I chose immediately a hunk of clover butter, Finnish goat gruyére cheese, Chef Wotkin´s Peuragrilleri sausages and Pasta Factory`s fresh salmon raviolis for lunch, made this morning.

The designer of the Aitokauppa interior is my talented friend, lovely Mari Vatanen.
 

And this smiling fellow is the proud managing director Juha Sulkakoski.

And there you find Aitokauppa: Tehtaankatu 12, 0140 Helsinki. Open Mo-Fri from 10 am to 8 pm, on Saturdays until 6 pm. www.aitokauppa.fi

 

New Fashion in Finland, part 3: Daniel Palillo KIDS

Hello you proud parents of the little monsters!

Our dear Daniel Palillo has made a lovely collection of kid´s clothes we have been waiting for months. But alas, you can buy only a few of them in Finland, in the shop called Helsinki 10.

You lucky ones in Hong Kong have New Kids on the Block on your doorstep. There are also a couple of shops in USA and Taiwan where to find them.

(And hi, Daniel, if you are reading this: my own size is still 158-162 cm.)
More info on the page http://danielpalillo.blogspot.com/

 

New light in Habitare Helsinki

The family of trash designer Henrik Enbom has eaten a lot of canned tomatoes. Yes, he made these lampshades from the tins. Photo © Paula Hietaranta

Habitare is a HUGE exhibition of furniture, interior design, art, antiques and design in Helsinki open until Sunday 18th September at Helsingin Messukeskus.

An overwhelming experience to see in one day, especially if you get stuck to one place.

That happened to me. Trash Design home is so full of happy recycling ideas how to turn rejected things into something new that I stayed there for a long time.

Trash Design is a baby of journalist Isa Kukkapuro-Enbom and her husband, designer Henrik Enbom.

Both go for a sustainable open source design: you can buy Henrik´s LdS (Licht der Stiftung) lamp which got last year a shared first prize in Habitare Ecodesign competion, but you can also make this lamp by yourself. The instructions are in Trash Magazine´s The First Issue, 2011. You can read it in the net, and there is also the English translation:

http://www.trashmagazine.net/

I liked also a lot this flickering radio-fireplace Fire Play designed by Jaakko Leeve. Photo © Paula Hietaranta

www.habitare.fi

Gallery news from Helsinki

First day of September there were two new art galleries opened in Helsinki.

Pick Me Gallery looks like someone´s living room but is really a concept shop offering photography, production and motion design services.

Address is Iso-Roobertinkatu 48. 00120 Helsinki. Open Mon-Fri 10 ap – 5 pm.

http://www.pickme.fi/

  

Kalhama & Piippo gallery has opened a new spacious, even luxurious space at Bulevardi street.
The opening exhibition is Jukka Korkeila´s Minä en kuulu vain itselleni (open until 2nd October). The painting of a man in a red wrestler´s jersey is titled Fall.

Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary Ltd, Bulevardi 10 A 1 a, 00120 Helsinki. Open  Tue-Fri 11 am-5 pm, Sat-Sun 11 am-4 pm. 

www.kalhamapiippo.com

Our Son is ready to conquer the world

Policeman Volander (Rauno Ahonen) and Ville (Hannes Suominen) trying to reach the core of despair. Photo by Charlotte Estman-Wennström.

Terror, death, school shootings – the explosive despair of young men has been in the news all over the world during last years.
It is also the subject of Meidän poika (Our Son), a new and important play by Pasi Lampela at Helsingin Kaupunginteatteri. It is more topical than ever, and  should be seen even abroad. Those desperate boys are not only the names in the news; they are closer than we think. They are our sons, our neighbours, they live in our cities, in our country and in our world.
Ville is clumsy but an intelligent boy, doing well at school – and bullied by his classmates. To revenge Ville constructs a bomb, but he is also a bomb himself. People around him realise that there is something terribly wrong in him, but don´t know how to deal with it before it turns into tragedy. To his mother Ville says everything is fine, and which mother would like to believe it even if she knows that it is not true?
To me the essence of the play was the question how to prevent things like these happening. With open eyes, with open heart? Those moments of mutual understanding are so rare and delicate as we can see even in this play.
At the end the policeman who has failed in helping Ville understands that he and we all are responsible: ”Where to find the magic word that could put an end to this?”

http://www.hkt.fi/