Past events
In animated tv-shows transformation sequence is the segment where the hero/heroine transfigures and gains access to previously hidden powers. Each sequence is a montage that is always repeated the same from episode to another. It is a sort of a ritual that results in powering-up to a state beyond the ordinary self. In this transformed state super powers or weapons become activated or available and appearance alters to that of a recognizable superhero.
Harri Piispanen’s exhibition Transformation Sequences is a cavalcade of such transfigurations. It is about taking control of plastic bric-a-brac and McDonalds junk-toys and unleashing their hidden potential to become something twisted and creative. It is a continuous form of play where trinkets turn into something special - perhaps into art.
All objects within the exhibition are made from discarded toys and knick-knacks gathered during a period of several years. Each is practically built from trash: all of the material is found and recycled. Every object is in some stage of the metamorphosis - on it’s way to transform into a superhero.
Plastic toys were harmed during the process (but they all feel a lot better now).
Want to find something different to decorate your home for Christmas? Delight a friend with a gift that will last? Be part of supporting culture and the artists in our association? Welcome to the Yö Christmas Bazaar organized by Artists’ Association Yö ry at Yö Galleria! At the gallery you can discover art for yourself, or as a gift, and get to know the artists personally.
We have paintings, photographs, prints and other art works by several Yö member artists on display. Proceeds from the sales go directly to the artists themselves. Yö's own products and magazine will also be available and visitors will be served glögi & cookies. You are warmly welcome to take a break from the Christmas rush at Yö Galleria!
YÖ CHRISTMAS BAZAAR
21.-23.12. 2021
2-6pm
Harri Ahvenainen and Aino Ikivirta
PALAA KUNNES SAMMUU
7.-19.12.2021
ATTN! Exhibition opening on Friday 10.12. at 18-21
Yö Galleria
Lönnrotinkatu 33
00180 Helsinki
Notice the opening hours in December:
Tue-Fri 15-20, Sat-Sun12-17
Welcome!
Arise from somewhere
evolve into something
eventually disappear like a flame.
Transform into something
who doesn´t stay to tell you anymore.
What's left of it all?
Memory. Picture?
Recollection and image.
Tale. Legend.
Our friend matter and our friend pleasure appear in infinity for a moment.
Now that our power is in us: let it burn. Eternally
Harri Ahvenainen's and Aino Ikivirta's exhibition Palaa kunnes sammuu ("Burns until it stops") is a combination of spatial arts and painting. The unifying theme of the exhibition is humanity and life cycle.
Ilari Vanhatalo
Olennainen - Essential
19.11.-5.12.2021
Yö Galleria
Lönrotinkatu 3, 00180 Helsinki
Tue-Fri 14-19 Sat-Sun 12-17
Exhibition opening on Thursday 18.11. at 17-21.
I walk in the woods at night or just stand still, for hours.
I am one with this universe, nothing separate. I breathe and smile, the future shows up for me.
I paint pictures of the universe, I paint ideas and structures, operating models and entities with their parts. oh god how beautiful is reality!
-Ilari Vanhatalo
Liisa Karintaus
ON THE FOREST EDGE AND OTHER PAINTINGS
19.11.-5.12.2021
Yö Galleria
Lönnrotinkatu 33, 00180 Helsinki
Tue-Fri 14-19 Sat-Sun 12-17
Exhibition opening on Thursday 18.11. at 17-21.
Welcome!
On the Forest Edge and other paintings consists of works on canvas and animation on a TV screen. The starting point for the painting installation is a memory of a childhood landscape. The subjects combine, for example the dark coniferous forest in the courtyard of a mental hospital in Northern Finland, a person in the landscape with their dog, a chain of generations, the joy of drawing and the observation of colors. My work combines drawing and painting, they alternate during the process. I usually start working with drawing but the works get finished with colors.
The best thing about painting is the opportunity to express yourself freely and intuitively, to combine different things and ideas into the same work, and the possibility to end up with something unexpected.
The works are made with oil, tempera, plant glues, charcoal and chalks.
Liisa Karintaus is a painter living and working in Helsinki (b.1977 Rovaniemi M.Sc., Muurola). She graduated from the Painting Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in 2018.
The work for the exhibition is supported by the Art Promotion Center.
Yö Galleria
30.10.-13.11.2021
Welcome to the opening on Fri 29.10.2021 at 17-21.
Phantasmagoria is a solo exhibition of Kalle Ahonen. The theme of the exhibition is phantasms, images spontaneously created by the imagination.
The concept of Phantasma (φάντασμα) has its roots in Greek, where it means both the visions produced by the imagination and apparitions that are imagined to be real, such as ghosts.
Phantasms, the images generated by the mind, cannot be solely derived from the sensations of external reality. We are also able to create images that are in complete conflict with the laws of perceived reality. Because the imagination includes also materially impossible forms of being, it provides us with a broader view in to the totality of existence.
Through visual art, the intangible images of the mind can be brought into a perceptible form. Phantasmagoria makes the realm of imagination visible through charcoal drawings, collages, three-dimensional works and installations.
17.-24.10.2021
Opening and premiere Sat 16.10.2021 at 6 p.m.
Other performances:
Tue 19.10 at 6 p.m.
Thu 21.10 at 6 p.m.
Fri 22.10 at 6 p.m.
This may be about copper blue iron slags, maybe about sidestones and sidewalks, shards, and flowing soil. Maybe this is also about the rocks and their slow change. Maybe this is about a pool and a desert.
Maybe this is also about witchcraft, magic, the afterlife, ghosts and fantasy. Things that do not appear, are not heard and not known but which are, nonetheless. Perhaps it is a matter of allowing and conveying the unknown, the undefined, the unnamed. Maybe it’s about overcoming fear.
Most likely this is about working slowly, trusting the intuition and the process of art. Likely this is about dance and transformation; about listening to the connections of different materials and their ways of being, about never-ending movement, movement even while still. Likely this is about a call of strange, shining colors, light, shadows, darkness and twilight. And traces that overlap with other traces. And the cinder. Most likely this is about cinder.
Hämärä is a process, performance and installation by dance artist Soile Voima and set desinger Anttoni Halonen which they have been working on since the fall 2020. The work still continues.
Opening of the installation and premiere of the performance is on Saturday 16.10. at 6 p.m.
You can come and go freely in the space even during the performance. Duration of the performance varies, but it is more or less 100 minutes and it is free of charge. The space can hold about 25 spectators at a time.
Hämärä at Yö Galleria 17.10. - 24.10, Lönnrotinkatu 33, Helsinki. Wheelchair accessible entrance through the courtyard.
Installation is open during the opening times of the gallery Tue-Fri 14-19 and Sat–Sun 12–17.
On the days of the performance the gallery is open until 20.00.
Welcome!
The work is supported by Ehkä-tuotanto, Yö Galleria, Theaterhouse Universum, Koneen säätiö ja Taike.
Hämärä is part of Soile Voima's artistic research project with the working group Toisinajattelijat, which observes and investigates the intersection between new materialistic thinking and performative art.
Mirva Niskanen
Layers
24.9.–10.10.2021
Welcome to the opening on 23/9/2021 from 5pm to 9pm. The opening will be held following current corona recommendations.
Mirva Niskanen (b. 1991) is a visual artist living in Tampere and born in Vihti.
She is currently inspired by electrical cabinets and the traces of life and people left in them in the urban landscape.
"I'm collecting material from the urban environment - literally. I've been collecting stickers, posters and pieces from electrical cabinets. I want to find materials that please me, but I'm not very precise about what comes out of the cabinets. I'll take whatever comes off them, a poster of an event that has already taken place, the one that is about to come loose anyway ... "
The works in the exhibition are paintings in which, in addition to pens and spray paint, traces left by human remain found in the urban area have been glued and pasted. You can find familiar advertisements or posters, and some messages in the works. Mainly, however, the paintings seek to present the cityscape and people’s ideas as they are.
“The effects of the environment on the mind and art have inspired things to do. It is easier to notice changes in my art than in my mind and behavior. The concrete in the works clarifies the abstract view. The best things happen by accident, usually in the studio."
The exhibition has been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
Yö Galleria
Lönnrotinkatu 33
00180 Helsinki
Kaisa Illukka
Tragedy in the Forest
24.9.–10.10.2021
Welcome to the opening on 23/9/2021 from 5pm to 9pm. The opening will be held following current corona recommendations.
Kaisa Illukka's exhibition Tragedy in the Forest considers the connection between loss of forest nature and loss of significance at Yö Galleria 24.9.–10.10.2021.
Forest ecosystems, which have developed over millions of years, are declining. Simultaneously the reasonable, sanctifying, and imaginative relationship to forest is also impoverishing. The human culture has grown up with a rich inter-species environment; so, what will an intensive forestry mind look like? Anthropocentric forest explanation echoes on the forest stage, like the hubris of a confident tragic hero just before the revenge of the gods. On the other hand, maybe it’s a comedy, or a contemporary performance of identity?
The exhibition consists of quotes collected from the Finnish forest debate and communication, embroidered as wall cloth aphorisms, endlessly repeating one truth. The time of Man, social media commentary and forest industry is fast; the time of forest, evolution and embroidery is slow.
Illukka’s home region has a history of traditional Finnish oral poetry. Therefore, she wonders what a poetry collector would find in today’s forest speech landscapes, and whether it could be left as an intellectual legacy for future generations. Changes in forest, mind and language affect each other.
Kaisa Illukka (b. 1978) is a performance and visual artist with theatre stage design background. Central themes in her work have been the intersection of human and natural time and space, and development of performativity and emotionality in nature relationships.
The texts of the works have been collected from the Finnish forest debate, therefore they are in Finnish.
Yö Galleria
Lönnrotinkatu 33,
00180 Helsinki
ti–pe 14-19
la–su 12-17
Welcome to the opening on 1/9/2021 from 17:00-21:00. The opening will be held following all corona recommendations.
This exhibition is an exploration of the strict gender roles embedded within historical anatomical imagery through the anatomical Venus, a Venus-like life-size wax figure from the 18th century. Johanna Naukkarinen uses photography, digital drawing, and image montage to examine this phenomenon intersecting the history of art and medicine. To showcase the absurdity of gender roles in the history of anatomy, she brings together various imageries from different contexts in an analytical and playful way.
The anatomical Venus wax figures were first made in Italy during the 18th century. These figures were used for teaching anatomy to the general public and were moulded into the form inspired by the portrayal of Venus in the visual arts. They were decorated with pearls, long human hair, and eyelashes. The figures were placed to lie on silk, with exposed guts and sensuous expressions on their faces. The beauty of the Venuses was meant to distract people from thinking about death while learning anatomy.
As a medical object the anatomical Venus reflects the blatant power relations in the history of medicine. The exhibition widens to trace the common pictorial language of visual arts and the history of medicine. Historical anatomical imagery was meant to take people to the core of humanity, but to the bodies assigned as female they leave only the role of a passive nude painting.
The photography series Body Worlds: The Anatomical Venus (with Tiia Kasurinen) reimagines the Body Worlds exhibition by putting the anatomical Venus into poses that only bodies assigned as male were allowed to take in the history of art and medicine. The series is made in collaboration with dance artist Tiia Kasurinen.
The two sets of works Studies on Science and the Feminine Figure and Lying Down trace the passive characters similar to the anatomical Venus common in the various eras and contexts. The photography series They Used to Wear Pearls examines the combination of beauty and the grotesque by using the embellishments from the anatomical Venus on contemporary neutral anatomical models.