Galerie Forsblom 10.2–5.3.2017
Opening with the artist in attendance, 9.2.2017 at 17.00–19.00
Jenni Hiltunen (b. 1981) will present a selection of large-scale female portraits in her latest exhibition at Galerie Forsblom. The artist draws inspiration from fashion imagery, contemporary posing culture and the way people create a particular identity for themselves with various visual and pictorial cues. Hiltunen’s female portraits convey a world-weary yet equivocal fatigue with today’s social media-saturated culture of perfect selfies – a culture that is defined by the hunger to be seen.
In her latest paintings, Hiltunen underlines the fleeting nature of very private and human moments. She expertly captures intimate glimpses when the depicted women look away, wearied at the very prospect of being photographed, or forget to pose altogether. Hiltunen digs out the true identity of her women from between the cracks of all the fake paraphernalia and phony surface layers. Having switched from acrylics to oils, Hiltunen’s treatment of the paint is now airier and more translucent, while retaining her signature emphasis on eye-popping color contrasts.
Hiltunen graduated from the Turku Arts Academy in 2004 and from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2007. She is known as a painter and video artist with a forceful style of expression. Hiltunen has shown her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions, both in Finland and abroad. Her work is represented in major Finnish collections such as Helsinki’s Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art and the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection. Hiltunen lives and works in Helsinki.
The exhibition has been supported by the Oskar Öflund Foundation and Arts Promotion Center Finland.