Born in Espoo, Finland 1984 | Lives and works in Porvoo, Finland
Reima Nevalainen’s use of collage and décollage is intimately connected to the thematic content of his paintings. We see vestiges of a complex process of cutting, ripping, and erasing on the canvas. His technique involves a laborious process of addition, removal, trial, and error. For Nevalainen, painting is an antidote to the disembodied stream of images that consumes our daily existence. Humans and nature are the subject matter of Reima Nevalainen’s collage paintings—not as conflicting elements, however, for human figures and nature coexist as equals in his compositions. Nevalainen mines his subject matter from personal experience, trusting in the intuitive power of the subconscious.
Nevalainen graduated from Kankaanpää Art School in 2008 as a painting major. In 2016, he was chosen as Finland’s Young Artist of the Year. He has held numerous solo shows in Finland and throughout Europe, the US, and Japan. His work is found in Finland’s leading museums, including the Helsinki Art Museum HAM and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.
Galerie Forsblom has been representing Reima Nevalainen since 2011.