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Emma Helle & Heikki Marila

November 24, 2023-January 21, 2024

Emma Helle & Heikki Marila Intro

Emma Helle: Pasolini's Centaur, 2021, Glazed, Gilded Stoneware

The joint hang of the solo exhibitions of Emma Helle and Heikki Marila presents their latest work side by side in gallery's spaces. The two artists are united by a similar sensitivity, powerful corporeality and awareness of art history. The works engage in synergistic dialogue with one other, yet they also have a compelling presence in their own right. 

 

 

 

Emma Helle | Born in Stockholm, Sweden 1979 I Lives and works in Helsinki

 

Helle is a sculptor who casts the spotlight on the marginalized creatures usually relegated to secondary status in art history. There is more to her ceramic figures: each one has a unique personality that shines through in the fine details. Adorned with pastel accents, each of her figures is recognizable for its distinctive gestures, expressions, and one-of-a-kind characteristics. The exuberant glazed surfaces highlight her mischievous, cheeky forms.

 

 

Heikki Marila | Born in Lahti, Finland 1966 | Lives and works in Turku, Finland

 

Marila's expressive paintings are laden with paradoxical drama: they play with contrasts, combining the spiritual, beautiful and sublime with the carnal, corporeal and repulsive. His paintings possess a powerfully physical materiality, which is heightened by an ongoing dialogue between figurative and non-figurative elements and by his thickly applied layers of oil paint.

Viewing Room VoW

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

Corner Gallery Installation

 

 

 

 

 

Heikki Marila: Paintings

 

Marila’s recent renditions of the floral theme have acquired new layers of meaning. In his new works, flowers have become emphatically corporeal interpretations of aesthetic form and pictorial truth. There is tangible tension between their accentuated aestheticism and the artist’s aggressive technique, which has him literally throwing the paint at the canvas – bombing it, if you will.

Viewing Room VoW

Heikki Marila

Flowers CXCIX (199.), 2023

Oil on canvas

250 x 200 cm/98 x 79 in

HMAR_472

Heikki Marila

Flowers CXCIX (199.), 2023

Oil on canvas

250 x 200 cm/98 x 79 in

HMAR_472

Heikki Marila

Flowers CLXXVII (177.), 2023

Oil on canvas

180 x 140 cm/71 x 55 in

HMAR_448

Heikki Marila

Flowers CLXXVII (177.), 2023

Oil on canvas

180 x 140 cm/71 x 55 in

HMAR_448

询问

Heikki Marila

Flowers CLXXXI (181.), 2023

Oil on canvas

116 x 89 cm/46 x 35 in

HMAR_494

Heikki Marila

Flowers CLXXXI (181.), 2023

Oil on canvas

116 x 89 cm/46 x 35 in

HMAR_494

Heikki Marila

Flowers CCIII (203.), 2023

Oil on canvas

199 x 152 cm/78 x 60 in

HMAR_496

Heikki Marila

Flowers CCIII (203.), 2023

Oil on canvas

199 x 152 cm/78 x 60 in

HMAR_496

Heikki Marila

Kukat CLXXXIV / Flowers CLXXXIV (184.), 2023

Charcoal and oil on canvas

152.50 x 101.50 cm/60 x 40 in

HMAR_462

Heikki Marila

Kukat CLXXXIV / Flowers CLXXXIV (184.), 2023

Charcoal and oil on canvas

152.50 x 101.50 cm/60 x 40 in

HMAR_462

Heikki Marila

Kukat CXCII / Flowers CXCII (192.), 2023

Oil on canvas

250 x 200 cm/98 x 79 in

HMAR_470

Heikki Marila

Kukat CXCII / Flowers CXCII (192.), 2023

Oil on canvas

250 x 200 cm/98 x 79 in

HMAR_470

 

Marila throws himself into the physical act of painting. For him, physical gesture and the imprint on the canvas are indissolubly merged. It would not be an overstatement to say that the act is sometimes more significant than the subject. Progressive abstractification is part of Marila’s process. Flowers are still present, conveying layers of history that are manifest both as subtle details and abstracted variations.

Focus Marila

Heikki Marila

Flowers CXCVIII (198.), 2023

Oil on canvas

250 x 200 cm/98 x 79 in

HMAR_461

Emma Helle: Walking Lake, Burning Heart

 

Two kinds of metamorphosis take place in Emma Helle’s latest sculptures: the human figures stand motionless, perhaps on the verge of turning into trees, while the landscape-like clouds and bushes have sprouted limbs, as if they were attempting to carry the space. The static figures stand watch like gentle sentinels, benevolently protecting and caring for everything around them. The physical contours of the dynamic figures meanwhile melt and fluidly coalesce with their surroundings. The clouds may drift and the landscape may change, but the movements of the mind follow the wanderer. The rippling lake is an emotional landscape with an irresistible pull.

Viewing Room VoW

Emma Helle

Spring on Their Own, 2023

Glazed, gilded stoneware

20 x 29 x 18 cm/8 x 11 x 7 in

EHEL_142

Emma Helle

Spring on Their Own, 2023

Glazed, gilded stoneware

20 x 29 x 18 cm/8 x 11 x 7 in

EHEL_142

Emma Helle

Uusi Maa, 2021

Glazed, gilded stoneware

33 x 21 x 16 cm/13 x 8 x 6 in

EHEL_081

Emma Helle

Uusi Maa, 2021

Glazed, gilded stoneware

33 x 21 x 16 cm/13 x 8 x 6 in

EHEL_081

Emma Helle

Metsänvartija, 2023

Glazed, gilded stoneware

60 x 44 x 18 cm/24 x 17 x 7 in

EHEL_150

Emma Helle

Metsänvartija, 2023

Glazed, gilded stoneware

60 x 44 x 18 cm/24 x 17 x 7 in

EHEL_150

Emma Helle

Green Man Kiss/Metsä suutelee, 2023

Glazed, gilded stoneware

80 x 39 x 32 cm/32 x 15 x 13 in

EHEL_147

Emma Helle

Green Man Kiss/Metsä suutelee, 2023

Glazed, gilded stoneware

80 x 39 x 32 cm/32 x 15 x 13 in

EHEL_147

Emma Helle

Cernunnos lapsena, 2023

Anagama stoneware, glazed, gilded

57 x 36 x 24 cm/22 x 14 x 9 in

EHEL_139

Emma Helle

Cernunnos lapsena, 2023

Anagama stoneware, glazed, gilded

57 x 36 x 24 cm/22 x 14 x 9 in

EHEL_139

Emma Helle

Tervehtijä, 2022

Anagama stoneware, ash-glazing

60 x 22 x 22 cm/24 x 9 x 9 in

EHEL_093

Emma Helle

Tervehtijä, 2022

Anagama stoneware, ash-glazing

60 x 22 x 22 cm/24 x 9 x 9 in

EHEL_093

 

Lush, thriving vegetation entwines itself around human figures in Helle’s sculptures. The plants cling to the space and the figures, supporting them and themselves being supported. Humankind and nature coexist in perfect synergy, nurturing each other. The sculptures hark back to prehistoric times before humans upset the balance of nature. Helle’s sculptures pose the question: Could a new balance be regained in the post-Anthropocene?

Focus Helle

Emma Helle

Island of Witches, 2023

Glazed, Gilded Stoneware

62 x 41 x 26 cm/24 x 16 x 10 in

EHEL_138

Viewing Room VoW

Studio Installation view

Studio Installation view

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

Studio Installation

In the studio space there is an intimatate section of the exhibition, where Heikki Marila's paintings on bare canvas take his painterly expressionism to a new level revealing the layered process, and Emma Helle's small-scale ceramic sculptures respond with organic playfulness.

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