Jussi Goman
Desire Path

08. - 31.08.2025

Jussi Goman’s new paintings feature colour-drenched layers of paint that carve out unruly paths upon an orderly configuration of grids and lines. The resultant pattern is reminiscent of doodles in a graph notebook, a jigsaw puzzle, a Snake video game, or the Minotaur’s labyrinth, invoking spontaneous shortcuts, dead ends, and myriad narratives.

Goman is in a class of his own in his command of colour and technique. His paintings are complex tapestries of lightness and heaviness, bold brushstrokes and delicate details. His new paintings combine dazzling, luminous hues with pastel blues and lavenders, with added accents of muted orange and red. The glassy acrylic surface provides a lively accompaniment to the lusciously textured brushwork. Adding further three-dimensionality to each canvas are the succulent acrylic impasto accents that have become a signature trademark of his style.

Goman draws inspiration both from mythology and everyday life. The creatures appearing in his compositions are reminiscent of the mischievous beasts in Aesop’s animal fables, beloved pets, or birds foraging in the garden. Whichever the case may be, the underlying idea is the same: greatness comes in small details, and every moment contains eternity. After all, the ancient Egyptians worshipped the sacred scarab, the lowly beetle that spends its day rolling balls of dung. Often it is the case that something we find instantly recognisable or makes us smile contains something deep and true within it. Guided by his intuition, the artist explores this territory, following an idiosyncratic path towards a goal that is initially unknown.

A shortcut, whether taken by a human or animal, is typically an unplanned path that represents the shortest or most convenient route between an origin and destination. There is a more poetic English term for a shortcut: ‘desire path’, which perfectly captures the way shortcuts are born: the best and most enduring paths are born out of desire, not by force.

‘Desire Path’ is Jussi Goman’s first solo exhibition at Helsinki Contemporary. He has previously appeared at Helsinki Contemporary together with Santeri Lehto and Anton Alvarez in the group exhibition ‘Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat’.

Thank you to Kone Foundation for supporting the artist's work.


Link to online viewing room on Artsy