Group Exhibition
Field Trip

03.06. - 03.07.2016

Helsinki Contemporary ends its spring season with a group exhibition, Field Trip, which brings together five visual artists who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki at the beginning of the 2000s: Hannaleena Heiska, Rauha Mäkilä, Maiju Salmenkivi, Timo Vaittinen and Camilla Vuorenmaa. The exhibition offers a fascinating glimpse into contemporary painting through the work of artists who have made creditable careers for themselves. Now, both artists and public have a chance to look back at their student days, and at where they have come from – and perhaps to see what we might expect from the future.

The exhibition consists of new works, plus some made specifically for this occasion and constructed for the Gallery space. On returning to the city block of their student years – on one side of which the Academy of Fine Arts once stood – they get to enjoy communal activity and the fruits that it bears: they can check out just how long the journey is from Yrjönkatu 18 to Bulevardi 10. During the spring, the artists have met, discussed, reminisced, lived it up, and recalibrated. The results can also be seen in the collage-like whole, in which everyone brings their own contribution to the shared table, for instance, in the form of memories, treasures from the archives, sketches and new ideas.

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In Hannaleena Heiska’s (b. 1973) previous solo exhibition in the gallery in 2015 the artist for the first time showed only charcoal drawings: of observatories, icebergs and kaleidoscopic figures. Heiska’s way of drawing is very similar to her way of painting; she makes her works at a single sitting and tries to achieve an apparently effortless impression. Heiska’s first extensive museum exhibition was at Gothenburg Museum of Art in 2015. This year, she has, for instance, taken part in a group exhibition at Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall in Norway. Coinciding with Field Trip, a group exhibition is opening at Galerie La Ferronnerie in Paris, again including charcoal drawings. Heiska will also be taking part in this summer’s Mänttä Art Festival.

Rauha Mäkilä’s (b. 1980) works are comments on the media world and social-media culture that surround us, simultaneously seeking to create both a distance from them and closeness to them. Last winter, Mäkilä took part in the Dark Days, Bright Nights group exhibition, which focussed on Finnish painting at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Recently her works have also been seen at Felleshus, Berlin, as part of the Boutique touring exhibition, and at Nordic Contemporary in Paris. Mäkilä curated the Young Artists 2015 exhibition at Kunsthalle Helsinki.

In Maiju Salmenkivi’s (b. 1972) artworks fantasy meets reality. Her previous exhibition at the Gallery, in 2015, showed brightly coloured landscapes inspired by Helsinki, in which anonymous figures met in urban situations. Chance plays a major role in Salmenkivi’s working process. It provides an initial impetus that sets the mood for the painting. She is interested in encounters and celebrations, and, on the other hand, in urban locations and everyday events. Her works frequently contain references to news images. In autumn 2016, Salmenkivi will be taking part in a group exhibition at Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway.

Timo Vaittinen (b. 1976) is known for his collage paintings, video animations and installations. The starting point for his works is generally a fictitious narrative. His imagery contains references to psychedelia and mysticism, and to the spirit world. Vaittinen is one of the founders of the SIC Gallery on Jätkäsaari Island in Helsinki, and a solo exhibition of his was shown there in 2015. In that same year, he took part in the Meditations and Spells group exhibition at Ytan in Västerås, Sweden, and in the Valtio+ (state) exhibition shown in the former provincial prison in Turku. His videoworks were, for instance, seen at the Moving Image Art Fair in New York in 2015, and at the Hors Pistes Festival in Paris in 2016. This coming summer, Vaittinen will be taking part in the Mänttä Art Festival.

Camilla Vuorenmaa’s (b. 1979) art combines painting and sculpture. She carves large wooden boards as though she were drawing, and paints with copious amounts of paint. The paintings often extend into the surrounding space as murals. In her works Vuorenmaa depicts the individual’s experience: initial effort, success and failure, affection, frustration, the dignity of everyday life. Recently, she has being investigating the relationship between the individual and the group. Vuorenmaa won a prize for her wooden works in the International Solo Awards 2013 at the Spring exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen. She also received the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts Prize in spring 2015, and a solo exhibition was shown at EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art in spring 2016. This coming autumn, she will be taking part in the International Print Triennial Graphica Creativa ’16 at Jyväskylä Art Museum.

Of the Field Trip artists Heiska, Mäkilä, Salmenkivi and Vuorenmaa will be taking part in the spring 2017 group exhibition of painting at Landskrona Museum, Sweden. The Sensual Knowledge exhibition is being curated by Mika Hannula.