New Cubism
March 15 – June 2
The New Cubism exhibition brings three internationally up and rising young artists to Jyväskylä. Mikko Ijäs, Sami Lukkarinen and Liisa Lounila share; a common interest in our visual observations as humans, and the innovative use of contemporary techniques to present their work. Ijäs’ drawings, printed on canvas, were drawn on a computer, an iPad and an iPhone; in the spirit of cubism. Lounila’s work utilises different technical devices such as temps mort effects and the red-green glasses through which three-dimensional images can be observed. Lukkarinen’s pixel-paintings work on two levels; the paintings can be seen as photographic from a distance, and as abstract paintings from close up. The trio participated in the exhibition Y Picasso cogió su iPad (And Picasso got his iPad) in Barcelona, in the fall of 2012.
Mikko Ijäs (1978, Jyväskylä) Lives in Helsinki. He completed his Masters of Fine Arts in photographic arts at the Helsinki School of Art and Design in 2006, and is currently working on his Doctorate of the Arts at the Aalto University. The idea for this New Cubism exhibition is part of his research in the observation of humanity through the evolution of art history. Ijäs is best known for his personalised digital drawings made on a touch-screen, which he initially publicised on social media. “Drawing on my phone is quite a natural way to work, the colour scale is limitless and the images can be sent immediately through email, in multimedia messages or through other social media.”
Liisa Lounila (1976, Helsinki) lives in Helsinki and completed her Masters of Fine Arts in 2005 at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Transitions between different forms of expression are an integral part of Lounila’s work. Using everyday objects, impressive visual effects, and traces of popular culture, she reminds us of life’s small, forgotten details and fleeting moments. Like a flicker of light, drawings, videos, lights, sculptures and their combinations manifest the immaterial. "My work is concerned with the problems of social relationships; longing, great expectations and their (sometimes) tragicomic aspects. I'm fascinated by ‘bigger than life’ emotions, rebelliousness, emptiness, subliminal experiences and the anxiety that results from not being able to achieve them.”
Sami Lukkarinen (1976, Jyväskylä) lives in Helsinki. He completed his Masters of Fine Arts in the Time and Spatial Arts Department, at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2001. Lukkarinen is particularly known for his “pixel-art”; mosaic-like paintings, which are painted from digitally enlarged “pixel-ed” images found on the internet. His previous subjects were architecture, and junk-mail and his newer paintings deal with profile photos from the internet. Inspired by pop-art, Lukkarinen is fascinated in the relationship between photography and painting. “The photographs in Internet galleries fall into a no man’s land category; they are not published magazine portraits or images from the news, but they are not private images either. There is something intriguing about them.”