Sami Korkiakoski - Lust for line
3.6.–18.9. lower gallery
– Recently I began studying the rhythm and possibilities of line in my art. The process has been intense and the pieces have become increasingly more passionate and bold. In my work I have a kind of lust for line, tells the painter Sami Korkiakoski.
Spray paint and the wild physical line of street art unit in Korkiakoski’s art. His canvases are marked with pencil, stroked with a wide brush or painted with his fingers making all movement of his body visible. At the Jyväskylä Art Museum, Korkiakoski has painted with paintings making the whole exhibition space into a large installation.
Lust for Line is a Thirst for Life
The painter, Sami Korkiakoski, was born in 1978 in Eskilstuna, Sweden and was raised in Salo, Finland. He studied in Helsinki obtaining two master's degrees; first from the University of Industrial Arts in Helsinki in 2007 and later from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2013. Today he sails between Jyväskylä and Kuopio and draws a line. This line is just as complicated and unpredictable as his life line.
It also turns into the name of this exhibition, which references Iggy Pop’s evergreen, Lust for Life. The thirst for life has its own strength, drawing us forward and taking Sami Korkiakoski wherever it takes him. Drawing this as an image is a challenge. A big challenge.
Sami Korkiakoski resolves this challenge by unravelling his line over and through all of his drawing and painting surfaces. He builds something which moreover resembles an installation rather than a drawing. Sami Korkiakoski draws and paints on all kinds of surfaces and materials, continually drawing and painting over and through. And it makes his work original. It is worth seeing because the world’s oldest art form, drawing, renews the world. Or at least it renews one world. Cave paintings are not called installation art.
But the line does not behave randomly. There is a term used in music that describes this well; the term is rhythm. All of the pieces in his installation are in rhythm. They are in a kind of discussion in which you can hear Iggy Pop’s drumbeat. Lust for life. And you should listen because it is worth seeing. That is where the lust for line swells. From a life lived.
– Mikko Paakkola
The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s North Savo Regional Fund, the Arts Promotion Centre Finland and The Arts Promotion Centre’s Regional Office of Central Finland.
Artist talk Friday September 9th, at 4:30 – 5:30pm (language: Finnish)
www.samikorkiakoski.com