Kristo Saarikoski: Wishing Well
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
November 29, 2024 – January 12, 2025
Certain desires are so deeply personal and fragile that they are difficult to share with others. The title of Kristo Saarikoski’s exhibition, Wishing Well, meditates on this very human form of vulnerability that exists within all of us – a side we rarely reveal to outsiders. Throwing a coin into a wishing well is a beautiful metaphorical gesture symbolizing the sharing of something intimately personal, like whispering a secret into the ear of a dear friend. We all have hopes and dreams – they form our inner core, a core shaped by life experiences that are built layer upon layer over passing years, planting the seeds of desires that express both our hopes for the future and aspects of the past we wish to leave behind.
One of the themes explored by Kristo Saarikoski is the dream of parenthood. As painting is an idiom that is fundamentally untranslatable into words, how can something like a parent’s desire to protect their child be expressed in the language of brushstrokes? Kristo Saarikoski paints intuitively, without any preliminary sketching. The process might begin with a color or combination of hues from which the rest of the composition unfolds spontaneously. The artist rotates his canvas many times during the painting process, searching for clues that lead him toward the final form. All his paintings are characterized by monochromatic areas contained within the larger composition as perspective-defying spaces.
Icon painting traditions are another underlying source of inspiration in Kristo Saarikoski’s work. After taking icon painting classes, the artist noticed that his paintings had changed: they now carry deeper meanings beyond just aesthetic concerns. Some of his paintings employ the strappo (detachment) technique, which literally involves the removal of pigment-bearing layers from a wall painting and transferring them to canvas.
Kristo Saarikoski (b. 1992) graduated from the Free Art School in Helsinki in 2024. He has had several solo and group exhibitions in Finland. His work is held in the HUS Collection, the Pentti Sären Collection and the Finnish Artists' Association Collection. The artist lives and works in Helsinki.
GALERIE FORSBLOM
Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki
