Riiko Sakkinen
Turborealist Color Theory
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
June 7 – August 18, 2024
A turborealist riot of color unfolds in Forsblom's corner gallery, courtesy of Riiko Sakkinen. Sakkinen, an outspoken political artist, is particularly interested in the symbolic meanings behind colors. He has been systematically studying colors and their connotations for over a decade, but this marks his first Finnish exhibition themed entirely around the subject of color.
Riiko Sakkinen is intrigued by the many ways colors are perceived, interpreted, and connected with language. His interest lies not in traditional color theory but in the cultural, political, and economic implications of colors. His exhibition features eleven paintings, each presenting a hue recognized as its own distinct color in most European languages. The spectrum includes all the primary and secondary colors, as well as black, gray, white, brown, and pink. Pink has its own word in many languages, and it is a color that conveys complex symbolism, representing everything from homosexuality to the British Empire and the social democrat movement.
Riiko Sakkinen challenges Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square (1915), which its creator described as an empty space devoid of meaning. Far from representing ground zero, Riiko Sakkinen’s allusions to black invoke various phenomena from jihadism and fascism to Black Friday campaigns. A color is never a complete void. Each color is packed with meaning, symbolism and connotations that vary subtly with the context. The artist states that a color says more than a thousand pictures.
Riiko Sakkinen (b.1976) has been based in Spain since graduating from Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts in 2002. He has exhibited widely both in Finland and abroad. His work is represented in many notable art collections, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, and the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation. His solo exhibition Los moimoi de Fuengirola opens at the Serlachius Museums this June.
GALERIE FORSBLOM
Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki
