Raili Tang: Flower of Life
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
November 29, 2024 – January 12, 2025
Raili Tang has been painting the seasons and incorporating organic references in her compositions for many years. Although figurative expression holds secondary relevance for the artist, her paintings convincingly capture a vivid sense of nature’s flux. Her latest paintings depict a variety of flowers – often of a fanciful, fictitious variety, but some are also inspired by real flower species. Floral motifs have a long legacy in art history. Artists have been conveying rich symbolism through flowers for centuries, but for Tang, the thing of paramount importance is the act of painting itself, whether done with a paintbrush, palette knife or even a glove. Raili Tang is a physical painter whose process combines exuberant abandon and sensitive dialogue with the canvas. Sometimes her paintings are completed in one quick session, other times it takes longer for them to find their final form. Her overlapping layers of color interact in complex ways, supporting, challenging, surprising and drawing strength from each other, expressing the full spectrum of human emotions in their chorus of hues.
Raili Tang is a colorist who believes that colors say more than words ever could. A single painting might contain countless nuances expressed purely with color. The best way to enjoy Tang’s art is to give oneself time to immerse oneself deeply in its bewildering richness and to soak up the energy that flows from it. While many of Tang’s paintings express joy, they also convey other emotions; a touch of melancholy often lingers in the background, suggesting that life is best when exploring and appreciating the full richness of its colors and nuances. A new feature that has emerged alongside Tang’s signature expressive style is the appearance of delicate color accents alluding to Impressionism. Playing with combinations of warm and cool hues is an enjoyable process for Raili Tang, and the viewer can palpably sense the ease with which coloristic nuances flow from her brush.
Raili Tang (b. 1950) has exhibited her work widely in Finland and internationally. Her paintings are held in Finland’s major museum collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Sara Hildén Art Museum, the Wihuri Foundation, the Saastamoinen Foundation, and the HAM Helsinki Art Museum. Raili Tang was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal in 2015.
GALERIE FORSBLOM
Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki
