Tapani Kokko @ Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki - "Fortuna" Exhibition

Tapani Kokko: Fortuna

Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki

February 23 – March 17, 2024

Tapani Kokko’s latest creations draw inspiration from Rococo art, which is characterized by features such as decorativeness, playfulness and spontaneity. Exaggerated ornateness is one of the guiding stylistic tenets of his new exhibition. His sculptures revel in decorative exuberance and a breathtaking abundance of detail, combining traditional wood carving with various fabrics, beads and glitter. Whereas light hues were favored in 18th-century art, Tapani Kokko’s reliefs are considerably darker in palette. Nor indeed does he show restraint in his treatment of color, which is occasionally reminiscent of the opulence of Baroque art.

Tapani Kokko employs a layered approach in his new reliefs: first, he carves an image out of wood and then adds multiple layers of paint, after which he decorates the surface dented patterns and dots added with a felt-tip pen, filling the picture plane with organic movement and dynamic tension. He then adds a final decoration with multi-colored beads, fabrics, and details in brass and bronze. Adding icing to the cake, the wall reliefs are displayed in rose-patterned decorative frames. The decorative richness is echoed by the subjects of the reliefs, which feature female figures accompanied by birds, frogs, fans, and skeletons. All these elements are presented within a symbolic framework and aesthetic frames that rough out and heighten Tapani Kokko’s chosen stylistic strategy.

TAPANI KOKKO (b. 1969) is known for his striking wooden sculptures, typically depicting human figures and other themes related to the human condition. Tapani Kokko, who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1999, is also a musician, actor and performance artist. Tapani Koko's works are included, e.g., in the collections of Sara Hildén Art Museum, Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Tampere Art Museum, Turku Art Museum, and Helsinki City Art Museum. Tapani Kokko lives and works in Orimattila.

GALERIE FORSBLOM

Yrjönkatu 22 - 00120 Helsinki

www.galerieforsblom.com

Marika Mäkelä @ Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki - Secret Plant and Other Motifs

Marika Mäkelä: Secret Plant and Other Motifs 
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki 
June 7 – August 18, 2019

In a career now spanning five decades, Marika Mäkelä (b.1947) has made her mark as an unflinchingly bold and ever-surprising painter. Her radically evolving technique bears witness to her daring spirit of creative renewal – recently, she has taken up woodworking tools alongside her paintbrush, and she has exchanged the canvas for heavy wooden panels. Her thickly daubed layers of paint have an ornamental three-dimensionality that verges upon sculpture. Her works push boundaries, compelling us to reflect on the boundary between painting and sculpture. Typically for Marika Mäkelä, her brushwork is imbued with intensity, deriving its vitality from the synergy ignited between the buoyant visual vocabulary and the heaviness of the wood.

Nature is the common source of inspiration for the colors, forms, and materials of her recent works. The paintings featured in the exhibition celebrate the richness of nature, the joy of growth, and the timeless cyclicity of the organic world, while also delivering a critical commentary on biodiversity loss and the urgent need to protect the natural world. Marika Mäkelä asks: what can we humans do for the good of the planet? Her soft, abstract idiom draws inspiration from the world of plants. It reminds us that all life begins with a tiny seed and, if given a chance, that tiny seed will grow and thrive with fierce, unstoppable vigor.

The sculptures, made in co-operation with sculptor Tapani Kokko (b.1969), pick up on the same themes and rhythms as the paintings. The ornamental wooden boxes represent seed pods. These visually striking pieces are a celebration of growth and vitality.

Marika Mäkelä made her artistic breakthrough during the neo-expressionistic wave in the 1980s. She is known for her lively, profound use of color and her thick, multi-layered, almost three-dimensional brushstrokes. Marika Mäkelä received the State Art Committee State Prize in 1974 and 1984, the Finnish Cultural Fund’s Prize in 1994, and the Pro Finlandia medal in 2006. In 2017 she received the Order of the Lion of Finland. Her works have been on display in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad.

GALERIE FORSBLOM
Lönnrotinkatu 5 / Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki
www.galerieforsblom.com

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