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Elina Brotherus, Baldessari in the Park (Coccinelle 2), 2021, pigment ink print, 90 x 120 cm

ELINA BROTHERUS

Elina Brotherus (b. 1972) works in photography and moving image. Her work has been alternating between autobiographical and art-historical approaches. Photographs dealing with the human figure and the landscape, the relation of the artist and the model, gave way to images on subjective experiences in her bodies of work ‘Annonciation’ and ‘Carpe Fucking Diem’. In her current work she is revisiting Fluxus event scores and other written instructions for performance-oriented art of the 1950s-70s. Another big theme in her current practice is architecture. Brotherus photographs in private houses designed by important architects, taking roles of various imagined characters and bringing a tranquil human presence to these iconic spaces of architectural heritage. Elina Brotherus lives and works in Helsinki, Finland and Avallon, France. She has an MA degree in Photography from the University of Art and Design Helsinki (now Aalto University) and an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Helsinki. She started exhibiting internationally in 1997. She has been awarded, among others, Carte blanche PMU, France, in 2017, the Finnish State Prize for Photography in 2008, and the Prix Niépce in 2005. Her works are in public collections including the Pompidou Centre, Paris, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Museum Folkwang, Essen, and MAXXI, Rome, to name a few.

Aki Turunen, Antipode, 2023, tempera on wood, 50 x 70 cm
Photo: Jussi Tiainen

AKI TURUNEN

Aki Turunen's (b. 1983) paintings are based on a combination of intuitive, subconscious imagery and knowledge of art history. Turunen’s interest in history and tradition causes the artist to position himself strongly in the continuum both in his choices of materials and the imagery he deals with. Turunen lives and works in Helsinki. He graduated with an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, in 2011. Turunen has also studied painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. His works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad, e.g. at the Helsinki Contemporary, Martin Asbæk Gallery in Denmark, Schwarz Contemporary in Berlin and in the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition in 2011. His works are, among others, in the collections of Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Saastamoinen Foundation, and the Finnish State Art Commission. In 2021, Turunen was awarded by the Finnish Art Society a William Thuring designated prize.