Sales Exhibition OTOS/22

OTOS/22 Online Preview
4.–9.11.2022

OTOS/22 at Maamusta Galleria
10.–20.11.2022

OTOS/22 Online
10.–30.11.2022

The Association of Photographic Artists launches OTOS/22, a new format for its longstanding annual photographic sales event which showcases and sells works by its members. The freshly named OTOS event will be held at Maamusta Galleria, Helsinki, for 10 days, from 10-20 November, along with an online shop component – OTOS/22 Online – which will run for an extended period until 30 November. The opening day on 10 November is preceded by an opportunity to browse the OTOS/22 Online collection during a six-day preview period, from 4 November.

OTOS/22 is an occasion to engage with the practices of photographic artists living and working in Finland today. With more than 280 artworks to view in the exhibition and online, the sales event features a wide array of works. Included in this year’s OTOS selection are artists who experiment with analogue and digital techniques, including wet plate, pigment printing, sublimation and moving image, to create pictorial, abstract and thematic expressions. This is the first time that the event has been hosted across both a physical venue, Maamusta Galleria, and an online shop, thus providing viewers and buyers alike with an expanded opportunity to peruse and purchase the selected works. 

OTOS/22 is for everyone. Entry to the OTOS/22 exhibition at Maamusta Galleria, 10-20 November, is free and open to all. You can even browse works in the OTOS/22 Onlinecollection from the comfort of your own home, throughout the month of November.

Participating artists: Vesa Aaltonen, Sara Ahde, Hartti Ahola, Henri, Airo, Annabelle Antas, PetriAnttonen, Jari Arffman, Lotta Blomberg, Jessica Andrey Bogush, Shia Conlon, Pira Cousin, Saara Ekström, Lauri Eriksson, Taneli Eskola, Jasmine Färling, Dominik Fleischmann, Noora Geagea, Svante Gullichsen, Paula Haapalahti, Eeva-Mari Haikala, Mikko Haiko, Ilkka Halso, Anni Hanén, Nanna Hänninen, Eeva Hannula, Pauliina Heinänen, Toivo Heinimäki, Mari Hokkanen, Ripsu Hongisto-Salmi, Irmeli Huhtala, Paula Humberg, Adele Hyry, Olli Jaatinen, Martti Jämsä, Kreetta Järvenpää, Lina Jelanski, Sofie Jokinen, Ulla Jokisalo, Elina Julin, Utu-Tuuli Jussila, Jaakko Kahilaniemi, Ben Kaila, Jouni Kaipia, Sanna Kannisto, Eeva Karhu, Kaisa Karhu, Marko Karo, Joel Karppanen, Heli Kaskinen, Maija Klemetti, Hanna Koikkalainen, Laura Konttinen, Natalia Kopkina, Kastehelmi Korpijaakko, Ritva Kovalainen, Verna Kovanen, Ville Kumpulainen, Iiris-Lilja Kuosmanen, Hilla Kurki, Karina-Sirkku Kurz, Santtu Laine, Katri Lassila, Milja Laurila, Lasse Lecklin, Johanna Lecklin, Jukka Lehtinen, Linda Lehtovirta, Kati Leinonen, Kira Leskinen, Ulla-Mari Lindström, Rasmus Mäkelä, Christelle Mas, Juha Metso, Johanna Naukkarinen, Katri Naukkarinen, Kirsti Nenye, Viivi Nieminen, Pekka Niittyvirta, Anna Niskanen, Juuso Noronkoski, Lauri Nykopp, Marika Orenius, Essi Orpana, Anne Ovaska, Kari Paajanen, Ulla Paakkunainen, Harri Pälviranta, Sini Pelkki, Emilia Pennanen, Niina Pietarinen, Vilma Pimenoff, Kari Pyykönen, Anne Rantakylä, Hanna Råst, Anna Reivilä, Kukka-Maria Rosenlund, Tuuli Rouhiainen, Sakari Röyskö, Aura Saarikoski, Sanni Saarinen, Marja Saleva, Noora Sandgren, Emma Sarpaniemi, Susanna Selin, Marja Seppälä, Sanni Seppo, SerraGlia, Markku Siekkinen, Jari Silomäki, Aki & Astrid Sinikoski, Juliana Irene Smith, Marja  Söderlund, Kari Soinio, Ida Taavitsainen, Annimari Taivalsaari, Dietmar Tallroth, Maija Tammi, Juha Tanhua, Ritva Tuomi, Toni Vallasjoki, Linda Varoma, Sheung Yiu, Leena Ylä-Lyly, Katri Yli-Erkkilä, Filippo Zambon.

OTOS/22
10-20 November 2022
Maamusta Galleria
Hauhontie 6b, 00550, Helsinki

Open:
Monday-Friday 12-7pm
Saturday-Sunday 12-5pm
Late Thursdays until 8pm

Free entry

OTOS/22 Online Preview
4-9 November 2022

OTOS/22 Online
10-30 November 2022

shop.hippolyte.fi/

I See Dead People (2019) by Heli Kaskinen, among others, is available to purchase from Maamusta Galleria and Online.

© Heli Kaskinen
All rights reserved

Vuosinäyttely 2022 – The Annual Exhibition 2022

Järvenpään Taideseuran Vuosinäyttely 2022
The Annual Exhibition of Järvenpään Taideseura

29.10.-27.11.2022

Heli Kaskinen: Connecting The Dots, 2021 (detail)
© Heli Kaskinen 2021
All rights reserved

Artists: Risto Alanko, Lara Del Mar, Sinikka Elomaa, Leena Frestadius-Huotari, Laura Haikala, Raisa Helin, Kati Helo, Susanna Huovinen, Tapio Hyötylä, Hanna-Leena Iskanius, Reija Islander, Liisa Jääskeläinen, Sirkka-Liisa Kaila, Teija Karjalainen, Tiia Karjalainen, Marju Karlsson, Heli Kaskinen, Ulla-Riitta Kauppi, Jukka Kinanen, Sipuliina Kinanen, Esa Kivistö, Asta Kuosmanen, Seija Lappalainen, Tiina Latva, Helena Lindqvist, Hanne Lindström, Anna Matikainen, Outi Mietala, Heli Mäkitalo, Annukka Määttänen, Marja Neuvonen, Leena Nio, Marja Noso, Irina Nyyssönen, Anna-Maija Pakkanen, Elisa Pesonen, Richard Pieper, Marjo Poijärvi, Minna Pulli, Hannele Rekola, Heli Rintamäki, Marja Rosti, Marja-Liisa Räsänen, Hely Seeskari, Tuula Siltasari, Virpi Tiainen, Lars Tollet, Pekka Tukonen, Irja Tuomi, Merja Turpeinen, Anja Tyrväinen, Sinikka Ustinov-Jones, Olli Virtalainen, Nina Wiskari.

Venue:

Galleria Järnätti
Hallintokatu 4
04400 Järvenpää

Open: Mon–Fri 8 am – 8 pm

Free entrance

Juhlat – Party

17.9.–9.10.2022

Artists: Jenny Albrecht, Eino Ansio, Petri Blomqvist, Joshua Cockroft, Jonne Heinonen, Jitka Hirvelä, Touko Hujanen, Utu-Tuuli Jussila, Matleena Jänis, Heli Kaskinen, Jaakko Kilpiäinen, Leena Lehti, Susanna Lyly, Jana Machackova-Oey, Susanna Myllylä, Rasmus Mäkelä, Maria Mäki, Heidi Piiroinen, Anu Plym, Sari Poijärvi, Jussi Puikkonen, Antti Sepponen, Heidi Strengell, Jukka Tilus.

Curated by Johanna Vuoksenmaa

Photo: Eino Ansio
Exhibition poster: Photographic Centre Nykyaika

Venue:

Kulttuuritalo Laikku / Gallery
Keskustori 4
33100 Tampere

Open:
Tue–Fri 9 am – 9 pm
Sat–Sun 10 am – 6 pm

Free entrance

Heli Kaskinen: One Dot Rules Them All

Mikkeli Centre of Photography
30.9.–5.11.2021

Photographic Centre Nykyaika
30.10.–22.11.2021

Connecting The Dots, 2021 (detail)
© Heli Kaskinen 2021

When I was young, my grandmother tried to teach me to wink. After several unsuccessful attempts, I finally came up with my own version: blinking with both eyes at the same time. My parents, unaware of this lesson with my grandmother, took me to the doctor to have my eyes checked, but the mystery of why I was closing my eyes was not resolved. Later in life, my grandmother gradually lost her memory and was unable to recognize me. But on our last encounter she winked at me. This small gesture turned the whole situation around. She remembered me after all, and our little secret.

In that last encounter with my grandmother, grief and joy intertwined in an unexpected way that brought in that situation the most important of emotions, hope. It taught me that the wink of an eye is a subtle gesture, but it has the capacity to completely change the essence of things. It can emphasize the humorous nature of a situation or introduce a whole new perspective even to the painful or heavy experiences. With this humorous gesture, I try to deal with the cracks of my life. Do the ghosts from the past still look so scary in the bright light of noon?

One Dot Rules Them All is a collection of conceptual photographic works that deals with different painful points of life from a humorous perspective by combining text and found images together. At the same time, it is also an attempt to peek to the other side of an image and humanize a moment that has stalled by playing with viewing, perception, and interpretation. The works on view are connected through different concrete as well as conceptual points such as a camera lens or a breaking point. Those different points tend to lead the viewer behind the surface of the image towards private experiences, thoughts, and feelings and they also talk about a slightly different story than the story that we may see at first glance. These unfolding thoughts, emotions and stories are both fictional and true. The works tend to turn out another image, another destiny.

Heli Kaskinen (b. 1981, Järvenpää) is a visual artist who mainly works with humorous and conceptual photography. In her work Kaskinen combines text, found photographs and objects in a playful and insightful manner. Her works draw on self-reflection and deal with the shadows of life with a unique and recognizable touch. Kaskinen received her MFA Degree from the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of The Arts Helsinki in 2017. At the moment Kaskinen is finalizing her MA Degree in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Espoo, Finland. During the last couple of years her works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Europe, e.g. Finland, Germany and Austria.

The artist’s work and the exhibition have been supported by: Olga and Vilho Linnamo foundation, The Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Uusimaa Regional Fund.

Mikkeli Centre of Photography
Puistokatu 3
50100 Mikkeli, Finland

Opening hours
Wednesday–Friday 11am–5pm
Saturday 11am–3pm
Sundays–Tuesdays closed.

Please visit: www.mikkelinvalokuvakeskus.fi for further information.

Photographic Centre Nykyaika
Kauppakatu 14
33210 Tampere, Finland

Opening hours
Mon-Fri  12 – 18
Sat-Sun 12 – 16
Closed between exhibitions and on public holidays.

Please visit: valokuvakeskusnykyaika.fi for further information.

Heli Kaskinen: Meanwhile, On The Other Side

Photographic Gallery Hippolyte
1.11 – 24.11.2019

Meanwhile On The Other Side (Spyholes), 2019
© Heli Kaskinen 2019

Heli Kaskinen’s exhibition Meanwhile, On The Other Side is a humorous attempt of photographs and art-objects to make a claim and to give a peek into the other side of walls, borders and presumably neglected surfaces. The exhibition offers alternative perspectives and new interpretations of the ideas and events behind the photograph.

The works displayed at Photographic Gallery Hippolyte focus on themes of viewing, perception, and interpretation through various fades, turns, and transitions. On the other side of the surface, phenomena and human emotions appear in the works as a grave and yet playful combinations of images and words. The idea of turning is what guides Kaskinen’s work. In the Finnish language, you can turn a jacket, a pocket, a back or a side, but also an eye, or a mind. At the same time, to turn is also to translate words into Finnish—kääntää—you turn a language by turning it into another. Hreinn Fridfinnsson, an Icelandic conceptual artist, turned the inside of an entire house outward in his House Project (1974), while similarly, Kaskinen lays bare the plexus of everyday life with the use of reclaimed vintage frames and photography found across Europe.

The stories in Kaskinen’s works are reinterpreted extracts from lived life. Kaskinen’s work is complete once pieces of her soul are added—dusting it with childhood memories, wrapped in the traumatic glory of her teenaged-years and adulthood’s ceaseless pragmatism. Meanwhile, On The Other Side flips the viewpoint. Kaskinen delivers pithy remarks about our most absurd and perplexing experience—life itself.

Heli Kaskinen is a multidisciplinary visual artist who works mainly in photography. In her work, she uses expressions of both photographic and conceptual art. Her works are based on everyday life and often deal comically with real experiences. In 2017, she graduated as Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts and is currently finishing her studies at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Kaskinen has taken part in several solo exhibitions starting from 2016, and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad, incl. Artists 2012 and Young Artists 2013 at Kunsthalle Helsinki and viennacontemporary 2017 in Vienna, Austria.

The artist’s work and the realisation of the exhibition have been kindly supported by the Arts Promotion Centre’s Board for Public Display Grants to Visual Artists, Arts Promotion Centre, the National Council for Visual Arts.

Heli Kaskinen
Meanwhile, On The Other Side
1.–24.11.2019
Photographic Gallery Hippolyte
Yrjönkatu 8 – 10, 00120 Helsinki, Finland
Open: Tue-Fri 12-17, Sat-Sun 12-16

Test Lab: Status Flux

Test Lab: Status Flux
Vapaan Taiteen Tila
25.9 – 29.9.2018

Observe From Proper Distance (E chart), 2017 by Heli Kaskinen (installation view)

John Cage firmly believed that when a person begins a new piece of work, she or he should not have any kind of preliminary thoughts about the end result. The creative process is the cornerstone, not the end product. How would the audio world and music in general have progressed without composer like John Cage? How expressive would video art be today if Nam June Paik would have not been its pioneer, testing its limits? Or performance, sculpture and contemporary art in general without Joseph Beuys? Or without the laboratory of ideas, that is called Fluxus. A flow of Life.

Test Lab: Status Flux is an exhibition by artists studying photography and media art at Aalto University of Arts, Design and Architecture. The main ideas behind the exhibition are continuance, going forward, change and next step – without the compelling need to reach more than interesting process of thinking. In other words: to devote oneself to the process. This attitude includes concepts like time, concentration, meditation, investigation, thinking, abundance, diversity, absorption, a state of mind.

The artists are free to explore areas outside their comfort zone. Everyone kicks themselves out of the box they possibly have created around them. Everybody agitates oneself to make free choices and uses whatever media that she or he wants to test. It can be everything from mechanics to immateriality, from poetry to moving image.

The exhibition Status Flux produces fresh points of view to life, art and artmaking. Misunderstanding, sideways, mistakes or confusion can be amazing artistic instruments!

Artists: Pauliina Heinänen, Peter Holliday, Heikki Humberg, Utu–Tuuli Jussila, Heli Kaskinen, Karl Ketamo, Ella Kiviniemi, Ulla Kudjoi, Sanni Siira, Leda Vaneva, Otto–Ville Väätäinen, Sebastian Wolf.

///


Säveltäjä ja teoreetikko John Cage uskoi vakaasti, että uutta teosta aloittaessa tekijällä ei tule olla minkäänlaista ennakkopäätöstä lopputuloksesta. Luomisprosessi on tärkein, ei siitä syntynyt tuote. Millaista polkua esimerkiksi äänimaailma ja musiikki olisivat edenneet ilman Cagen kaltaista tekijää? Mikä olisi videotaiteen ilmaisuvoima nykyään, ellei Nam June Paik olisi ollut sen pioneeri ja testaaja? Tai performanssi, veistos tai nykytaide ylipäätään ilman Joseph Beuysia? Tai ilman ideoiden laboratoriota, jota kutsutaan fluxukseksi. A Flow of Life.

Test Lab: Status Flux on Aalto-yliopistossa valokuva- ja mediataidetta opiskelevien tekijöiden näyttely, jonka takana on ollut ajatus jatkuvuudesta, eteenpäin menemisestä, muutoksesta ja seuraavasta vaiheesta, ilman pakottavaa tarvetta päätyä enempään kuin kiinnostavaan ajatusprosessiin. Prosessimaiselle tekotavalle antautuminen sisältää käsitteitä kuten aika, keskittyminen, meditatiivisuus, tutkimuksellisuus, ajattelu, runsaus, monipuolisuus, syventyminen ja mielentila.

Näyttelyn tekijät singahtavat halutessaan mahdollisimman kauas omalta mukavuusalueeltaan. Potkivat itsensä ulos laatikosta, jonka he kenties ovat luoneet ympärilleen. Yllyttävät itseään tekemään irtiottoja ja käyttämään mitä hyvänsä mediaa, johon juuri nyt haluavat tarttua, mekaniikasta immateriaalisuuteen tai runoudesta liikkuvaan kuvaan. 

Tavoitteena on tuottaa tekijöille tuoreita näkökulmia elämästä, taiteesta ja sen tekemisestä. Väärinymmärrys, sivuraide, virhe tai hämmennys voivat olla huimaavia taiteellisia työkaluja.

Kuten Samuel Beckett on kirjoittanut: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Taiteilijat: Pauliina Heinänen, Peter Holliday, Heikki Humberg, Utu–Tuuli Jussila, Heli Kaskinen, Karl Ketamo, Ella Kiviniemi, Ulla Kudjoi, Sanni Siira, Leda Vaneva, Otto–Ville Väätäinen, Sebastian Wolf.

Guest Room: Nathalie Herschdorfer

Act Like Nothing Happened (2017) has been selected to take a part of online exhibition Guest Room curated by  Nathalie Herschdorfer. Guest Room is a monthly online exhibition organized by Der Greif Organization for contemporary photography. Please visit: https://dergreif-online.de/guest-room/nathalie-herschdorfer/ for further information and also to see complete selection with the works by fellow artist.

Act Like Nothing Happened (2017) by Heli Kaskinen

© Heli Kaskinen 2017