Helsinki's varied art scene

It rained the whole week I was in Helsinki. While that cramped my desire to explore the city's parks and open spaces, it enabled me to visit quite a few museums of various stripes. Three art museums had the most appeal and I offer a sampling from each. More often than not the majority of works on display were of Finnish origin, which made them completely new for me. I consider this one of the more delightful perks of foreign travel.

HAM

The Helsinki Art Museum is devoted to art works that "belong to the people of Helsinki." A lovely collectivist notion.

Kitka River, Ilkka Halso

An enormous photographic print that depicts what must be a fantastically imagined landscape. It was eerily real, however.

Summer, Erno Enkenberg

This appealed because I'd been seeing similar Finnish style architecture all around the city. The title is a curiosity, but then I've never been to Finland in another season.

Moss Girl, Kim Simonsson

This was a bit reminiscent of Jeff Koons. The larger-than-life size figure was like a fairy tale figure brought to "life" as a sculpture. The title reflects not just the color but the velvety texture of the surface of the sculpture.

Robert Lucander

Somehow I missed the English title of this, which in both Finnish and German is a long one. My German is rusty but it goes something like: "I will be mixed up when I stop being reasonable." There were several similarly abstract and enigmatic paintings by the same artist.

Gym Class, Jarmo Mäkilä

While I never personally experienced this degree of dystopic environment, either as a young person in school or as an educator for 30 years, somehow this resonated.

First Day at School, Jarmo Mäkilä

There was a whole room devoted to this artist, including the large paintings as well as this one installation, which suggests that the socialization required of school attendance entails a loss of innocence. Those are teddy bears and other stuffed animals strewn out behind the building.

This is the same piece viewed from the "front."

Ateneum

The Ateneum Art Museum is one of a triumvirate of institutions comprising the Finnish National Galleries of Art. It is devoted to 19th and 20th Century international art. It was here where I found a few recognizable names, even if the art works themselves were unfamiliar...

The Bathers, Edvard Munch

... and in a few cases unlikely to be found in most major U.S. museums.

Landscape from Ringerike, Hans Gude

I discovered that the Romantic landscape--a la our own Hudson River School, so recently featured at the Milwaukee Art Museum--is also a prominent genre in 19th Century Finnish tradition.

Salon style presentation

Many of the paintings from this land of forests, mountains and lakes are indistinguishable in content and character from those of the American West.

Woman in Lichen, Eila Hiltunen

A curiously titled abstract sculpture in high relief. The lattice of welded copper covering the wire-frame figure didn't resemble lichen to me, but I found it intriguing.

Pregnant Woman, Alice Neel

Coincidentally, the major current exhibition was a retrospective of Alice Neel, who, the catalogue claims, is "one of the most significant American painters of the 20th century."

Tuberculosis Harlem, Alice Neel

Okay, I've heard of Neel and had a memory of what her painting style looked like. But these were by far the most of her paintings I've seen in one place.

My favorite work of art at this museum was "laundry" hanging in the atrium of the building, seen here from a second story window overlooking the courtyard. I couldn't locate a label for the installation and so I don't know the actual title.

Kiasma

Helsinki has a wealth of diverse museums and art galleries and I didn't manage to get to all of them. But of those I did see my favorite was the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art.

The website describes it this way, "A lively cultural centre and meeting place, Kiasma is the place for pleasure and experience. The name derives from ‘chiasm’, which stands for an intersection, particularly the crossing of optic nerves." I went on a weekday morning and found it not only lively but also family-friendly. In fact, I'm quite sure I've never seen so many young children in a museum devoted to contemporary art.

Emerging Thoughts, Anna Estarriola

The two little girls on the right are peering through an aperture in the giant knit cap where they can see that the interior is filled to capacity with over 60 life-size wigged heads.

In fact, nearly all of the most enjoyable installations, many of which took up entire rooms, were so vast and interactive that a still image will do them no justice. So, I made short videos (Ha! I can do that with my phone now! Even when my phone doesn't work as a phone, as in Finland.) So, I recommend that you ignore the still images below and click on the Youtube links associated with them. They're all short, under 1 minute.

Rubbish Video, by Nabb & Teeri: click here for video.

Kosmos, by Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa, fills a two-story space: click here for video.

This one, also by Choi Jeong Hwa, completely fills a room through which visitors have to wander as if through a jungle, pushing aside the "foliage." Click here for video.

An entire floor, including this enormous space, was devoted to Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto. Click here for video.

The Ateneum was appropriately housed in a building styled in Beaux Arts tradition, while the HAM seemed quite utilitarian in a nondescript municipal structure. The contemporary mission of the Kiasma was evident even before you entered the dramatically curving and monolithic structure (which I neglected to take a picture of--sorry!)

If you missed my first (much shorter) post from Helsinki about the church in the rock, click here.

Stay tuned for the Hermitage.

Temppeliaukio: Helsinki's "church in the rock"

Entering this spectacular space from the dim, low-ceilinged foyer is breathtaking. The vast, copper-colored dome looms overhead like an alien spacecraft in a sci-fi movie. The first impression is that it floats, even though the ribs that bind it to the earth--to the rock--are visible all around. The space is carved out of the rock, which has been left rough-cut and raw.

I can imagine it being remarkably peaceful. But imagination has to suffice when it is open to the public because, as one of Helsinki's most popular attractions, it is nearly always packed with tourists from all over the world. This is the main street entrance to the church.

Temppeliaukion Kirkko was designed by Finnish architects Timo Suomalainen and Tuomo Suomalainen and completed in 1969. Although I've never been to Helsinki before, I have long been familiar with the church from photographs, having used them as examples of Modernist style for decades when I taught architecture. Seeing it was especially thrilling because of my personal history with it.

A 360 ° skylight not only is responsible for the floating effect of the dome but also admits natural light around the entire circumference of the rock-walled space.

I also made a short video to give a better feel for the space. To access the video click here. 

Walking around the outside, the structure of the building is almost completely hidden. The dome is protected by a formidable rock wall. 

The church, which includes parking, administrative and educational spaces, and a cafe, occupies an entire city block--although an unusually circular one. The original rock faces that dominate the park-like setting serve to make the interior all the more marvelous upon reentry. 

The church is made all the more remarkable by the contrast of its setting, surrounded as it is by traditional, very simple multi-story residential buildings.

So, if you're ever in Helsinki, don't miss this. It's easy to find, near the center of the city. Just ask anyone about the church of the rock. (They all speak English, too, so no worries on that score.)

Stay tuned for more from Helsinki and also from St. Petersburg as I get to it.

Temppeliaukio: Helsinki's "church in the rock"

Entering this spectacular space from the dim, low-ceilinged foyer is breathtaking. The vast, copper-colored dome looms overhead like an alien spacecraft in a sci-fi movie. The first impression is that it floats, even though the ribs that bind it to the earth--to the rock--are visible all around. The space is carved out of the rock, which has been left rough-cut and raw.

I can imagine it being remarkably peaceful. But imagination has to suffice when it is open to the public because, as one of Helsinki's most popular attractions, it is nearly always packed with tourists from all over the world. This is the main street entrance to the church.

Temppeliaukion Kirkko was designed by Finnish architects Timo Suomalainen and Tuomo Suomalainen and completed in 1969. Although I've never been to Helsinki before, I have long been familiar with the church from photographs, having used them as examples of Modernist style for decades when I taught architecture. Seeing it was especially thrilling because of my personal history with it.

A 360 ° skylight not only is responsible for the floating effect of the dome but also admits natural light around the entire circumference of the rock-walled space.

Walking around the outside, the structure of the building is almost completely hidden. The dome is protected by a formidable rock wall. 

The church, which includes parking, administrative and educational spaces, and a cafe, occupies an entire city block--although an unusually circular one. The original rock faces that dominate the park-like setting serve to make the interior all the more marvelous upon reentry. 

The church is made all the more remarkable by the contrast of its setting, surrounded as it is by traditional, very simple multi-story residential buildings.

So, if you're ever in Helsinki, don't miss this. It's easy to find, near the center of the city. Just ask anyone about the church of the rock. (They all speak English, too, so no worries on that score.)

Stay tuned for more from Helsinki and also from St. Petersburg as I get to it.

Real Time dances with the Concrete River at Alfons Gallery

If you're following my work I expect you know that I and my collaborator Melanie Ariens have a major exhibit currently on display at the Alfons Gallery, called "Concrete River: Memorial and Promise on the Kinnickinnic." (If you missed my earlier description of it, click here.)

I am excited to announce that Daniel and Andrea Burkholder are planning to perform a dance that they've created especially for the installation. The performance is on July 1 at 7 PM.

Alfons Gallery is located at 1501 S. Layton Blvd.

"Real Time" is a regular feature held on the first Friday of each month.

This is how they describe the program:
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July’s Real Time performance will draw inspiration from Eddee Daniel’s photography exhibit, Concrete River: Memorial and Promise on the Kinnickinnic, installed at Alfons Gallery, by exploring the inherent tension within the exhibit’s photographs of “urban wilderness.” Real Time will engage these photographs and gallery installation through their subject matter, the beauty of form found in them, as well as the absurdity.

As a 30-minute performance which will repeat, non-stop, three times, the audience is invited to enter and exit the event at their pleasure or whim.

Integrated throughout the performance will be opportunities for the audience to discuss with the performers, Andrea and Daniel Burkholder, as well as photographer Eddee Daniel and environmental artist Melanie Ariens about the art work, the performance, and ecological issues.

Wine and seltzer water will be available, without charge, as part of the discussion with the artists. 

The performance series is completely funded by its open-priced ticket structure. The cash-only tickets go on sale beginning at 6:45pm and are available pay-what-you-will, where the audience puts it’s own value on the live art it comes to see. While NOT a donation format- everyone must pay- the payment is meant to reflect what each individual can afford.

Real Time is curated by Andrea Chastant Burkholder and Daniel Burkholder. It has featured aerial dance from Andrea Chastant Burkholder, improvisational dance from Daniel Burkholder, duets from the two of them, as well as solos and collaborative work with guest artists from Milwaukee and elsewhere in the United States. All shows in the series offer a new insight into the performance form of dance and what it can encompass. With each show lasting one hour or under, there is always time for drinks and conversation at the end of the night.

“We are working to meet our community where it’s at as far as seeing the arts, and from there, we hope to develop together as performers, audience, and as a larger community.” says Andrea Chastant Burkholder one of the creators of Real Time.

Full disclosure: This is not my first collaboration with the Burkholders. In April Andrea invited me to collaborate on her program, Bayou's State, at Danceworks. And in May I was an enchanted witness to their tribute to nature in the open-air and traveling performance of Scenic Route MKE. It has been a great pleasure to be a part of their creative endeavors.

Portraits from SE WI opens at Gallery 224

"Greetings from Wisconsin," a juried exhibit of portraits from Southeastern Wisconsin opens at Gallery 224 on Friday, June 17.

Opening reception: 5:00 - 7:00 pm.

My triptych, "Nick - Fyxation," from my residency in the Menomonee Valley is included in the show. "Fyxation" was one of a series of profiles I did during the residency. You can read the story about Nick and his founding of the bicycle manufacturing complany, Fyxation, by clicking here.

Gallery 224 is at 224 East Main Street in Port Washington. For more information, click here.

Arts on the Rivers

My triptych, Menomonee Valley: Winter, is included in this annual exhibit sponsored by Milwaukee Riverkeeper:

"CELEBRATE THE BEAUTY OF OUR WATERWAYS. LOCAL ARTISTS EXPRESS HOW THEY CONNECT TO OUR LOCAL RIVERS."

Tory Folliard Gallery
233 N. Milwaukee St., Milwaukee, WI 53202 

A closing reception at which awards will be presented is on Saturday, June 11, 2016, from 3-4 pm. Open to the public.

The Tory Folliard Gallery has regular gallery hours from:
11am-5pm Tuesday-Friday
11am-4pm on Saturday