Enoch Bergsten
Everybody makes mistakes
11.7. – 29.7.2012
Galleria Huuto Uudenmaankatu
Enoch Bergsten (b. 1979, United States) is a born artist. His lines both reveal and hide a lot of what is in a picture. This paradox is reflective of the nature of drawing as a line in a drawing is always a solution. But it’s a solution that creates new questions. Several of the pieces in the exhibition are based on National Geographic magazine illustrations from the 1950s and 1960s. The way humans were depicted in the recent past clearly shows what was thought of humanity at that time. An artist, however, sees stereotypical depictions and objectifying acts as a material to work with, just like pigments and paper. Yesterday’s pictures feed his imagination.
This exhibition is different from Bergsten’s previous exhibition which explored the automation and technical questions related to drawing. It is more picturesque and surrealistically colored. The pictures that fascinated the artist have shaped the works that amazingly fall somewhere between figurative and abstract. The atmosphere varies from dream-like to confusingly realistic, which makes the viewers feel like they are Alice in Wonderland.
Sometimes a line turns into a figurative shape, only to lose its figurative nature in another piece. The artist is in control of his tools because for him the internal variation in the world of drawing forms a universe of its own. In Bergsten’s universe, using the same and rather limited number of methods can always create a large amount of variation.
Enoch Bergsten graduated from the Free Art School in 2008 and the exhibition at Galleria Huuto is his fourth solo exhibition. He has also taken part in joint exhibitions. Bergsten is an associate member of the Finnish Painters’ Union. His works are included in the collections of the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and the Finnish Art Association as well as in many private collections.
Juha-Heikki Tihinen, PhD
