Tiina Koivusalo & Linda Linko
Harmony, Entropy – collages, litographs
Galleria Huuto Jätkäsaari 1
4 – 21 December 2014
Our galleries are open normally from 12 to 5pm on Independece day December 6th.
The Harmony, Entropy exhibition features large pieces by Tiina Koivusalo and Linda Linko. The works are digital collages created using materials that have been collected during trips abroad between 2008 and 2013.
Koivusalo’s carefully planned works with little color interact with Linko’s colorful and expressive pieces. The themes and starting points for the exhibition are the same for both artists, but their working methods are complete different. Koivusalo explores the fundamental nature of the subjects in her works thoroughly, while Linko combines random elements. Koivusalo seeks harmony, while Linko tries to break free from it.
Tiina Koivusalo sees the world as shapes and surface materials. Her works included in the exhibition play with different materials. They contain photographs of mountains, seaweed washed ashore, bare rocks, dry tree branches and fallen leaves. The photos are from fifteen different countries, including Madagascar, Panama, Bolivia and the Cook Islands. The subjects she has selected are often inanimate and many of the shapes are a result of change caused by human activities, such as erosion. The everyday characteristics of the photos used in the final collages have become blurred and the photographic nature is no longer obvious. Thus the works are dream-like worlds that leave room for the viewer’s imagination.
Tiina Koivusalo (b. 1981) lives and works in Helsinki. She earned her master’s degree from Aalto University in 2013 and has worked for about ten years with graphic design, illustration and visual arts. Her works created using the collage technique have been previously displayed in a fashion show as part of the Hirameki Design x Finland event in Japan in 2010 and at a solo exhibition held at the Sushibar restaurant in Helsinki in 2012.
The exhibition has been supported by Grafia ry.
Linda Linko’s Flags is a series of visually interpreted memory traces from different countries and their different atmospheres. After spending five consecutive winters in Middle America, Linko has translated the culture of each country into a colorful collage, like a note of what cannot be seen in photographs or diary entries. The repeated shapes resemble a cipher. The collage materials include drawings, fragments from ink paintings and paper, stains, trash and enlarged details from photographs. Linko’s works comment on the chaotic creation process, which is characteristic of the artist. The collages indicate a pursuit of incompleteness and abundance. The concept of being “ready” does not exist. There is only a moment when the pieces click into place. The exhibition will also feature Linko’s lithograph series Australia.
Linda Linko (b. 1979) is a Helsinki-based graphic designer who works with art and illustration. Her collages have been previously displayed at the Felix Meritis Center in Amsterdam and at the Pick Me Up exhibition in London earlier this year. She has also taken part in several group exhibitions, the latest being Don’t Shoot the Messenger at Design Museum in 2013. Linko has received several awards as an illustrator and graphic designer, including the gold prize for illustration at the European Design Awards this year. She earned her bachelor’s degree in arts from the Helsinki University of Art and Design in 2005.
Further information:
Tiina Koivusalo
tiina(a)tiinakoivusalo.com
+358 40 411 7145
www.tiinakoivusalo.com
Linda Linko
lindalinko(a)gmail.com
+358 44 357 1235
www.lindalinko.com
