Jaakko Hukkanen
Dream baby dream
3–27 April 2025
The exhibition consists of oil and beeswax paintings on canvas as well as framed pastels that explore a spatial experience and its meanings through visual arts. The works create parallel, inner spaces and offer the viewer an opportunity to step from the physical world into separate, symbolic and mental spaces, dream-like realities.
A spatial experience is a complex, multi-sensory experience. The multidimensionality enables a deep emotional connection between the space and the experiencer. My paintings use architectural elements and color to create an illusion of space, which the viewer completes through their own experiences and memories. In the absence of a human figure, the theme of absence strengthens the sense of presence. The viewer is the sole experiencer of the inner spaces of the works, and with their gaze, they activate the meaning and emotional content of the space.
Thinking requires space around it, and the inner space of a painting can offer this. The gaze moves from the surface of the painting, through its materiality, to the spatial illusion. When experiencing the inner space of the painting, the mind can transcend the laws of materiality. The experience of a space can be vivid and meaningful.
The history of European art and architecture is visible in the architectural references of my works, yet at the same time, they are not linked to a predefined period. Their temporal ambiguity seeks to offer distance for reflecting on our own time from another temporal reality.
The starting point for the exhibition is a personal experience of space and its effect on the mind. The time I spent at the Väinö Tanner Foundation’s residency in Mazzano Romano, Italy, in the summer of 2024 influenced the creation of the works, particularly in terms of the experience of loneliness and space and through the surrounding nature and the elevation differences in the area.
Jaakko Hukkanen (b. 1991, Helsinki) is a Helsinki-based visual artist whose main medium is painting. His works explore spatial experiences, the psychology of painting, and the history of art. Hukkanen earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts in 2023, having completed part of his studies at Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna in Italy. He has displayed his works at exhibitions since 2018. In addition to private collections, his works are included in the Saastamoinen Foundation’s art collection and the Finnish State Art Commission’s collection.
Thank you
Friends and family. Special thanks to the Väinö Tanner Foundation for my residency period and Paulo Foundation for supporting my residency period.
Contact information
Jaakko Hukkanen
japehuk at gmail.com
https://jaakkohukkanen.com/
https://www.instagram.com/j_hukkanen/
