MARIANNA UUTINEN
TRASHY COSMOS
15 JANUARY – 13 FEBRUARY 2022
REVIEWED BY
DAGENS NYHETER
2 FEBRUARY 2022
People have always looked up at the sky. Anticipated seasonal changes, unpredictable weather and flooding that nourishes fields. They have bowed to planets moved by divine forces and the light of ancient stars. Shot strange devices up into the sky, in order to momentarily transcend the limitations of gravity and of the human body.
The paintings of Marianna Uutinen present a dizzying dance of energy and matter in an intimate and cosmic voltage space. The materiality of the works grows from the same source as the universe, is essentially a part of it. At this level, the significance of Uutinen's works seems to focus primarily on what painting factually is: materiality and its endless metamorphosis.
Trashy Cosmos also draws attention to the ambivalence between the material and the spiritual dimensions of Uutinen’s art. Moreover, in our Western culture, dominated by compulsive consumption and superficial sexualization, it does not seem impossible to think that even in space you can come across not only an asteroid containing precious metals, but also objects such as a violet dildo or a silicone boob hidden in the shadows of a nebula.
"I could never paint a pink Barbie," Uutinen says when considering the works on display in Stockholm. "Instead, I'm interested in man's tendency to flatten the universe into superficial me-myself-and-I thinking. Our world, permeated by Instagram and floods of images, is banal and over-sexualized. This notion also works as a source of irony and critic in my works."
Marianna Uutinen says that she has been listening to experimental music almost daily when she was preparing the works for the exhibition. "It's interesting how space moves in the frequencies of music. I work on a similar movement of space and time by painting with light. Each work on display in the exhibition looks different in the morning than it does in the evening. My paintings live with the conditions of light. At the same time, they are also traditional paintings. The ultimate purpose of my art is to leave things open and to touch."
Professor Anita Seppä
The Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki
MARIANNA UUTINEN was born 1961 in Pieksämäki, Finland. Lives and works in Helsinki and Berlin. She attended the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki (1980–1985) and the Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques, Paris (1991–1992).
Marianna Uutinen has exhibited at numerous institutions throughout Europe including Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Moderna Museet, Malmö; Malmö Konsthall; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Kunsthalle Helsinki; EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; Living Art Museum, Reykjavik; Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg; Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen; and Ludwig Museum, Koblenz. In 1997 Marianna Uutinen represented Finland at the Venice Biennale.
Marianna Uutinen was awarded the Finland Prize for her distinguished artistic career in 2006. She served as a Professor of Painting at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2004–2008.
Marianna Uutinen's work is represented in various public and international collections such as Helsinki Art Museum, Kiasma and EMMA, The National Museum and Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, National Gallery of Iceland in Reykjavik, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, TIA Collection in Santa Fe and the Seoul Museum of Art.
