Adam Avikainen
18 Dec 2006 - 05 Feb 2007
ADAM AVIKAINEN
"Løyly Ikebana"
Complex and visionary artist Adam Avikainen inaugurates a series of short residencies organised by the gallery Monitor to host young international artists in the city of Rome. These artists are invited to create site-specific works in the gallery’s exhibition space, triggering a contamination between different cultures. (British artist Graham Hudson will participate in the residency in March.)
For his first solo show in Italy, Adam Avikainen will present a work born in Finland and developed in Rome over a three-week period that included a series of site visits and research in the countryside and coastal area of Lazio.
Avikainen has always been interested in the narrative aspect of the work of art. Like a storyteller, he begins from an essentially autobiographic starting point, uniting and elaborating fables and legends to create a scenic representation through the use of various visual languages (drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video and text).
The artist recently stated, “I tell fairy-tales that preach the virtue of being confident in impermanence. These farces fracture traditional modes of interpretation by showcasing the sublime faults that distance myself from the gut-wrenching banalities of perfectionism that some strive to attain”.
As the title evokes, Løyly Ikebana will speak of spores and moss and winter ikebana, telling a story rich with suggestion. (According to Finnish mythology, Løyly, the vapour that forms inside saunas, constitutes 80% of the clouds in the sky.)
Adam Avikainen (Minnesota, 1978) lives in Amsterdam. He is currently a participant of the De Atelier residency programme.
"Løyly Ikebana"
Complex and visionary artist Adam Avikainen inaugurates a series of short residencies organised by the gallery Monitor to host young international artists in the city of Rome. These artists are invited to create site-specific works in the gallery’s exhibition space, triggering a contamination between different cultures. (British artist Graham Hudson will participate in the residency in March.)
For his first solo show in Italy, Adam Avikainen will present a work born in Finland and developed in Rome over a three-week period that included a series of site visits and research in the countryside and coastal area of Lazio.
Avikainen has always been interested in the narrative aspect of the work of art. Like a storyteller, he begins from an essentially autobiographic starting point, uniting and elaborating fables and legends to create a scenic representation through the use of various visual languages (drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video and text).
The artist recently stated, “I tell fairy-tales that preach the virtue of being confident in impermanence. These farces fracture traditional modes of interpretation by showcasing the sublime faults that distance myself from the gut-wrenching banalities of perfectionism that some strive to attain”.
As the title evokes, Løyly Ikebana will speak of spores and moss and winter ikebana, telling a story rich with suggestion. (According to Finnish mythology, Løyly, the vapour that forms inside saunas, constitutes 80% of the clouds in the sky.)
Adam Avikainen (Minnesota, 1978) lives in Amsterdam. He is currently a participant of the De Atelier residency programme.