Sara Orava
Sara Orava ( born 1975 ) is a painter from Helsinki, known for her intense and introspective art works, moving on the edge between the physical and the psychical reality. She works in the field of painting, drawing and stage works.
She has had many solo exhibitions, among which at Galleria Ama and Galleria Artina (Helsinki), Kerava Art Museum, Neu Galerie im Artforum (Offenburg) and she has presented her works in numerous group exhibitions, among others in Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki), Amos Rex, Amos Anderson Art Museum (Helsinki), Kunsthalle (Helsinki), Rovaniemi Art Museum (Rovaniemi), Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art (Vaasa).
She has also worked as a set designer and director in the multi-artistic Exit3 Company, which she founded with soprano Piia Komsi and dancer-choreographer Milla Eloranta. “The Purple Bird of the Heart flies through the night” was performed at the Finnish National Gallery Theatre in 2019. The chamber opera “Medusa” composed by Paola Livorsi had its premiere at the Helsinki Opera Summer Festival at Alexander Theatre 2021 and achieved great popularity.
Her works are in the collections of Amos Rex, Kiasma, Espoo Museum of Modern Art EMMA, Wihuri Collection, Heino Collection, Paulo and Nelimarkka Foundations, Sammlung Gudrun und Georg Fröhner and in the Finnish State Art Collection.
The human bodies that formerly populated Sara Orava’s paintings have recently vanished, leaving behind only drapery that indirectly suggests the possibility of a corporeal presence. The drapery evokes the physicality of human existence, while also alluding to the legacy of art history and the many things that clothing and drapery have expressed at different times in history, from Saint Thérèse and the Holy Face of Jesus to the illusion of fabric painted upon fabric.
In her recent works she has combined botanical studies of flowers and internal organs to the drapery. She describes essence of her painting to be something that is at once fascinating and intimidating. It hurts and it caresses, it changes its shape and it expresses itself in different things and different people. At times, it is lucidly manifest in a painting.
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Featured artwork
Sara Orava, Dark HeartTempera and oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm, 2020. Photo. Jussi Tiainen
Sara Orava, Pale HeartTempera and oil on canvas, 50 cm x 40 cm, 2020. Photo. Jussi Tiainen
ProtectedSara Orava, Protected, Tempera and oil on canvas, 90 cm x 80 cm x 3 cm ,2023. Photo: Miika Nyyssönen.
Sara Orava, Folded Breath IItempera on canvas, 30 cm x 40 cm, 2020. Photo. Jussi Tiainen
Snow, Grass, RosebudsSara Orava, Snow, Grass, Rosebuds, Tempera and oil on canvas, 220 cm x 200 cm x -5 cm ,2021. Photo: Jussi Tiainen.
Exhibition View, Gallery AmaSara Orava, Exhibition View, Gallery Ama, -, - cm x - cm x - cm ,2021. Photo: Sara Orava.
Sara Orava, RosebudTempera and oil on canvas, 30 x 35 cm, 2020. Photo. Jussi Tiainen
Scenery from the Medusa with Piia Komsi and Jouka ValkamaSara Orava, Scenery from the Medusa with Piia Komsi and Jouka Valkama, Stage works at Alexander Theatre, Helsinki, x - cm ,2022. Photo: Maarit Kytöharju.
Scenery from Medusa with Piia KomsiSara Orava, Scenery from Medusa with Piia Komsi, Stage work at the Alexander theatre, x - cm ,2022. Photo: Maarit Kytöharju.
Sara Orava, See Me ITempera and oil on canvas, 220 x 200 cm, 2015. Photo. Jussi Tiainen
Sara Orava, See Me IITempera and oil on canvas, 220 x 200 cm, 2015. Photo. Jussi Tiainen
Sara Orava, RosarioExhibition view, Amos Anderson Art Museum, 2015. Photo. Stella Ojala