Tiina Pyykkinen
Tiina Pyykkinen’s latest series of paintings expands on a fifteen-year investigation into how our brains process color and color’s relationship to language and perception. Through a manipulation of material supports, pigments, and texture Pyykkinen seeks to heighten the viewer’s awareness of color as an optical phenomenon while using it to trigger new insights into the relationship between memory and time.
Grounded in the depiction of a familiar object or space, Pyykkinen’s surfaces are built up gradually over multiple layers. Together they create a hologramic effect that forces viewers to navigate around the work in order to discern the images beneath. For Pyykkinen, time and memory are visualized in the interplay between the viewer’s moving body and the painting’s own illusory movement.
The paintings’ reflective surfaces create an additional layer. The viewer’s reflection causes a visual disturbance that also implicates the viewer in the work directly. As the mirrored surfaces catch light and echoes of the surrounding room, they form a bridge between real and pictorial space. Through this method, Pyykkinen tries to forge a synapse between the viewer and the painting that toggles between the viewer’s present and the painting’s past. Her current series builds on these plural temporalities as well as on Pyykkinen’s interest in human nonverbal communication, body memory, trauma, and the intergenerational transmission of collective memory.
Text: Amanda Sarroff
Pyykkinen graduated from Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2014 as Master of Fine Arts. Pyykkinen was selected as a Young Artist of the Year 2017 and her works have been presented at museums and galleries in Finland and other European countries. Her recent works have been exhibited in a group exhibition at Galerie Anhava in 2022. Her latest site-specific work was completed in 2020 to the main façade of Nova, Jyväskylä Central Hospital.
Location
Uusimaa
Born
1983
Featured artwork
Jan van Eyck Academie, Open StudiosTiina Pyykkinen, Jan van Eyck Academie, Open Studios, Installation view, 2022. Photo: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Under the ViewTiina Pyykkinen, Under the View, Oil on steel, 125 cm x 125 cm x 3 cm ,2022. Photo: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Under the View 2Tiina Pyykkinen, Under the View 2, Oil on steel, 125 cm x 125 cm x 3 cm ,2022. Photo: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Jan van Eyck Academie, Open StudiosTiina Pyykkinen, Jan van Eyck Academie, Open Studios, Installation view, 2022. Photo: Jan van Eyck Academie.
OpeningsTiina Pyykkinen, Openings, installation view. Gallery Anhava, Helsinki., 2022. Photo: Jussi Tiainen.
Dual Nature 2Tiina Pyykkinen, Dual Nature 2, Alkyd, oil and pigment on canvas, 125 cm x 100 cm x 3 cm ,2021. Photo: Tiina Pyykkinen.
Hidden Knowledge 2Tiina Pyykkinen, Hidden Knowledge 2, Alkyd, oil and green pigment on canvas, 180 cm x 150 cm x 3 cm ,2020. Photo: Rauno Träskelin.
Hidden KnowledgeTiina Pyykkinen, Hidden Knowledge, Installation view. gallery Makasiini Contemporary, 2020. Photo: Rauno Träskelin.
Bliss of ignoranceTiina Pyykkinen, Bliss of ignorance, Alkyd, oil and green pigment on canvas, 125 cm x 100 cm x 3 cm ,2020. Photo: Rauno Träskelin.
ShadowsTiina Pyykkinen, Shadows, Installation view, 2019. Photo: gallery Makasiini Contemporary.
ShadowsTiina Pyykkinen, Shadows, Installation view, 2019. Photo: gallery Makasiini Contemporary.
ShadowsTiina Pyykkinen, Shadows, Installation view, 2019. Photo: gallery Makasiini Contemporary.
There Is No Distance Between Yesterday And TomorrowTiina Pyykkinen, There Is No Distance Between Yesterday And Tomorrow, Alkyd, oil and green pigment on canvas, 240 cm x 200 cm x 3 cm ,2018. Photo: Rauno Träskelin.
There Is No Distance Between Yesterday And TomorrowTiina Pyykkinen, There Is No Distance Between Yesterday And Tomorrow, Alkyd, oil and green pigment on canvas, 240 cm x 200 cm x 3 cm ,2018. Photo: Rauno Träskelin.
There Is No Distance Between Yesterday And TomorrowTiina Pyykkinen, There Is No Distance Between Yesterday And Tomorrow, Alkyd, oil and green pigment on canvas, 240 cm x 200 cm x 3 cm ,2018. Photo: Rauno Träskelin.