Kari Malmgren

Heli Penttinen

Heli Penttinen uses various techniques from drawing and watercolor to oil painting, lead glass and paper making. Over the years, the themes of her works have varied from being a woman to exercising power and exploring darkness. Her latest works combine pencil drawing with oil painting, exploring sensory experiences and the effects of darkness and the gray time of the year on people. She tries to imagine what these different experiences could look like on the surface of a painting. Small changes, repetition and slowness create peace and clarity in her work. Materiality and the technique give her works their visible content.

Penttinen’s career spans from the mid-1980’s to the present day. Her works are in many significant Finnish collections, including the Finnish State, Kiasma, HAM, Eläke-Fennia and Wihuri Foundation. Penttinen’s work also includes public art, such as the lead glass windows of the ecumenical hospital chapel at Peijas Hospital in Vantaa and a painting, mosaic and lead glass installation for the Southern Finland C4 Centre of the Finnish Defence Forces, made together with artist Päivi Eskelinen.

Heli Penttinen lives and works in the middle of the countryside in southern Finland where the days are often wet, gray and silent.