Light art takes over the Roundhouse

As the season is growing darker, the Roundhouse is diving into the exhilarating world of light art. The Salo Art Museum’s first exhibition centred on light art invites you to wonder and be charmed by the possibilities created by light as you stand next to the works created using a variety of techniques. Visit valo exhibits the diversity of Finnish light art and light as an art material and medium.

Light is the prerequisite for all life: it provides rhythm in our days and assists in conveying emotions and messages. As a material and technique for artistic expression, light has decades of tradition in Finland. With lighting technology being more readily available and the development of LED lights, interest in creating and showcasing light art has increased on a whole new scale.

The exhibition Visit valo (Visit the Light) displays a wide scale of Finnish light art as works from current artists and as memories from days gone by in the form of loans from other collections. Consisting of the works of a total of 11 artists and groups, the exhibition showcases a diversity of methods for light to provide a means of expression for the visual arts. The works of pioneers in light art, such as Eino Ruutsalo, Maija Lavonen and Helena Hietanen, contribute a temporal perspective to the whole.

The light in the exhibition is not confined to the museum halls alone, as the works are spread out also in other indoor and outdoor spaces of the Roundhouse. Light artist Jere Suontausta’s Mirror Owl II greets museum visitors directly at the main entrance, and you can immerse yourself in the video installation of the artist group Anna Alanko and Antton Nuotio in the art museum’s café. Artist Janne Parviainen’s light paintings take over the museum’s row of windows, light box signs around the city and the old van that has appeared in the museum’s courtyard.

The exhibition has been curated by Mia Nieminen, Museum Curator at Salo Art Museum. The Finnish Heritage Agency have provided support for the exhibition.

The exhibition will display works from the following artists:

Anna Alanko & Antton Nuotio, Petri Eskelinen, Helena Hietanen, Matti Kalkamo, Maija Lavonen, Pauliina Mäkelä, Janne Parviainen, Taneli Rautiainen, Eino Ruutsalo, Jere Suontausta and Kirsti Taiviola.

www.salontaidemuseo.fi/ajankohtaista/

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Gallery Sidetrack’s autumn exhibition features artworks by designer and visual artist Sauli Suomela that draw inspiration from colours and the characteristics of glass. As visitors move among the works, the atmosphere of the space changes constantly due to the translucency of the surfaces, the blending of colours, and reflections from the surroundings. The Layers / Kerrokset exhibition illustrates the connection between light and materiality in a fascinating way while also acting as a side story to the Visit the Light exhibition on display in the art museum’s main halls.

The starting point for Sauli Suomela’s color-based, primarily abstract expression is the study of materials and spaces. The pieces in the exhibition have been created by casting layers of epoxy resin coloured with pigments onto different types of reflective and transparent plates. The intensity of the colours indicates the number of work phases: the darker the colour, the more layers have been cast. In one of the pieces, titled Ring, the artist has also used 3D printing, and the crystal-like surface of the work has been created using repurposed pieces of broken glass.

The exhibition at the Salo Art Museum is a continuum of Suomela’s transition towards site-specific and installation-based artistic practice. The artworks in the exhibition invite the visitors to observe both themselves and their surroundings with curiosity: the transparency and reflectiveness of the surfaces constantly shape the appearance of the works, and when seen from different angles and directions, the colours of the works are blended and layered in new compositions at every glance.

The exhibition includes four series of works. Except for the work After the Rain (2024), the pieces are new and made specifically for this exhibition.

Sauli Suomela (born in 1969) is a Helsinki-based designer and visual artist working in the intersecting area of fine art painting, glass and installation art, as well as design. Suomela has graduated from the University of Art and Design Helsinki (currently called the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture) with a degree in design in 1998. Suomela has participated in numerous exhibitions both in Finland and abroad, and his works are included in the collections of the Finnish State Art Commission, the Finnish Glass Museum and Helsinki University Hospital (HUS). Suomela is the co-founder and Design Director of Pentagon Design, and he has been awarded many prestigious recognitions in the field of design, such as the title Designer of the year in 2010 (with Arni Aromaa), and the State Prize for Design in 2012.

The Finnish Heritage Agency and the Finnish Arts and Culture Agency have supported the exhibition and the artist’s work.

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Salo Art Museum, Mariankatu 14, FI-24240 Salo, Finland. Tel. +358 2 778 4892. Opening hours: Tue-Fri 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat-Sun 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission: €10/€7. Museum Card accepted. Free admission for visitors under 18.