MORE THAN LIFE! – Lars Göran Johnsson In the series Collector’s Eye

MORE THAN LIFE!
In the Collector’s Eye Series – Lars Göran Johnsson
12/02 – 30/05 2010
Hall / Lobby

Media brunch: Thursday, 11 February, from 10:00 to 14:00.
Public briefing: Friday, 12 February, at 12:00.
Exhibition opening: Friday, 12 February, at 18:00.

Welcome!

More Than Life! continues the Pori Art Museum’s Collector’s Eye exhibition series by showcasing perspectives on the traditions of Finnish and Scandinavian modernism and contemporary art through the art collection of Dr. Lars Göran Johnsson. The collection is characterized by a strong personal and intellectual approach, not shying away from powerful emotionality.

Collector’s Eye sensitively maps the terrain centered on Nordic structural abstraction and the tradition of color painting. Works by Olle Bærtling and Birger Carlstedt, with their concrete abstractions based on the subtle structuring of the abstract picture plane, and Matti Kujasalo’s constructivist compositions rooted in systematic thinking, are juxtaposed with pieces by Jukka Mäkelä, Georg Gudni, Annette Senneby, and Jon Arne Mogstad, which carry material aesthetic and nature-inspired romantic meanings.

The sculptures of Bård Breivik and Sigurdur Gudmundsson intimately explore the processes between nature and culture, the organic and the crafted. The spectrum of the collection stretches from Magnus von Wright’s masterful genre painting, a classic of Finnish visual art, to Anthony Caro’s poetic sculpture. Josef Albers’ and Victor Vasarely’s optical abstractions represent international classics of contemporary art.

The collection also includes works from the American art scene post-1960s, with artists such as Frank Stella and Helen Frankenthaler, as well as pieces by John Cage, closely tied to the origins of the Fluxus movement.

A fascinating contrast to the collection’s restrained structural and aesthetic tone is brought by the exuberantly grotesque approach of young Finnish male painters, which caught Lars Göran Johnsson’s interest as the 2000s began. Samppa Törmälehto deconstructs the human figure, a theme inherited from 1980s painting, using neo-expressionist strategies. Jukka Korkeila, Janne Räisänen, and Jyrki Riekki fragment the painted surface into countless pieces, creating a tumultuous cavalcade of figurative and non-figurative visual language—a swamp of dissected quotations drawn from popular culture imagery.

Representing the present day are Timo Vaittinen’s heterogeneous paintings, which draw from the image flood of our time, presenting mosaic-like collages of psychedelic colors and references. While Kari Cavén and Vesa-Pekka Rannikko explore the interplay between object, image, support, display space, and mode of presentation—the “playground” within the frames—Juhani Harri’s narrative object assemblages represent a form of doubled, framed collecting.

Further information:
Acting Exhibition Secretary Pia Hovi-Assad