Blue Mountain Gallery
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Paintings by Merja Parikka
- Additional Information -
Paintings by Merja Parikka
Sponsored by the Finnish Consulate General of New York
July 27 - August 14, 2004
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 29, 5-8 p.m.
Though the neo-figurative paintings of Merja Parikka are closely informed by her study of Dutch and Italian masters, they are paintings about the world we live in now. Parikka combines classical composition and mythological symbolism with thoroughly modern human figures to create paintings about our time, but which recognize the shaping power of history. What is now has been before, her paintings suggest, and the difference primarily is our reaction.
The human figures Parikka creates look out from her paintings, engaging the viewer with the intensity of their gaze. Her paintings and her figures are filled with strong emotions, loss and sorrow and longing. Her compositions are balanced, though, and her figures are at rest. They are paintings about continuing. Her colors are somber colors, browns and dark reds and yellows. Parikka's paintings are carefully observed and richly executed, and, above all, honest.
Though Parikka herself is the model for most of the human figures in her paintings, she does not consider them self-portraits in the traditional sense. "I used myself as a tool for these paintings," she says. "Of course the figures resemble me, in the same way emotions and settings of the paintings are familiar to me and others, but they are not strictly autobiographical."
Parikka studied painting and sculpture at the Institute of Fine Arts of Lahti, Finland, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. Her work has previously been featured in numerous Finnish exhibitions, as well as shows in Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark. This is her second New York exhibition.
Blue Mountain Gallery is located at 530 West 25th Street, NYC, 4th Floor, between 10th and 11th Avenues. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11:00 - 6:00.
For further information: contact the gallery at 646-486-4730; fax: 646-486-4345; and online at: www.artincontext.org/artist/p/merja_parikka/index.htm. Or e-mail the artist at parikkamerja@hotmail.com.
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