ART CENTER AHJO, JOENSUU PARAFEST; MAIMA TANI AND VALTTERI KLEEMOLA

JOENSUUN PARAFEST - MAIMA TANI JA VALTTERI KLEEMOLA 30.7.-17.8.2025

Art Exhibition Opening and Maima Tani’s performance 29.7.2025 klo:18

MAIMA TANI

Maima (Maria) Tani is an artist living and working in Helsinki. She works from her home studio, shares a workspace with her visual artist sister, and is also involved in the Autism Foundation's Vallila art studio. Tani's works have been exhibited in several significant exhibitions, including the Mänttä Art Festival, the Kehä Festival in Oulu, the Heralbony Art Prize exhibition in Tokyo, and the Art Brut Biennale in Hengelo.

Tani was selected as the 2025 Kettuki Artist of the Year, and after the Joensuu Parafest exhibition, she will head to the Outsider Art Festival in Helsinki with her works.

Tani is a trained artisan in goldsmithing and has studied visual arts in various institutions. Her art is meticulous, imaginative, and springs from her inner world. She uses materials such as pigment pens and creates unique crocheted works. Common themes in her pieces include mushrooms, imaginary creatures, and marine life.

In her free time, Maria enjoys photographing mushrooms and lives with a cat named Mörkö.

VALTTERI KLEEMOLA

Valtteri Kleemola (b. 1989) is an artist who creates self-portraits using the tools and aesthetics of social media. Kleemola’s first images appeared suddenly and unprompted in 2018. Since then, he has created thousands of works and concepts, with no end in sight.

Kleemola makes his images using his phone’s photo app, combining his self-portraits with the endless visual stream of social media. In his works, he plays with celebrity identities, blurs gender roles, and places himself in the middle of pop culture events. His images, which speak of dreams and desires, subtly challenge and question photographic traditions and poses. Through his work, Kleemola shakes up the idealized images of appearance and success in today’s society.

Kleemola works at Lyhty ry’s short-term home and general workshop in Helsinki. He has participated in Lyhty’s photography workshop, which has been running since 2001 as a voluntary community art project led by photographer Pekka Elomaa.