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ART CENTER AHJO, SYSI -HALL: KATJA ÖHRNBERG

KATJA ÖHRNBERG
DIRECTION OF THE LIGHT
23.10.-10.11.2024, SYSI -HALL

Öhrnberg's exhibition consists of large-scale volume paintings, where the sense of light, movement and spatiality is created with colors and their combined effect. Galleria Ahjo's high space enables these more than three-meter paintings to be exhibited. Large multi-paned windows are an important spatial element of the Sysi hall. The paintings partially show the same rhythmicity as in the checkering of the windows. The shape of the abstract acrylic paintings is narrow and tall, like windows, and thus they take over the height of the space. "I like making large-scale and serial works, where space becomes one of the central elements of the artwork. Strong colors and their expressiveness are characteristic of my paintings."

The paintings can be seen not only as a play between colors, but also between light and dark. In a way, they are also a competition for eye direction and attention. Light guides vision, the direction of light and gaze are in constant motion.

Öhrnberg's aesthetics have ties to German Expressionism; spontaneous brushstrokes, paint stains and castings, on the other hand also to the strict Russian avant-garde. When working in the power of emotion, he is surrounded by an atmosphere of wide horizons. Irregular brushstrokes combine with polyphonic and sensitive colors of wasteful colors, creating a controlled whole. The right color ratio can be found by making changes in the work process for days. The mixing of colors with repeating shapes turns the entire surface of the work into one dramatic and powerful composition, which takes the eye meandering backwards and forwards. The subconsciously impulsive and rejecting deep control painting style is artistic honesty for her. Internally charged sensuous rhythms become the starting point of the artwork.

BACKGROUND:
Öhrnberg has been committed to her art and developed it for thirty years after graduating from art school. There have been exhibitions both in Finland and abroad (22 solo exhibitions and 99 group exhibitions), and she has also organized group exhibitions. The most recent foreign exhibitions have been in the United Arab Emirates and Ben (2022), Germany and Estonia (2021). She has always wanted to emphasize the independence of her artistic vision and, when working, to create new perspectives and attract the viewer to the visual world, whether she was working with painting, sculpture or community art. Öhrnberg has made both wooden and metal public sculptures and communal works. Her paintings are in private collections, e.g. In the state collection.

Welcome to the press conference on Monday 21 October at 2 pm. (or at another agreed time between Mon 21.10. and Wed 23.10)
and for the opening on Tuesday 22.10. from 18:00 to 20:00