Lachenmann Art presents the latest works by Finnish painter Jukka Rusanen: The solo exhibition will showcase the results of his three-month artist residency in Konstanz. The artist's works are part of all of Finland's top museum collections, including the Finnish State Art Collection, the Helsinki Art Museum and the Contemporary Art Museum KIASMA. Since the gallery was founded, Jukka Rusanen has been represented by Lachenmann Art in close cooperation throughout Germany and Switzerland. His intense and at the same time extremely fragile and filigree work is an expression of a connection between aesthetics and conception that is unparalleled in contemporary painting. The often large-format canvas works are captivating due to the mostly pasty application of intense oil paints on a flat background. On display are highly abstracted quotes from the most important art historical past, fragments that are deconstructed and alienated by Jukka Rusanen in a uniquely sensitive, almost poetic way. All that remains of the model of the holy martyr Sebastian, tied to a tree and pierced by arrows, is a dynamic gesture of suffering. Although Jukka Rusanen's works go far beyond the boundaries of figuration, the movement of his body is still clearly perceptible, frozen in a single gesture of color.
Blood-red streaks that meet pastel pink tones, shiny black accompanied by bright magenta: Jukka Rusanen's works are grand gestures of color. His intense and at the same time delicate work is an expression of a connection between aesthetics and conception. The artist presents us with highly abstracted quotes from important paintings in art history. Jukka Rusanen isolates and deconstructs the silent glances, the grand gestures and the dynamic bodies and translates these resulting fragments sensitively and poetically into his own visual language.
It was the end of January 2018 when Jukka Rusanen arrived in Konstanz from Finland. He wanted to spend three months in Germany as an 'artist in residence'. Many artists leave their place of residence or their culture to find inspiration in another part of the world. This is how the artist found his way from Lahti in Finland to Konstanz in southern Germany. The light is different, says Jukka Rusanen, as are the people, and especially the buttermilk and cottage cheese. The Finns, on the other hand, approach some things with more calm and composure. The time in Konstanz was an incomparable experience for him. He was able to look at his work from a new perspective. It is his special perspective on familiar subjects that is fascinating about Jukka Rusanen's work. The painting ›Martyr‹, for example, is inspired by Mattia Preti's ›San Sebastiano‹ from 1660. The work of the Italian fresco painter shows Saint Sebastian, an arch-martyr and a central saint figure in Christianity, who was sentenced to death by Diocletian and pierced by arrows by archers. Saint Sebastian became a popular motif in art history. The depiction of the youth tied to a tree with arrows stuck in his body has been handed down since the 5th century. Well-known examples can be found in Antonello da Messina and Perugino, among others. Jukka Rusanen's ›Martyr‹ quotes Mattia Preti's baroque model by isolating and dynamizing the physical gesture. The impasto style and the colors underline the emotional intensity of the expression.
