Author: admin_gallery

Jani Leinonen’s new stained glass paintings have found a worthy new home at the Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich, Switzerland.

The installation named “Chapel of Remorse” was originally installed in a 500-year-old barn in the small village of Madulain, in the valley of Engadin, Switzerland, where the glass panels were cut to fit perfectly in the centuries-old window frames.

The glass panels of the Chapel of Remorse are painted with old stained glass technique at Mayer’sche Hofkunstanstalt in Münich.

What is now installed on the Grand Dolder’s wall is not only the stained glass artworks​ but also the centuries-old chapel-like architectural composition and shapes of the windows of a medieval Swiss barn.

Given the stained-glass technique’s association with religion, Leinonen’s work does convey a sense of divinity. But the work feels no more like a house of God than it does a place of worship to the light, nature or humanity – in all their colorful​ forms – in good and bad.

The Ars Fennica 2019 exhibition, presenting works by the five candidates for Finland’s most notable visual art award, is now open at the Amos Rex museum. The nominees are Petri Ala-Maunus (FI), Miriam Bäckström(SE), Ragnar Kjartansson (IS), Egill Sæbjörnsson (IS) and Aurora Reinhard (FI).
The Ars Fennica 2019 Award, is granted by the Henna and Pertti Niemistö Art Foundation to a visual artist in recognition of distinctive artistic work of high merit and includes a monetary prize of 40,000 euros.
The winner of the 2019 award will be announced on August 21st by Roland Wetzel, Director of Tinguely Museum in Basel, Switzerland.

The exhibition is open from June 19–September 9, 2019.

Read more about the award and the exhibition at: https://arsfennica.fi/en/

Jani Leinonen is included in the new collection display at the Art Museum Gösta Manor presenting classics owned by the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, of the Golden Age of Finnish and old European art as well as more recent acquisitions.

The summer 2019 hanging includes, among other works, Albert Edelfelt’s much-loved Finnish Soldiers in War of 1808–09 and a number of Helene Schjerfbeck paintings. The exhibition is curated by Veikko Halmetoja.

Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation’s collection includes Finnish art classics and old European paintings and is is one of the grandest private art collections in Scandinavia.

Read more about the exhibition at: www.serlachius.fi

Finnish artist Jani Leinonen received unexpected worldwide attention earlier this year as his sculpture, depicting a crucified McDonald sparked violent protests outside the Haifa Museum of Art in Israel on January 14th.

The sculpture, called “McJesus,” was included in an exhibition called Sacred Goods, that was meant to be a critique of society’s capitalistic culture. The sculpture had been up already since August 2018 and shown in other countries without any incidents. Violent clashes broke out between Christian protesters and the police, after a molotov cocktail was thrown at the museum and the protesters tried to storm their way in to remove the work.

The Sacred Goods exhibition, which focuses on contemporary artists’ responses to issues of religion and faith in consumer society, also featured other provocative works depicting Jesus and the Virgin Mary as Ken and Barbie dolls. 

The Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev demanded censorship of the sculpture and threatened to cut state funds for the museum, however the Israel’s justice ministry argued she has no such authority.  

The museum told the Times of Israel that it condemned the violence that broke out in protest of the sculpture. 

“A discourse about art, however complex it may be, must not spill over into violent territory and must be respected — even in charged situations,” the museum’s director Nissim Tal said. 

Eventually, the Haifa Museum was forced to remove the sculpture before the end of the exhibition, whereas no other works considered provocative were removed. 

Several global news channels covered the story including The Washington Post, New York Post, Reuters, RT, The Guardian, Artnet News, Independent UK, NPR News, Haaretz, amongst others. 

Jani Leinonen’s beggar sign installation Anything Helps is included in the exhibition Far From Home – the last exhibition in a trilogy based on the ARoS museum’s collection.

The trilogy is intended to present alternative ideas as to how a museum can showcase and talk about relevant themes from our times through text, format, orchestration, and juxtaposition of works. The first exhibition, Out of the Darkness, 2014, thematised the structure and power of the great narratives, addressing the global challenges facing humanity. The second exhibition, No Man is an Island – The Satanic Verses, 2016, used the forceful political, economic, and cultural changes which Europe underwent at the time as a backdrop. Whereas the first exhibition was structured around a global perspective, the next had a specific geographical focus. Far From Home moves in with you – to the core of people’s mental sphere. From the global world to the individual’s experience of feeling at home in this world.

The closing date for Far From Home has not yet been decided.

The exhibition is inspired from an idea by Erlend G. Høyersten and is curated in collaboration with Erik Nørager Pedersen and Jakob Vengberg Sevel, both curators at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum

Read more about the exhibition at: www.aros.dk