Jani Leinonen’s McJesus is included in the exhibition Línies Vermelles – Censorship in the Tatxo Benet Collection at La Panera Art Center in Lleida, Catalonia.
The exhibition brings together a selection of pieces from the Tatxo Benet Censored collection that all have, at some point, been banned for political, religious, or moral reasons. The show aims not only to influence the visualization of the atrocities that, for various reasons, have been hidden in different parts of the world, yet to visualize, as a challenge, the censorship itself as an atrocity. More than a ghost from the old totalitarian regimes or the remote Holy Inquisition, the complexity that censorship presents in contemporary societies makes it necessary to refine our understanding of its multitude of faces.
A good part of the works that can be seen in La Panera has been censored for religious reasons, including Jani Leinonen’s McJesus, which was removed from the Haifa Museum in Israel last year as a result of violent protests by the Christian community.
The exhibition is on display from September 26, 2020 -January 10, 2021.
Zetterberg Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in the first edition of Intersect Aspen, an online art fair replacing Art Aspen, which will be live from July 22-26, 2020.
The gallery will present a selection of works by Jani Leinonen, Aurora Reinhard, Riikka Hyvönen, Mari Keto and Joonas Kota.
The online viewing rooms open to VIPs Wednesday, July 22, at 11 am (EST), and to the public Wednesday, July 22 at 1:59 pm (EST). Intersect Aspen will be accessible at www.art-aspen.com.
Aurora Reinhard’s body of work “Broken”, consisting of nine artworks, has been acquired by the Niemistö Foundation. The artworks were originally displayed as a whole at Amos Rex in Helsinki, as part of the Ars Fennica 2019 prize exhibition, where Reinhard was one of the five nominees. The new permanent home for the artworks will be at the Hämeenlinna Art museum.
The Henna and Pertti Niemistö Art Foundation was established in 1990 to promote the arts by opening up new channels for Finnish visual art internationally. Today, the Foundation awards Finland’s most significant visual-art prize (the Ars Fennica prize) to an artist in recognition of individual artistic work of outstanding quality.
An award committee appointed by the Foundation nominates the candidates and the winner is chosen by an international art expert. The candidate artists have variously been from Finland, the Nordic countries, the Baltic States and the St Petersburg region.
Jani Leinonen is taking part in the exhibition Mythologies – The Beginning and End of Civilizations at ARoS Art Museum in Aarhus, Denmark, opening on April 4th, 2020.
The exhibition attempts to expose the narratives that, through various historical epochs, have sustained society and had a governing influence on communities as well as on war and destruction.
With this exhibition, ARoS seeks to persuade the audience to respond to the mythologies that define and create the framework of the society which we are all part of and contribute to. The fact that myths and narratives are the fabric that still manages to unite us all is one of the principal assertions of the exhibition. By highlighting a number of specific historical points of interest, Mythologies – The Beginning and End of Civilizations will uncover periods where old narratives are discarded and new ones emerge, often via radical ruptures.
The exhibition runs through 4. Apr. 2020 — 18. Oct. 2020
Jani Leinonen’s solo exhibition The Truth will open at Serlachius Museum Gösta in September 2020 with a magical installation implemented using centuries-old stained-glass techniques, giving its visitors a plunge into the long history of propaganda and manipulation – and the colorful present.
True to his style and in the spirit of pop art Leinonen uses trademarks, product packaging or popular imagery and modifies the message by taking a stand on social injustices and the responsibility of supranational companies for their actions. The exhibition is curated by Sampo Linkoneva.
The show will be on display from 19 September 2020–7 March 2021.
Lars Göran Johnsson has collected art for nearly 70 years. His journey of exploration that began with a yearning for beauty has resulted in the creation of one of the foremost private art collections in Finland. The multi-faceted collection reflects its creator’s mobile lifestyle and interest in current affairs. Johnsson donated the collection to Turku Art Museum in 2016, and it has continued to grow since then. Filling the galleries on both floors of the art museum, the exhibition opens up vistas onto international modernism and contemporary art.
The collection includes works by Jiri Geller, Mari Keto and Riikka Hyvönen amongst others.
Aurora Reinhard is included in the exhibition Inspiration – Iconic works presenting contemporary art side by side with classical works at Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. The exhibition is on display from February 20 to May 17, 2020, after which it will continue to Ateneum in Helsinki through June 18 to September 20, 2020.
How have international contemporary artists been inspired by the classics of European art? And why is it these works, in particular, that have become known around the world? Inspiration presents art that draws inspiration from iconic masterpieces, created by today’s most interesting contemporary artists. In the exhibition, the original works are referenced, for example, through replicas, prints, plaster casts, and abundant archive materials.
The chief curators for both exhibitions are the director-general of Nationalmuseum in Sweden, Susanna Pettersson, and the London art historian James Putnam. Co-curators for the Ateneum exhibition will be the museum director Marja Sakari and the chief curator Sointu Fritze.
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.
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.
