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Katja Tukiainen
March, 2011
Katja Tukiainen states it simply: “I want to offer something sweet – and then make people think. Once the audience is willing, then one can talk seriously.” Tukiainen’s art blends innocence and seduction seamlessly – and quite conspiratorially. What lurks beneath is anything but simple, clear, or pretty in pink.
While most of Tukiainen’s audiences first became acquainted with her playful naughty visions via her popular comic narratives, she’s quick to point out that she’s also been a serious painter since the beginning of her career.
Currently Tukiainen works primarily in a mode she refers to as painting installation. She’s been building her site-specific series’ titled Paradise a - z in art museums and galleries throughout Finland and beyond. In the first of the series’ installments, Paradis a (America vs. l’objet petit a) at the 2010 Mänttä Art Festival 2010, she painted the 12 meter high Mademoiselle Good Heavens, directly onto the wall of the exhibition space – complete with two pink milk waterfalls. Tukiainen has chosen the theme of paradise because, as she puts it “Paradise is something that people visit in their most peaceful dreams – and it’s also an idea that can trigger world war.”
As one of Finland’s rising art stars, Tukiainen’s 11th painting installation in her Paradis a – z series will open in March 2012 at Kiasma, Finland’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
Tukiainen’s Deer Forest series makes its fully formed world premier at hasan&partners. It tells the story of a group of little girls who love to wander in a beautiful pink forest that is also inhabited by shy little deer. Clearly, everything is oh-so simple…