Friday, December 20, 2013

Festive wishes for the end of this year! / Hyvää joulua ja toimeliasta tulevaa vuotta 2014!

drawing by Camille + Paul 11/12/13

Äkkigalleria would like to thank you for your support this year, 
and wishes you culturally rich year in 2014! A special thanks goes out to The Arts Promotion Centre Finland's Regional Office of Central Finland. 
2014 will be an exciting year, starting with a art meets science residency at the end of January, and much more...

Best solstice wishes, 
Anna et Juho

This year's card was made by Äkkigallery 15 residency artists Camille Girard and Paul Brunet.
-------

Äkkigallerian väki kiittää Teitä hyvästä yhteistyöstä
kuluneelta vuodelta ja toivottaa kulttuuririkasta vuotta 2014.
Erityiskiitokset vuodelle 2013Taiteen edistämiskeskuksen Keski-Suomen aluetoimipisteelle.
Vuosi 2014 tulee olemaan mieleenpainuva myös meidän osaltamme.
Laatikkomossa käynnistyy vuoden alussa neljäs kierros valokuvaistuvan
maapallomme kartoittamisessa ja Äkkigalleria tulee vuoden mittaa muun
muassa yhdistämään kansainvälistä taidetta ja suomalaista tiedettä,
sekä esittelemään maailmalla suomalaista nykytaidetta...
Hyvää talvipäivänseisausta,
Anna et Juho
Tämänvuotisen joulukortin ovat toteuttaneet Äkkigalleria viidentoista residenssitaiteilijat Camille Girard ja Paul Brunet.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Äkkigalleria 23 - Climate (ex)Change Images

"Siyakhuluma!" Fela Dlamini

"Beautiful Decay" Khulekani Msweli

 "Dr Pisodi's Pop-up" Dane Armstrong


Still from video "Coming/Going Home" Dane Armstrong

"...or not to wear?"  Celimpilo Dlamini 

"Walk in the Woods" Celimpilo Dlamini

"Trance" Aleta Armstrong



"No Passport!" Bhekani Dlamini

visitors study Aleta Armstrong's "Trance"

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Äkkigalleria 23 is located at Kauppakatu 35

Äkkigalleria 23 will be open:
 
November 30th – December 5th, 2013 open daily from 11am until 6pm.
The opening will be held on Saturday November 30th 2-5pm.

Äkkigalleria 23 is  located at Kauppakatu 35, (Tawast/Hoviraitti commercial centre) Located on the ground floor at the former Tunn1n Kuva location.
Access from inside the commercial centre (accross from the Coffee House cafe at the Sokos Hotel) and/or from the outside corridor next to Halonen.


Everyone is welcome!!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Äkkigalleria 23 - Climate (ex)Change

Äkkigalleria 23 brings the work of 7 Swazi artists to Jyväskylä, Finland at the end of November, 2013.
sculpture by Fela Dlamini



Äkkigalleria presents artists: Sunshine Nxumalo, Khulekani Msweli, Fela Dlamini, Celimpilo Dlamini, Bhekani Dlamini, Dane Armstrong and Aleta Armstrong.



“Climate Change” is a title of this era, a common phrase, and a reality that affects all of us regardless of where we live. In general we take it to mean the melting of the polar ice caps, strong tropical storms and the extinction of certain delicate species. But there are other climate changes equally current and equally important: social and cultural climates being rapidly influenced by social media and the easy transportation; political climates currently changing under the weight of years of power imbalances, religious climates swelling as people strive to find balance in this fast shifting world. The fast pace of the capitalist machinery along with the tremendous flood of constant information make this constant flux ever more apparent.

The exhibition Climate (ex)Change, as an event, is cross-cultural exchange between the artists from Swaziland and the residents of Jyväskylä, Finland. As a platform the exhibition allows the artists to explore and assert their thoughts and opinions on what could be connections, similarities and differences of the two countries in their geography, vegetation, cultures, people and art. Two small countries, two strong cultural identities, that know little to nothing about the other, are given a chance to meet on the common ground of art.

For this exhibition seven Swazi artists have been invited to present new work at the Äkkigalleria in Jyväskylä, Finland for the exhibition Climate (ex)Change. The artists were carefully chosen to represent a divers array of practices in the visual arts. Contemporary expressions of painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, video and sound will be used to express the artists’ thoughts and feelings about the differences between these two polar countries.

To accentuate the differences between Swaziland and Finland (which are geographically situated directly North/South of each other in extremity) the exhibition will take place during a dead-cold, lightless Finnish winter at the same time as the Jacaranda flowers of a hot early summer arrive in a bright Swaziland. Through the work of these seven artists, this exhibition will bring the light and warmth of Swaziland to the cold north. And a longer-term exchange will become possible as the seed of collaboration is planted in the common language of art.

This kind of exchange is essential in eradicating stereotypes, by bringing artists and the public together in art, this exhibition will provide a live experience of another culture without any of the typical branding. Live experiences are key to exposing the humanity we all possess.


Climate (ex)Change will be the 23rd Äkkigalleria exhibition in Jyväskylä Finland. The exhibition will be open to the public for one week at the end of November 2013. The exhibition is free of charge, everyone is welcome.


Äkkigalleria 23 will be open:
 
November 30th – December 5th, 2013 open daily from 11am until 6pm.
The opening will be held on Saturday November 30th 2-5pm.

Äkkigalleria is currently located at Kauppakatu 35, (Tawast/Hoviraitti commercial centre) Located on the ground floor at the former Tunn1n Kuva location.
Access from inside the commercial centre and/or from the outside corridor next to Halonen.


Äkkigalleria is an artist run gallery project and is partially funded by the Arts Council of Central Finland.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Prasiit Sthapin teossarja (KPPA – Äkki22)

Prasiit Sthapitin Jyväskylän residenssissä kuvaaman teossarjan Hidden Places teokset ovat myös myytävänä*.
Teoksia voi tilata kahdessa koossa:
30 x 26 cm = 80e 

70 x 60 cm = 200e
Teokset tulostetaan laadukkaalle Canson Infinity Rag Photographique-paperille Epson Pro 7900-tulostimella.


Lisätietoja ja tilaukset: akkigalleria(at)gmail.com


*This offer is does not include shipping.














Thursday, September 26, 2013




"A PHOTOGRAPHER FROM THE ALLEYS OF KATHMANDU
Photography: Kathmandu is Prasiit Sthapit's muse but what will he find in Jyväskylä?"

Article in today's (26.09.2013) Keskisuomalainen written by Anssi Kaarlo Koskinen, photograph by Juho Jäppinen.
Today is also the opening of the Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual and Prasiit's images of Jyväskylä are already up. The exhibition is on display until October 2nd.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Hidden Places – Prasiit Sthapit

Prastiit Sthapit, Hidden Places, Jyväskylä 2013

This is too beautiful. Disgustingly beautiful. In the haze of this picturesque postcard, blended with cheesy quotes about nature or god- I seek silence. That is my aim. I seek my own world, far from reality, far from dreams I have had. A new place that will exist in this paper and in my mind's eye.

I want to bring you closer with the help of those liars - words. But then again, images lie, light is a liar. Truth is what you make of the lies put together.

I would rather tell you my lies than have you believe in 'reality'.

   –Prasiit Sthapit

Part of Prasiit Sthapit's series Hidden Places will be shown in the Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual opening on Thursday September 26th at 6:30pm.

Prasiit Sthapit is a young Nepali photographer and Hidden Places was made during a three week residency in Jyväskylä, Finland.

The Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual is brought to you by Äkkigalleria, The Centre for Creative Photography and the Valon Kaupunki Jyväskylä event, in association with the Jyväskylä Art Museum, the Jyväskylä Theatre, the Jyväskylä Symphony, the Craft Museum of Finland, the Alvar Aalto Museum and the Museum of Central Finland.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual - Prasiit Sthapit

 photo: Juho Jäppinne

A solo exhibition by guest artist Prasiit Sthapit of Nepal shows photographs made during his 2 week residency in Jyväskylä.
The exhibition will be on display in the cultural announcement light-boxes along Kauppakatu in Kirkkopuisto (in front of the Kirkkopuisto Kioski), from Friday the 27th of September until Wednesday the 2nd of October.




Please join us for the exhibition opening on Thursday September 26th at 6:30pm.

The Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual is brought to you by Äkkigalleria, The Centre for Creative Photography and the Valon Kaupunki Jyväskylä event, in association with the Jyväskylä Art Museum, the Jyväskylä Theatre, the Jyväskylä Symphony, the Craft Museum of Finland, the Alvar Aalto Museum and the Museum of Central Finland.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Young Nepali Photographers

photo: Prasiit Sthapit


Young Nepali Photographers in Jyväskylä!
Äkkigalleria's Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual artist in residency, Prasiit Sthapit, has brought a selection of work by young artists from Nepal, with him to Jyväskylä on August 24th. 

The artists are :
Shikhar Bhattarai
Marina Menuka Lama
NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati
Prakash K.C.
Kishor K Sharma
Nirman Shrestha
Prasiit Sthapit
and the Nepal Picture Library
(an initiative started by photo.circle to archive and restore old family photographs and the stories behind them.)

Never before seen in Jyväskylä, Never before in Finland and most probably also for the very first time in Europe, Äkkigalleria presents:
Äkkigalleria 21, "Young Nepali Photographers". Opening soon in a central location in Jyväskylä for three days at the end of August. As part of this event, Prasiit Sthapit will also give a short artist talk and presentation on the current Nepali photography scene. The events are open to the public and free of charge.

Äkkigalleria 21
Väinönkatu 28, Jyväskylä
open Friday and Saturday 1-7pm and Sunday 1-5pm
The opening will be held on Thursday August 29th from 5-7pm. 

Prasiit Sthapit will give an artist talk on Sunday September 1st at 3pm.

Everyone is welcome, the events are free of charge.

*The Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual residency is organized in collaboration with the Jyväskylä Centre for Creative Photography and the City of Light festival. The work made during this residency will be shown at the end of September as part of the City of Light festival at Kirkkopuisto. 

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Äkki 20, SBK images


A few images taken during the installation yesterday and today just for a taste of what's to come. The opening is Wednesday July 31st from 4-6pm. Everyone is welcome!!

 
 Hélène Baril in front of her SBK mural in process.

 Piece by Matthew Scott Gualco for SBK.

SBK image by Hélène Baril.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Äkkigalleria 20 -SBK My Racing Car is Shell




Äkkigalleria 20 – SBK • My Racing Car is a Shell
August 1st – 4th, 2013
Väinönkatu 36, Jyväskylä

Äkkigalleria’s twentieth exhibition presents SBK, a group exhibition including work by six international artists.
SBK is an experimental, roaming, artistic platform developed by artist Hélène Baril during an artist residency at the Arteles Creative Centre, Finland, in 2011.  Since then SBK has driven through a dozen different countries, achieved numerous feats and collaborated with local artists in several main arts centres around Europe. Having made a full circle, SBK is back in Finland for the final sprint.
SBK is a car, a person and a world where poetry and common sayings come to life mixing with fantasy and adventure. It confuses fiction with reality, rally-cars with art and brings unlikely pairs together. Hélène Baril draws from a diverse array of artistic practices and forms of expression to embody the SBK entity. In this last sprint of 2013 at Äkkigalleria 20, SBK includes the work by 6 artists collected during an intense 6-month tour around Europe. The artists presented in this show are Hélène Baril, Laura Donkers, Alberto Martinez Centerera, Robert Prior Pitt, Matthew Scott Gualco and Lore Smolders.
This exhibition is organized in parallel to the infamous Neste Rally Finland which occurs each year in the city of Jyväskylä. The Neste Car Rally is one of the most prestigious car races of the world carrying with it thousands of rally fans who change the pace and atmosphere of this small city. The coincidence of SBK and the rally happening simultaneously in Jyväskylä brings two separate, isolated worlds so close they might touch. What will happen if they collide? Can two radically separate cultural events coexist in the same space?
Äkkigalleria invites you to discover SBK at the opening of Äkkigalleria 20, at Väinönkatu 36 on July 31st from 4-6pm. The event is free of charge, everyone is welcome.

Äkkigalleria 20
SBK • My Racing Car is a Shell
August 1st – 4th, 2013, from 1-7pm daily (Sunday 1-5pm), free admission
Väinönkatu 36, Jyväskylä

The opening will be held on July 31st, from 4 to 6 pm in the presence of SBK and artists.


Anna Ruth
Director/Curator

Juho Jäppinen
Assistant Director


public facebook page : Äkkigalleria

Äkkigalleria thanks the Art Council of Central Finland, the Jyväskylä Artists Association, the Arteles Creative Centre and the Art Centre Haihatus.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Äkkigalleria 20 – SBK and Crew

Image: SBK

Äkkigalleria 20 will be showing in Jyväskylä during the Neste Rally week from August 1st – 4th, 2013.  The exhibition will be a thematic group exhibition in dialogue with the rally, featuring 6 artists from 6 different countries.

Äkkigalleria 20 – My Racing Car is a Shell
Väinönkatu 36
1.8. – 4.8.2013
Opening Wednesday July 31st 4-6pm.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Katustipendi, Jukka Silokunnas in Äkkigalleria 19

 
Katustipendi installation by Jukka Silokunnas





feet of the Katustipendi installation. 


 
View of the Katustipendi installation. photo: Juho Jäppinen


 Jukka and his pigeons. photo: Juho Jäppinen


Saturday, May 4, 2013

Katustipendi II - Street Grant II

Announcing the second Äkkigalleria Katustipendi street-grant.


Äkkigalleria awards a small grant to a visual artist working in public spaces to create an ephemeral installation or to make an intervention of visual sorts on the streets of Jyväskylä.

This year the grant goes out to Jukka Silokunnas a versatile Jyväskylä artist who is best known for his work in animation and his extensive knowledge on Finnish street art.

The award will be presented in correlation with the Yläkaupungin Yö festival at the Jyväkylä Art Museum on Saturday May 18th at 2:30pm, at the same time as the inaugruation of the projects Taidetta tiellä* and  Laatikkomo**. The event is free of charge, everyone is welcome!

The Street Interventions will be visible starting Saturday 18th, 2013 for as long as they last. Photographs of the work and directions to find them will be given at a later date.

* Taidetta tiellä (art on the streets)  is  a project which uses 12 junction boxes around Jyväskylä as surfaces for presenting the artwork of 12 different artists and a group of young art students. 
 
** Laatikkomo - six degrees of photography, is a very small art gallery and website which focuses on photography world wide. The gallery follows six strains of artists who each choose their sequential photographer. A map and details about the project will be available on the website beginning mid-May 2013.


Technoglasses - Jukka Silokunnas


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Äkki18 Interview with Maria Teeri & Janne Nabb (English version)


a spectator views part of the installation by Janne Nabb and Maria Teeri


Äkkigalleria interview with Maria Teeri and Janne Nabb on Sunday April 7th, 2013.

Welcome to the 6th Äkkigalleria residency in Jyväskylä!


You work in a lot with space and different kinds of space, what kind of space is Jyväskylä?
JN: Straight streets and curved lakeside roads, quite dusty this time of year, and there is a whole lot less snow here than what we expected (there is more in Helsinki).
MT: Many people have stopped to look in the gallery window, to see what is happing in the space, so Jyväskyläläinens seem to be interested in changes along the street.


Äkki: You will be spending the next five days creating a new body of work in a space you just discovered yesterday. Is this an intimidating way to work?
JN: It is!
MT: Yesterday was the day of enthusiasm, and today it’s a bit more distressing.
JN: Last summer we did a similar project at the Mänttä Contemporary Art Exhibition, so this way of working is somewhat familiar.
MT: At Mänttä the material was already there and abundant, but here we have to look for all our material.  So that also brings in a lot new, interesting elements.


Äkki: What do you think of the space? How do you anticipate it will influence the work you make here?
MT: The space is quite dominant.
JN: When we heard that the space was really small, we thought it would be easy to fill, but when we started to create in the space we realized that the size of the space doesn’t really matter, and so small and big spaces each demand a specific kind of approach, and there is pretty much always a lot of work to be done. 
MT: The space is quite slick, and there aren’t any easy, prehensile surfaces. It doesn’t have any distinct attributes such as you can find in industrial halls and old concrete storage spaces.
JN: The windows had gold lettering tape, the walls were champagne, the floor is this kind of grey, so it offers an interesting world of its own. 
MT: The placement is also interesting. We are situated between a pizzeria and a deputy services office, it’s one block away from the downtown pedestrian zone and yet it is still kind of detached from the centre. 
JN: Like the outskirts of the city; the red light district (laugh)… no, not really.


Äkki: How do you usually begin a project? Is what you are doing here different from how you usually work?
MT: It usually begins with something we find..
JN: ..it might be some physical material or a thought.
MT: In this case the space was more our starting point.
MT: normally the duration of our process is a bit more stretched out, sometimes it kind of goes on and on and on changing into something else, progressing as it goes along.
JN: Here we are maybe diluted because we are in what already is, and we are forced to work faster. But it’s like working with a new palette of colours. 


Äkki: You have established yourselves together as a unit. First of all, everyone always wants to know who does what. How do you work out the rules and regulations of the game?
JN: It is quite case specific. Sometimes it starts with a suggestion, so one of us shares an idea and then it starts from there. We can say things out load and someone always answers.
MT: Of course the answer isn’t always nice to hear: it isn’t the answer we want or expected to hear. Maybe about ten percent of the ideas are developed into projects.
JN: We don’t really have any set rules to the game yet, but that is good because this way the process is constantly in motion and changing continuously.
MT: If one of us gives up on a project, the other one can bring in new perspectives, which help the project move forward.


Äkki: Our residency couple from last year, Camille and Paul, talked a lot about how their communal drawings, and their whole process for that matter was a discussion, an on going process of communication with the other and the larger community. Do you communicate together through your work? Is discussion the focus of your work?
MT: Yes it probably is.
JN: For me, material, along with ideas, participate in discussion.
JN: We also try to use material and thoughts to communicate with a third party; who is the spectator.
MT: But part of the discussion isn’t open to the public. The discussion is really important and their needs to be some kind of interaction it is a central and essential part of our work together.


Äkki: Could you produce work alone? Could you have a show just as Janne Nabb or just as Maria Teeri? (Will you?)
JN: We met in 2004, and we began working together in 2008, so we did work for four years independently.
MT: But even right from the start, we always critiqued and commented on what the other was doing.
JN: We were making the same kind of work, we used the same colour, the same themes, and interests. And we started to think if it might be better to just work together.
MT: But now it isn’t really important who made what, and it’s not our way of working anymore, although we still do make our own things too.


Äkki: What and who are your influences? (People, artists, books, music..) And how are they (or are they) portrayed through your work?
MT: We quote other artists a lot; continuously, newly found and inspirational sources are unlimited.
JN: But if we have to say a name, the magic vanishes.
MT: Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger from ARS 2006 were a great inspiration for us in the beginning because they work together.
JN: Vesa-Pekka Rannikko is another interesting creator, whose work has influenced us along the way.
JN: There are element of influence from a surprising amount of artists, whose work we still hold on to for years and years.
MT: Last summer at Mänttä we discovered a great many artists and artwork. And the exhibition’s idea was wonderful in that respect because it really was inspirational in creating something new. And then there was dOKUMENTA 13 of course…


Äkki: The last phrase in your artist statement is: Working with found material often leads to unconventionalities and barbaric misreading. Can you expand on that statement? Could you give an example of a “barbaric misreading”?
JN: This was something one of our art teachers’ interpretations of our workspace and our way of working.
MT: If you use re-cycled materials, then multiple interpretations and “misunderstanding” are part of the process.
JN: Well fundamentally, we are painters, and painters don’t always have to justify each and every brushstroke they make. But because we work with re-cycled material, and all material has its own history, the viewer might make their own interpretations based on that history. But we are really using the material like paint.
MT: Maybe this is where the idea of barbaric misreading came from.


Äkki: I noticed that branches and sticks are a returning element in your work. Is this by accident or do they represent something more? What role do they play in your work?
JN: You are right, they do. I think they often function in the role of something that holds things up, used as a support for hanging things…
MT: As a rack/stand.
JN: The form of a branch is nice to hold on to when, for example, we are walking through Jyväskylä from our apartment to the gallery. It is a material counterpart…
MT: ... to all the plastic we use.
JN: To balance the fengshui.  But branches are easy to pick up and take along with you.
MT: I also pick them up along the way.
JN: Maybe it is a natural way of connecting with our primitive ancestry.


Äkki: A Finnish language professor just wrote an article in the Helsinki Sanomat newspaper about how we learn language the wrong way; we stress language classes at the wrong age (too late) we are only taught “important” languages such as English, and that instead, there should be more stress on multiple and divers languages at a younger age and in a more social and interactive context. What is your relationship to language?
JN: My father is a Swedish-Finn, but we never spoke Swedish at home. However, I got a lot of information through concrete, hands-on learning: fixing, customising bicycles and other things.  And I learned English through doing.
MT: I have always been more of a literary person. Mathematics and things in systematic order are natural for me. This might have come from my family’s background in classical music. I am not really an “innovator” I like to create things systematically. So, these are different kinds of languages, which offer different ways of observing the world.  


Äkki: What is your earliest memory of colour?
JN: Oh no. It probably would be the turquoise coloured fountain in yard of my childhood home. I dove in and the colour changed as the water turn red. I don’t remember that change of colour, but I remember the turquoise.
MT: I have a lot of colour memories. Maybe one colour memory would be of when I was made to lie in bed for a nap, but I didn’t want to. I remember pressing down on my eyelids and rubbing them; all the colours that appeared in a different and interesting colour-world.


Äkki: And what about your earliest memory of art?
MT: For me it is probably related to music, because my parents were both musicians. But I probably first discovered visual art through illustrations in books.
JN: My father built a lot of things; he made me a Jeep that was powered with a lawn-mower motor, and then there was a raft that we sailed over the river. These represented a feeling of freedom and an experience of something that I now want to do with my art. Something all encompassing.


Äkki: And now some one word/short answers:

Äkki: Colour
MT: Spectrum
JN: Tool

Äkki: Process
MT: Periphery
JN: Procedure

Äkki: Explanation
JN: Around…
MT: …the corner

Äkki: Object
MT: Partner
JN: Quasi-object

Äkki: Material
MT: Paint
JN: Tangible

Äkki: Time
JN: Slowed
MT: Cyclic

Äkki: Word
MT: Game
JN: Re-discovery

Äkki: Sound
JN: Metallic
MT: Black bird

Thank you Janne & Maria!