Attn: Tim Bannon, Editor
PRESS RELEASE

LOCAL ARTIST SUVI KONTTINEN RECEIVES SPECIAL RECOGNITION

Artist SUVI KONTTINEN of CHICAGO, IL has received two Special Recognition Merit Awards for the artworks entitled “All Your Life You Tried” and “Locate” in the “8th Annual Collage & Mixed Media Art International Online Juried Exhibiton” hosted by Upstream People Gallery at www.upstreampeoplegallery.com.

This international exhibition received approximately 200 entries from around the world and 42 artists were selected by the juror Larry Bradshaw, Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Professor Bradshaw states this about these specially recognized works:

“Suvi Konttinen of Chicago, Illinois dramatically and expressively captures attention in her rather large works, especially in “All Your Life You Tried” with an inquisitive tone asking if anyone cares now. In “Locate” there’s a sense of looking for or seeking out answers. This message is magnified by the 67” width of the piece.”

The exhibition will be on display online at www.upstreampeoplegallery.com for 12 months through May 31, 2007

Further comments about the artist’s work in the artist's own words are as follows:

“About my art - ”Locate” and ”All your life you tried”

This piece started my current series of paintings, which consist of collaged materials and multiple layers. These pieces are more narrative in nature and text plays also a compositional part in the whole. The stenciled letters allow me to leave the picture more abstract, as they bring a more structured element to the painting.

I love to work with big scale, which also enhances the subject - the enlarged cropped eyes. I don’t like to explain my paintings too much, as I want to let the viewers experience their own thoughts while looking at them. All the different interpretations are correct and as valid as mine.

It is hard to explain exactly where an idea comes from, as they are a part of you. In “Locate” you might see some relation to the fact that I’m a foreigner living in the U.S. trying to find my place in this society. Everything is new - where to shop, how to act and especially what to do as an artist. The stenciled arrows, which I carved, lead the view restlessly up and down, as the view is not in focus. Still the person looks concentrated, determined, strong and ready to face the new challenges.

The figures in my paintings are not anyone specific, they are not portraits. In this case I asked my husband to pose for a photograph for this painting. He has wonderful strong features, so I use him a lot as a model. The pictures do not often look like him as that is only the starting point. I often use pictures of myself, too.

I work very intuitively and react to the marks I make. Painting “All your life you tried” made me think about a sad and frustrated feeling. I’m sure the text I use tells you some things about me too, but it is often not direct. Sometimes the picture is an individual story in itself, sometimes I comment directly on some things going on in the society. My newest piece asks “Does this not affect you??” and it has collaged newspaper clippings of crime and terrible things happening around us. There is a weird combination of a beautiful picture and the terrible news, once you take a closer look.

I combine big bold brush strokes with finer lines. I also love the texture of raw canvas and use it as a color field pasted on top of the white canvas. The canvas has some elements in it, like measurements and lining, which bring some surprises to the composition structure.”
 
Further information about these images may be downloaded at :

http://tinyurl.com/raald

Larry Bradshaw
Curator, Professor of Art
Upstream People Gallery
USA