Galerie Anhava

In the restless fantasies of Joel Slotte’s paintings, we see complex underdogs, bruised thinkers and weary revellers. The features in the (self)portraits are rugged, the gazes inaccessible, yet relatable. Moving effortlessly from lush gardens and shabby bike sheds, to the murkiness of art history, or the gates of a cemetery, Slotte’s rich symbolic scenes are dense with meaning – the medieval armors, plant mythology, squirming tattoos and jagged death metal logos serve as markers to the characters’ mindscapes. Moving from large canvases to smaller, coloured pencil drawings, Slotte’s palette becomes even more acidic, details more staggering, and the figures more fantastical.

Joel Slotte (b. 1987, Kokkola) lives and works in Helsinki. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2016. In 2021, Slotte was elected the Young Artist of the Year. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions, most recently at HAM Helsinki Art Museum (2024); Turku Art Museum (2024), Finlandsinstitutets galleri, Stockholm (2023); and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (2022). In addition to private collections in Finland, Sweden and Denmark, Slotte’s works have been acquired by major public collections, including the art museums of Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and Kuopio, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and the Pro Artibus Foundation.

Slotte’s first solo exhibition at Galerie Anhava took place in August 2024.
Learn more about the artist and find Slotte’s available works via our Artist page.

For his work Forest Square III (2013) Laitinen removed a 10 x 10 meter piece of forest and sorted it into it’s different materials: soil, moss, wood, pines, etc. He then rebuilt this piece of forest and arranged the different materials by colour.

The exhibition runs until 12 January 2025.

Image: Antti Laitinen, Forest Square III, 2013, C-print

“Mari’s introspection of the body is both intimate and spiritual, and through interpretation, it transforms into symmetrical patterns of emotional fluctuations, distorted human forms, and ambiguous totems of symbolism and iconography. Every detail and fragment of her shifts between the structures of reason and sensibility are mirrored on the canvas. The efforts of her search, mixed with low-frequency screams and howls, give the imagery an eerie aspect. The colors, imbued with a cult-like quality, exude a subtle unease even in their brightness, while the fluid forms shifting between chaos and clarity impart a complex psychological intensity to her work.” –Junyao Chen, Curator

The exhibition runs until 8 December 2024.

Image: Mari Sunna, Untitled, 2024, oil on canvas, 111 x 81 cm. Photo: Courtesy of CLC