Roihupelto – Pompeii -between two worlds.
Meet the Artist – Tuesday, December 20th, 15-18.30 p.m.
In the series of paintings Roihupelto – Pompeii we see as protagonists Roihupelto, an industrial area from the 1970´s in the eastern Helsinki, and the ruins of the ancient city Pompeii at the foot of the Vesuvius volcano, in Italy. These places have in common more than one might expect.
The paintings have been painted during the past six years. In these depictions two places, Roihupelto and Pompeii, meet each other.
We look at the places from the future, through the feeling of loss, as if we already knew their decay. The change and distruction has already taken place and we have to adapt to it.
Painting techniques are oil and tempera paint on linen canvas.
Upcoming book Roihupelto – Pompeii -between two worlds, PARVS, spring 2023.
In the book D.Sc. (Architecture) and MFA Anu Kaisa Koponen describes the connection between the RP-paintings and their places and art historian Synnöve Malmström interviews the artist about the processes of the artistic work.
Merja Salonen Di Giorgio graduated as Master of Fine Arts at University of arts, UIAH, in 1999 and as visual artist in Imatra School of Art in 1997. Painting was her main subject in both institutions. Her first collective exbibition was the 48th Young Artists´ exhibition at Helsinki Art Hall in 1995. She has had private exhibitions in Finland and abroad, in Helsinki nine of them.
Merja Salonen Di Giorgio is known for her broad spectrum of expression that goes from oil on canvas to mixed media on paper, public art, spatial art. She chooses colour as such for subject as well as traces of life in the cultural environment. Since 1998 you can see the influence of the Italian culture in her body of work.
MSDG has been active in artists´associations and she has an ordinary membership in the Finnish Painters´ Union. Other memberships include Helsinki association for artists, and Art Block / Taidekortteli ry that she founded in 2015 with some of her collegues.
Salonen Di Giorgio´s work is in collections of the City of Helsinki, Aalto University, Tampere Maja Foundation, Lahti museum of Art and numerous private collections.
Upcoming: Roihupelto Pompeii -between two worlds -book, PARVS, 2023 and a private exhibitions of paintings in Galleria G12, Helsinki, 2023/5 to celebrate her 50th birthday.
The artist is most grateful for the funding:
Sigurd Frosterus Stiftelse
Taike
Artist Register Finland / Merja Salonen Di Giorgio
Painting by Merja Salonen Di Giorgio, Roihupelto – Pompeji #12,
oil on canvas, 114 x 114cm, 2019, photo by Matti Kilponen