{"id":2981,"date":"2023-02-08T13:51:08","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T11:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.espoonkuvataiteilijat.fi\/?post_type=nayttelyt&p=2981"},"modified":"2023-02-15T15:22:26","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T13:22:26","slug":"heikki-portaankorva-and-william-dennisuk","status":"publish","type":"nayttelyt","link":"https:\/\/www.espoonkuvataiteilijat.fi\/en\/nayttelyt\/heikki-portaankorva-and-william-dennisuk\/","title":{"rendered":"Heikki Portaankorva and William Dennisuk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Welcome to the opening ceremony 7.3. from 5 to 7 p.m. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Still Life Reconsidered Drawings and paintings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The theme and underlying impulse for this exhibition, Still Life Reconsidered, <\/em>has evolved over several years. During this time, Heikki Portaankorva and William Dennisuk, have had an on-going dialogue on the relevance of historical art forms \u2013 such as the still life and other traditional genres \u2013 and their ability, if any, to facilitate conversations regarding our wider cultural milieu or zeitgeist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Dennisuk and Portaankorva believe yes, it is possible \u2013 or, at the very least, they can attempt to reassess and possibly revitalize these forms so they can deal with a broader range of contemporary issues, while at the same time, allowing for their dialogue to encompass historical references, formal concerns, and personal whim. From this point of view, they perceive their inquiry as part of an ever-expanding continuum and not as a rupture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One can say their approach to the question, does the still life still have life, is not merely rhetorical, rather, their work attempts to address these questions through direct engagement, taking on palpable form in their distinctly dissimilar approaches to the seemingly humble subject of the still life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
William Dennisuk<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
William Dennisuk, an American born artist, and long-time permanent resident of Finland, whose diverse body of work encompasses the worlds of drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and contextual art in public spaces. In the work for this exhibition, he has focused primarily on a series of charcoal drawings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The underlying theme of these drawings examines the pervasive sense of disquiet that seems to characterize our present-day culture. The series also touches on the contemporary degradation of the natural world, suggesting a social order that is slipping out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a more formal level, the works are informed by and often make subtle references to the rich history of drawing, from Indian and Persia ink drawings to the Baroque drawings of Piazzetta and Tiepolo; from 19th<\/sup> century French artists such as Ingres, Daumier, Degas, Seurat and Toulouse-Lautrec, to German, American, British, and African artists of the 20th<\/sup> and 21st<\/sup> centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The subject of the still life draws from equally diverse sources ranging from the golden age of Dutch flower paintings with their metaphors and underlying moral imperative to Chardin\u2019s non-didactic interrogations of material and stillness; from Cot\u00e1n to Fantin-Latour; from Cezanne to Morandi; from George Braque to Philip Guston and Richard Diebenkorn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The employment of the triptych format also has its historical pedigree, alluding to a whole range of Christian art over the centuries. In the 20th<\/sup> century artists such as Max Beckmann and Francis Bacon expanded the triptych\u2019s narrative content to include the personal and political dimensions, often depicting a sense of spiritual crisis with the artist struggling within a tumultuous world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The various references nevertheless remain hidden, only alluding to a sensibility or kinship with a certain kind of artistic temperament. In other words, the intention of the drawings is not facile quoting or appropriation, rather, a deeper sense of how other artists attempted to convey meaningful thoughts and feelings \u2013 through latent and potent imagery \u2013 for the time in which they live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Heikki](\"https:\/\/www.espoonkuvataiteilijat.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Portaankorva_Guarding_2017_85x100-1024x879.jpg\")
![\"drawing](\"https:\/\/www.espoonkuvataiteilijat.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Dennisuk_Venetian-Blinds-692x1024.jpg\")
![\"Heikki](\"https:\/\/www.espoonkuvataiteilijat.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Portaankorva_IvoryTower_2022_120x-100-840x1024.jpg\")
![\"still](\"https:\/\/www.espoonkuvataiteilijat.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Dennisuk_Proscenium-708x1024.jpg\")