MARA CASTILHO: TRAPPED SOULS
VILLE LÖPPÖNEN: MORTIFICATION
7.11.–7.12.2008
Kalhama & Piippo has the great pleasure to open simultaneously two solo exhibitions by Mara Castilho (b.1972) and Ville Löppönen (b.1980). The two artists work with different media but are linked by the strong subject matter and personal approach.
On the occasion of the opening an artist book presenting Ville Löppönen will be published. The book is the second publication in the Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary publication series.
In his paintings Ville Löppönen processes his own thoughts and deep self but the motif is to awake and challenge the viewer. In his works he depicts superheroes, either in a character of a body-builder or a spiritual figure as Christ. The artist studies the possibility to combine western values with the spirituality of oneself. Löppönen’s photorealistic and skillful figurative painting has its roots in cartoons and popular imagery but also in the tradition of painting, which the artist translates into his own world.
British photographic, video- and performance artist Mara Castilho examines questions about the complexity and duality of the human condition, social exclusion, loneliness, femininity, suffering and loss. The artist describes her art in the following way: ”In my work I reflect the questions that I have to our society. I frequently refer to the body, its vulnerability and on the other hand, its resistance. My work is full of opposites, like beauty and horror, life and death, desire and disgust.”
In her work Castliho creates atmospheres of the afterlife. She incorporates the strange, beautiful and sentimental to a symbolic emptiness. Curator Michael Petry has in his text (2005) compared Castilho’s brutal and beautiful aesthetic to the art of Yves Klein and characterises Castilho’s art in the following manner: “The films are full of light and dark areas and rich monochromes jump out from the dark, with soundtracks that accentuate the action. The works do not free the specters nor spare the spectators. They are harsh, they are beautiful, they do speak of death, and we have to be strong enough to watch”.
Ville Löppönen is from Savonlinna, where he attended the senior secondary school of art. Currently he lives and works in Helsinki. In the year 2007 Löppönen graduated from the Department of Painting in the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts.
Mara Castilho is a multicultural artist living and working in London. Castilho has studied fine arts, dance and drama in London and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Castilho’s videos and performances have been shown all over Europe. Her performance “Love Me, Love Me Not” was seen in Helsinki at the Kalhama & Piippo gallery’s Grand Opening in January 2008.
Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary