Juha-Pekka Inkinen
Basic information
b. 1955, Helsinki
Photographer
Residence: Helsinki
Contact information
Email: jpinkinen@gmail.com
Artist’s Statement
Many people know me from exhibitions depicting abandoned houses: Morality and Architecture 1, 2, and 3. I have also published a book titled Morality and Architecture. The series Construct likewise dealt with unfinished spaces. In the book How Things Are – Interior Design Dissidents, the focus is on visually dense homes.
My most recent exhibitions include constructed images.
I have made seven books.
Behind everything, one can find a space that allows a glimpse behind structures of power.
The central themes in my work are time and the state of society, around which all my work revolves in one way or another. Still, I don’t mind if the viewer does not grasp the ideas behind my images, but simply enjoys the beauty of the work. The foremost layer must be dramaturgically credible and aesthetically coherent. Then the beauty of the image penetrates the viewer’s defenses.
My most recent exhibitions include constructed images.
I have made seven books.
Behind everything, one can find a space that allows a glimpse behind structures of power.
The central themes in my work are time and the state of society, around which all my work revolves in one way or another. Still, I don’t mind if the viewer does not grasp the ideas behind my images, but simply enjoys the beauty of the work. The foremost layer must be dramaturgically credible and aesthetically coherent. Then the beauty of the image penetrates the viewer’s defenses.
Current information
Unusual Phenomena Gallery A2 2025, HelsinkiMy Time, Gallery Ronga 2026 Tampere
My Time, Gallery Ahjo 2026 Joensuu
Inkinen’s works capture the moods and anxieties born of uncertain times. The Unusual Phenomena series presents carefully constructed images where past and present collide. Instead of predicting the future, Inkinen looks backwards: he imagines what might have been, drawing on the visual language of history. In this, his process resonates with generative AI — conservative in structure, even nostalgic — yet his images are intentionally dissonant, laced with wit.
At first glance, the works recall vintage posters, but their themes are urgently contemporary: environmental crisis, militarism, shifting values. Art Nouveau–inspired ornamentation adds an uncanny layer that both attracts and unsettles. The convincing poster-like style is deliberate — the more persuasive the image appears, the more effectively it destabilizes the viewer’s assumptions.
The collages are composed from source material gathered at flea markets and museum archives. Their fragments, 70 to 130 years old, are reassembled into new wholes where sharp-edged nostalgia intersects with the present, and where beauty, strangeness, and critical reflection coexist.
Inkjet prints 42x60cm and 30x42cm
