Pertti Lohiniva, born 1958, is a painter from Rovaniemi. Before returning to Lapland a few years ago he had spent most of his life elsewhere. Although Lohiniva is, or says he is, an oil painter, he actually combines photographs and various other materials in his works.
Pertti Lohiniva focuses on time. For him, the main issue is not history as such, but the changing force of time – whether things exist for a wink of an eye or a thousand years. Material painting and spontaneous picturesqueness create an essence to time and space. Lohiniva wishes that people can enter his works, so to speak, and move along with the elements at various levels.
Some of his works are totally non-representational; some are combinations of photographs, multimedia, and everything else. The used technique is not an end in itself; its purpose is to enable an outcome. According to Lohiniva, a work has to entail a story that unfolds to each spectator in a unique manner. There is no single truth; the treasure lies in a multitude of truths.
His works also deal with people; men and women. This topic resurfaced during several years of teaching nude model painting. Lohiniva realized then how much a naked human body can tell about life, the contradiction between goals and actual events.
Through his work he addresses our primary need – being close to another person. Nudeness is not an end in itself; it is a prerequisite for learning about the subject without superficial or external meanings