Kaija Mäenpää
Basic information
b. 1960, Helsinki
Visual Artist, Painter
Residence: Helsinki
Contact information
Email: kaija.maenpaa(at)gmail.com
Artist’s Statement
The space in my paintings is both three-dimensional and pictorial. The viewer can open and close the ‘doors’ or ‘wings’ of the works, in which the spatiotemporal character is sedimented.
One consequence of the three-dimensionality is that the painting and the viewer share the same space with each other. Likewise, the size of the works, originating from the human body and spaces such as rooms, creates corporeal dimensions to the interaction between person and painting. The paintings overlap the borders of genre and question dichotomies. My painting combines corporeality and spirituality, subject and object, presence and memory, experience and thought.
Time takes on several meanings in these works, in addition to the temporal process of the viewer. For example, the movement of a person’s hand and face depicted as a sequence of shapes or shadows are presentations of time – as if there were mirrored situations on canvases, and those situations open up mental reflections. In the works there are also numbers, signifying clock time. These notations of time are painted with thick paint, and they give a context for the shift from objective time to subjective temporality.
One consequence of the three-dimensionality is that the painting and the viewer share the same space with each other. Likewise, the size of the works, originating from the human body and spaces such as rooms, creates corporeal dimensions to the interaction between person and painting. The paintings overlap the borders of genre and question dichotomies. My painting combines corporeality and spirituality, subject and object, presence and memory, experience and thought.
Time takes on several meanings in these works, in addition to the temporal process of the viewer. For example, the movement of a person’s hand and face depicted as a sequence of shapes or shadows are presentations of time – as if there were mirrored situations on canvases, and those situations open up mental reflections. In the works there are also numbers, signifying clock time. These notations of time are painted with thick paint, and they give a context for the shift from objective time to subjective temporality.
Current information
Solo exhibitionsMeditation on the Sublime, Huuto III / Galleria Huuto, Helsinki, 28.9.–22.10.2023
Sedimented Time, Galleria Kulma / Porvoo Art Hall, 3.–26.9.2021
Sedimented Time, Galleria Valo, Arktikum House, Rovaniemi, 1.11.–9.12.2018
Sedimented Time, Galleria Duetto, Helsinki, 4.–28.1.2018
The social artwork
Postcard Album (2011–)
3.1.–30.1.2019
Hyllygalleria, Rikhardinkatu Library, Helsinki