BIO
Eveliina Hämäläinen (born 1984) is Master of Fine Arts. She graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2013. Her previous solo exhibitions Viive (Delay) was in Forum Box Gallery in Helsinki and Valve (Awake) in Porvoo Art Hall 2022. In 2021 the artist participated in the Hetki (Moment) performance with the Circo Aereo in the Finnish National Gallery Ateneum. In 2023 she will have a solo exhibition in TM gallery of the Finnish Painter’s union. Hämäläinen’s works are included in the collections of the Finnish State Art Collection and Kone Foundation.
CV
Lives and works in Helsinki, Finland
eveliinahamalainen@gmail.com instagram:@evehamalai
EDUCATION
2013 MFA Finnish Academy of Fine Arts
2008 Free Art School, Helsinki
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Luona (With) Tm Gallery, Helsinki
2022 Viive (Delay), Forum Box, Helsinki
2022 Valve (Awake), Porvoo Art Hall
2019 Aukea collective, Aine Art Museum, Tornio
2019 Path, Sinne Gallery, Helsinki
2019 Yön puutarha - Night Garden, Huuto, Helsinki
2017 Koska on hämärä, Vanha Raatihuone, Turku
2016 Yö vuosien välissä - A Night Between Years, Huuto, Helsinki
2014 Goodbye Ladies, Kluuvi Gallery, Helsinki Art Museum
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Kosminen Salonki, Helsinki
2019 Healing Garden, Aukea collective Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, New York
2019 Finnish Painter’s union 90 Years, Gallery Aarni
2018 Joulusalonki Tm-Gallery, Helsinki
2018 Aukea collective, 035_id:i Galleri Stockholm & Esszimmer, Das Esszimmer, Bonn, Germany
2018 Aukea collective, Sublime and Repress, Enia Gallery, Athens, Greece
2018 Pelastus&Rangaistus, The Aine Art Museum, Tornio
2015 Hello Future! Talent’s Archive Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece
2013 DDessin with Kristína Hečková, Atelier Richelieu, Paris, France
2013 Kuvan Kevät The Degree Show of the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki
2013 Supermarket Stockholm independent art fair /T-Gallery, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden
2013 Eveliina Hämäläinen & Kristina Hecková, FAFA Gallery, Helsinki
2012 Blood doesn’t grow on trees T-Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
2011 Foire Internationale du Dessin Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France
2010 Fondia Helsinki
2010 Foire Internationale: Dessins du 21e siècle Loft Marquardt, Paris, France
2008 Portraits with Enoch Bergsten & Ville Parkkinen, Pori Art Museum, Pori
OTHER ARTISTIC ACTIVITY
2021 Circo Aereo: Hetki, 55min, Ateneum, Helsinki
2019 Aukea: Throw, public artwork & workshop, Pro Artibus, Tammisaari, FI
2018 Dance Theatre Hurjaruuth: Winter Circus Love, Scenic painting, Cable Factory, dir. S.Silvennoinen, Helsinki
2018 Aukea collective, workshop, commissioned by Saari Residency, Saareke, Mynämäki
2017 Circo Aereo: The Artist, consultant & visual team work, Dir. Sanna Silvennoinen, Ateneum hall, Helsinki
2017 Onnelliset, Scenic painting, Dir S. Silvennoinen, Alexander Theatre, Helsinki
2017 Circo Aereo: Prospero, Set painting, Dir.Maksim Komaro, Jatka 78, Prague, Czech
2016 Circo Aereo & defunensemble: Concerto Planos, Painting performance, Dir. S.Silvennoinen, Tullikamari
2016 Maracat Caravan: Clunker Circus, L’Avventura, Prop maker, Dir. M. Komaro, Cirko, Helsinki
2015 Circo Aereo: Mandarin & Désertée, visual team work. Dir. M. Komaro, Cirko-festival, Cirko Helsinki
2015 Yhdessä kerrottua Community art project, producer, group work 2015- 2017
2014 Clunker Circus: Wonderfully much of everything, Visual team work. Dir. M. Komaro, Cirko, Helsinki, Finland
2012 Circo Aereo: Camping 2, Set design with M. Komaro and Juho Rahijärvi. Dir. M. Komaro, Cirko, Helsinki Festival
2012 Chipmunk Forge: Phågel -the best Cat and Bird show ever! Set design with M. Komaro. Dir. M. Komaro, Cirko
2011 Yrjänä Sauros & Rinneradio: Sirkuskirja, Set design with J. Rahijärvi. Dir. S. Silvennoinen, Cirko
2011 Woodcut on facade of Annantalo Arts Centre, Helsinki
2011 Gandini Juggling & Circo Aereo: Motet, Set design with M. Komaro and J. Rahijärvi. Dir. M. Komaro, Cirko- festival, STOA, Helsinki
2008 Circo Aereo: Musta leijona. Set painting. Dir. S. Silvennoinen, Ateneum hall, part of Helsinki Festival
RESIDENCIES
2020 Mazzano Romano, Italy
2019, 2018 Torppa residency, Pro Artibus, Tammisaari
2019 Aukea, Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, New York
2019, 2018 Örö residency programme
2017 Saaren Kartano Residence by Kone Foundation
2016 HIAP & Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, 1-year studio grant in Suomenlinna, Helsinki
2013, 2012 Residency of Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and Kungliga Konsthögskola, Berlin
2010- Telegrafen – Utö
GRANTS
Stina Krooks Stiftelse
Finnish Cultural Foundation
Arts Promotion Centre Finland
Svenska Kulturfonden
Alfred Kordelin Foundation
Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation
Cultural Foundation of Uusimaa
Helsingin Saskia ry
WORKS IN COLLECTIONS
HUS Collection
Finnish State Art Collection
Finnish Art Association
Kone Foundation
Mauri Niemi Collection
Turku Art Museum / Lars Göran Johnsson Collection
TEACHING
Aalto-yliopisto (Aalto University) 2022-
Vapaa Taidekoulu (Free Art School) 2023-
MEMBERSHIPS
Finnish Painters’ Union
Association of Finnish Printmakers
Free Art School / member of the board 2016-2022
Kuvan Residenssi Ry / Utö / member of the board 2014-2021
The painterly touch
Juha-Heikki Tihinen, translated by Silja-Maaria Aronpuro, May 2022.
The exhibition Viive (Delay) showcases paintings by Eveliina Hämäläinen from 2020 to 2022. The exhibition consists of multi-layered and immersive oil paintings and simple ink paintings typical of the artist. Hämäläinen described her previous exhibition Valve (Awake) in Porvoo Art Hall as follows: “I continued to work with the theme of seeing. The themes arise from observing existence. The works are almost completely unicoloured. They hide within themselves the colours of the environment in dim light.” The result is a tapestry-like oil painting where patterns and themes emerge slowly from the dim and monochromatic surface under peaceful observation. The viewer notices birds and plants, and the latter can also be found in the artist’s works in ink.
When looking at Hämäläinen’s works it is easy to understand why the haptic area related to touch also needs to be considered in the context of visual art like painting. Hämäläinen’s almost monochromatic paintings touch our eyes as if they were the tips of our fingers. Her works have the same quality as textiles that demand and entice to touch, like tapestries and Gobelins. Thus, the artist works with both the textile feel associated with the tradition of painting and the immersive experience associated with installations. While looking at the works we are immersed deeper and deeper into the world of Hämäläinen’s art.
Lately, the artist has been interested in different phenomena such as the perceptions of colours in the dark or dim light, but also different kinds of connections. For her meaningful connections can be momentary or related to repetition, but also the connections between people and the situations related to them have inspired her work. Hämäläinen seems to create intense but slow experiences, which swallow the viewer like the summer dusk and where the experience and its slow unfolding reminiscent of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s (1889–1976) thinking seem to dwell.
Hämäläinen described her artistic thinking in relation to her exhibition Valve (Awake) in Porvoo Art Hall as follows: “I am interested in the transformation of matter. The transformation of mental images into images and the pigments forming a painting. Painting makes the consciousness tangible. It is like a knitwork that opens and tightens.” Guided by the artist’s words we should look at her paintings as a sort of concrete and material thinking that opens new views to the world and experiencing it. Artwork by artwork Hämäläinen produces states of consciousness or openings where numerous new worlds peer. By material and tangible means the artist verifies the power of the visible and takes the viewer to the border of blindness or maybe even beyond it.
Eveliina Hämäläinen’s works make inklings, omens, and breaks visible in a way that reminds us of Jacques Derrida’s article “Punctuations: The Time of a Thesis”. Derrida writes: “Not only am I uncertain, I will never even be sure about whether I am taking the right step. But I am also not sure whether I fully and clearly understand what makes me take it. Maybe I started to be too well aware of not where I was going to, but where I was, I had not arrived, I was static.” Hämäläinen’s paintings direct us towards a philosophical realisation about how experiential and material can be in the same form right under our eyes and ready to be experienced.