Sami Korkiakoski’s works express, first and foremost, movement and energy. His painting process is very physical. His painting style is characterised by a full-body involvement in the work, transferring energy to the surface of the canvas in a rhythmic and sensual line. Korkiakoski confesses to being an emotional person and paints with strong expression. In addition to rhythm and line, colours are used to emphasize the expression of emotion and visual effect. In this exhibition the rhythmic line is accompanied with blocks of colour, which cause a change of rhythm in the painting process, the movement halts, becomes denser and smaller, until it resumes its journey.
The works featured in the exhibition are exceptionally small in Korkiakoski’s body of work.
Korkiakoski leaves signs in his paintings, symbols that are characteristic of him, which he paints repeatedly in his works. Korkiakoski admires Antoni Tàpies, who also used a wide variety of signs in his work. When he repeats some sign in a painting, it becomes a part of the rhythm of the surface and together they support the work’s power of expression. Korkiakoski often explores opposites in his works; matte and shine, soft and hard elements or ugliness and beauty.
Sami Korkiakoski (b. 1978) graduated from Aalto University with a Master of Arts in 2007 and from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts with a Master of Fine Arts in 2013. After graduation he has taken part in numerous group exhibitions and held private exhibitions in Finland and abroad. He is one of the artists who took part in the making of president Sauli Niinistö’s portrait. Korkiakoski’s works are featured in the collections of the state of Finland, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Jyväskylä and Kuopio’s Art Museums, and the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art. He’s held exhibitions abroad in New York, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Tel Aviv in Israel, Brisbane in Australia, among others, and has a concurrent solo exhibition in Madrid. He lives and works in Kuopio.
Special thanks to The Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike) for supporting the exhibition.
