Visiting Art/ist 2022: Jukka Korkeila | All of Finland weeps – Tears of sorrow, joy and healing

ART EXHIBITION as part of the Visiting Art/ist programme.

Thu 2.6.2022, 6−9 pm | Midissage and performance by Frau Kraft

Jukka Korkeila is one of Finland’s foremost painters, whose works have been presented in a number of museums and gallery exhibitions around the world. He was born in Hämeenlinna, Finland, in 1968, and he lives and works in Berlin, Oberhessen and Helsinki. Korkeila initially studied architecture as well as interior and furniture design before studying at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and the Berlin University of the Arts during the 1990s. In 1999, Korkeila was selected as the Young Artist of the Year in Finland.

The Visiting Art/ist programme was launched by the Finnish Institute in 2015. For this project, primarily Finnish artists living in Germany, Austria or Switzerland are chosen whose works leave a strong impression on us.

As a queer artist, Korkeila has created works that, for example, give shape to sexual identities, the exploration of the Christian Orthodox faith, and the emancipation of the body away from common beauty ideals. A special role is also played by the figure Frau Kraft, who appears in paintings and is embodied in interventions by Korkeila’s partner Markus Karger. And as for weeping, Jukka Korkeila says: “In a situation where others cannot weep, it is the artist’s task to weep vicariously for others.” − a quote from the exhibition catalogue.

Korkeila represented his home country at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 2004 and participated in the Prague Biennials I & III, in 2003 and 2007 respectively. In 2014–15, he participated in the fourth Bienal del Fin del Mundo at Mar del Plata, Argentina. Korkeila has had solo exhibitions at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and at the Nordic Watercolour Museum in Skärhamn, Sweden. In 2017–18, he had an extensive retrospective exhibition called Pleasure at HAM, Helsinki Art Museum, and at the Serlachius Museums in Mänttä, Finland. Korkeila was included in Sanguine/Bloedrood exhibition curated by Luc Tuymans at M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium, in 2018, and the following year he and his partner Markus Karger co-curated the international In Situ exhibition in Hirzenhain and Gedern, Oberhessen, near Frankfurt am Main. Also, in 2019 Jukka Korkeila was awarded the State Prize for Visual Arts in Finland.

The exhibition All of Finland weeps was curated by Mika Minetti.

The catalogue (3,8 MB, free to download) published for the exhibition includes a large number of illustrations and text contributions by Mika Minetti, Anne Waak and Sylvia Metz. You can order the book for 10 EUR plus postage at the Finnish Institute: tel. +49 30 403631890; email: info@institut.de.

To visit Jukka Korkeila’s studio in Ortenberg, please klick here!

Blog interview: Come, let’s have a cry together