JURY 2018 – Henna Inkinen, Pia Salo, Katriina Sjöblom
JURY – THE OPENING EXHIBITION OF PORIGINAL GALLERY’S 2018 SEASON
The 2018 exhibition season at Poriginal Gallery opens with JURY, a group exhibition featuring three visual artists from the Satakunta region.
The Pori Art Museum invited associations representing professional artists from Satakunta to select representatives for the jury responsible for curating the 2018 exhibitions at Poriginal Gallery. From the member artists of these associations, Henna Inkinen (Porin Taiteilijaseura ry), Pia Salo (Rauman Taiteilijaseura ry), and Katriina Sjöblom (NYTE ry) were chosen for the selection committee. Other members of the jury included the director of the Pori Art Museum and the curator of Poriginal Gallery.
Henna Inkinen – Paintings
My mystical, color-filled paintings emerge from the landscapes of my mind. I find my themes hidden within forests and meadows—tangles of undergrowth where light and shadow draw their patterns. My works strive to convey vitality, joy, and exuberance: a playful dance of form, color, and material. I draw inspiration from the natural world’s disorder—its random, untamed force, which my expressive painting technique seeks to echo. In my process, I aim for a dynamic interplay between intention and chance.
This series was inspired by plant diseases, such as witches’ brooms—abnormal growths in tree branches caused by bacterial infections.
I am particularly interested in the unintentional marks left by the interaction between humans and nature. How does the artificial, shaped by human hands, appear within the natural world? How does nature reclaim spaces once occupied by humans? The experiences my environment offers me remain within as memories and impressions, later transferring into my paintings as explorations of the shared traces of humans and nature.
Henna Inkinen (b. 1979) is a visual artist originally from Satakunta, now living and working in Helsinki. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Aalto University’s School of Arts, Design, and Architecture (2013) and a BA in Fine Arts from TAMK (2009). Her works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Finland and Europe. Inkinen is a member of MUU ry and Porin Taiteilijaseura.
Pia Salo – Paintings and Miniature Houses
The installation Degrees of Invisibility (2014–) is an ongoing project composed of paintings and miniature houses.
In my work, I explore the layering of time and place, as well as the significance of the traces we leave behind. The houses in my installation are not based on real structures but are instead a fusion of memories and emotions. Their details feel both familiar and strange, existing in a liminal space, frozen in time. The paintings in this exhibition function as part of the installation. They, too, depict ambiguous places—faltering glimpses from the edges of memory, full of both the known and the unknown.
Pia Salo (b. 1975) is a visual artist based in Rauma. She works primarily with painting and installation. Salo graduated from Pori Art School in 2002 and obtained her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, in 2008. Her works have been shown in several solo and group exhibitions across Finland. She is a member of the Artists’ Association of Rauma, Artists’ Association of Helsinki , and the Finnish Painters’ Union.
Katriina Sjöblom – Private Moments
This is what I look like. Look at me. But this is just for you.
The subjects of my works are real. They capture true moments—not made-up stories, though perhaps with a bit of embellishment and a few small additions, but true nonetheless. Someone once felt this confident, was like this in this moment. Cats, flowers, and tender skin.
For a year, I observed others and, in doing so, found myself—or at least, I think I did. Then again, observation itself is a tricky thing. I revisited moments that had something special, recalling them deliberately. It was easier to position others, while I always remained suspended—a question mark.
These images contain those moments, those others, that question mark, and love. A lot of love.
My artistic practice is wide-ranging. I primarily draw but also create sculptures, structures, performances, and prints. At the core of my work is the human figure—the body, the skin, the woman. Right now, creating large-scale drawings feels sufficient. The lines calm my mind, and I use paint simply to add color.
Katriina Sjöblom (b. 1976, Rovaniemi) is a visual artist living and working in Ahlainen, Pori. She graduated from Kankaanpää School of Fine Arts in 2014 and has participated in numerous group exhibitions and performance art projects across Finland. Sjöblom is a board member of NYTE ry and a member of the Pori Printmakers’ Association.
Translated with ChatGPT