6 February–2 March 2025

Colors take on a meaning when placed next to each other.

Liisa Karintaus’ paintings, created using oil paints, charcoal and dry or oil pastels, create spaces where seemingly abstract elements become representational. In her works, bright color fields gain depth from areas of shade. Different tones overlap, mix and develop nuances: spaces emerge where the tones are distinct, yet close to each other. Juicy complementary colors, greens, violets, reds, turquoises, oranges and blues, all find their place as if they had always been there. The sharpness of contrasts is softened by intermediate tones, multi-layered colors that create parallel spaces, bright and dim, areas radiating calm light.

Karintaus paints and draws colors so that the viewer can perceive subjects: nature where the landscape, trees and sky meet humans and animals, dogs, birds and horses. Their figures make the images recognizable. At the same time, Karintaus’ subjects all seem to be at the same level. Even though a dog might in reality see the landscape from a lower perspective and horses and birds from a higher perspective than humans, everyone’s gaze is at the same level in the paintings. We are part of a shared landscape. The shared spaces raise the question of whether one can actually talk about abstraction since the works contain living creatures. The walking dog brings the works to the ground – and perhaps it will turn out that the landscapes seen in the paintings are actually the dog’s walking areas, its multi-sensory routes. On a walking path, both in the sunlight and in the twilight, the colors are like fragrant signs guiding the dog and its walker. Colors are places for a wanderer.

It is easy to draw comparisons between Liisa Karintaus’ paintings and early 1900s expressionism and the German Der Blaue Reiter group. In Karintaus’ works, one can also see references to cubism or even symbolism and to landscapes seen in Edvard Munch’s works, where the viewer is drawn to the sense of movement in the middle of halted moments.

Even if Karintaus’ exhibition contains references to history, her paintings are unmistakably created in the present day, with translucent and airy hues. One has to wonder whether the symbolism in the works is obvious or rather just one way to perceive them. It is clear that color is the reality of the paintings: at times dense, at times broken, tinged with light, loosely breathing.

Martta Heikkilä, Adjunct Professor, Aesthetics

Thank you
The exhibition has been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Liisa Karintaus (b. 1977, Muurola, Rovaniemen maalaiskunta) is a Helsinki-based painter with a Master of Fine Arts degree. She has participated in exhibitions since 2001, both in Finland and abroad. In 2025, Karintaus is also teaching painting as a lecturer (specializing in material studies) at Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts.

Contact information
Liisa Karintaus
lkarintaus (a) gmail.com
p.0405825333
www.liisakarintaus.net
@liisakarintaus