23.3.2024 – 14.4.2024

The works in my exhibition are about decay and decomposition. My collage-like paintings have been inspired by my observations of unbuilt landscapes, their damaged trees and heaps of logging waste, as well as colonies of wood-decay fungi and the changes caused by the passage of time. Decay and decomposition also alter colours, as they fade and turn brittle with time and light. 

My paintings depict different degrees of shifting, ruptures of structures and loss of control, with no specific, identifiable scale. These changes in the landscape can be taken more broadly as depictions of aging, frailty and transience – the vulnerability of life – or as reflections and descriptions of the extremes of social and climate changes. 

When I paint, I explore the possibilities of different materials, tools and unconventional painting techniques. I am interested in the point at which I drift from my original plan for a motif to an abstract expression, as the way the materials behave and interact begins to guide my work. Systematic planning and spontaneity are complementary elements in my paintings.

The composition of the paints I use and their physical properties have an impact on how my paintings turn out, as do the hazy and paling marks made with spray paint that contrast with the precise stencilled forms. My painting process relies heavily not only on adding paint and other materials but also on partially covering or wiping away previously painted areas. I call this a temporal event in which I go backwards in the painting process as it were. In the end, only the shells and their internal information remain of the previously painted shapes: the bodies of the shapes have disappeared. 

Samu Raatikainen

Turku-based visual artist Samu Raatikainen (b. 1971) studied at the Free Art School in Helsinki in 1991–1994. He graduated with a Master of Arts degree from the Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, in 1997. Raatikainen won the Young Artist of the Year award in 2003 and received the Finnish Art Society’s William Thuring Award in 2009. Raatikainen’s works can be found in several public art collections in Finland, including the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation collection, the Saastamoinen Foundation collection and the Tampere Art Museum.

This exhibition has been supported by Turun Saskiat and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.