The Future Is Unknown
The pandemic and the future of humanity: did we learn anything? what is essential to our existence in the world? The answers need time and living forward, so no need to rush.
For some, like me, the pandemic time has been also precious and gracious; it has provided silence and simplicity of life, just the kind of things you want to go towards. But does one remember the value of silence as the noise rises?
At least the pandemic has forced the consciousness of death into the middle of the Western world order of entertainment. We hate the pandemic because it prevented us from amusing ourselves to death. We hate the pandemic because it showed that death and suffering can be real, too real.
The future will ask us to search the meaning of being. And to search it outside religions, especially the religion of capitalism, which proposed a successful future for every cunning gameplayer.
Life is not for enjoyment but for learning. Life is not for gains but more for losing. Existence can also mean learning exactly what we want the least.
Suffering cannot be bypassed, as well as death. To touch ephemerality, the fleeting nature of existence, is also to approach immortality: blink of an eye and eternity go well together. When the beautiful and terrible presence of death begins to mingle with the basics of your entire being, you begin to see something of what is called dawn or beauty.
“We have in fact only two certainties in this world – that we are not everything and that we will die.” ― Georges Bataille
The Future Is Unknown, digital painting by artist Ulla Karttunen, is presented on Artsy and at Artbox Gallery, Zürich: Artbox.project World 1.0, from 4 January until the end of June 2021.
Pop-Up-Tears
The Material and Immaterial Value of Celebrity Tears by Ulla Karttunen is displayed at Galleria Aarni in a pop-up exhibition by The Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa Artists’ Associations: Taide tahtoo teille! The exhibition runs in the shopping center Sello, Espoo, from 28 April to 23 May 2021 (Tue-Fri 11-19, Sat-Sun 12-16).
From instagram page of Gallery Aarni:
The Material and Immaterial Value of Celebrity Tears (2019) is a unique work of mixed media, gemstone and thick acrylic coated, aluminum primed digital painting. Here under seen on Swan Lake Wallpaper by Nina Campbell. After the exhibition the work is available through Taidelainaamo by HTS Helsinki Artists’ Association.
Springtime Flow in Barcelona
After many postponements caused by the coronavirus, the collective exhibition Artbox.project Barcelona 1.0 has opened at Valid World Hall Gallery in Barcelona. The digital painting In the Red Flow by Ulla Karttunen is one of the works displayed in the digital section.
Valid World Hall Gallery, Barcelona, May 2 – 7, 2021. Artbox.project Barcelona 1.0 / Career de Buenaventura Muñoz 6, 08018 Barcelona, open daily 10-20
Exhibitions: Zürich, Barcelona & Espoo
Valid World Hall Gallery has an over 250 m2 space in the heart of Barcelona
Artbox Gallery, Zürich, January 4 – June 30, 2021 Artbox.project World 1.0 / Artbox Gallery, Giessereistrasse 1 8005 Zürich, Mon-Fri 9-18, online exhibition on Artsy https://www.artsy.net/artwork/ulla-karttunen-the-future-is-unknown
Galleria Aarni, Espoo, April 28 – May 23, 2021 Taide tahtoo teille! / Gallery Aarni, Kauppakeskus Sello, 3rd floor, Leppävaarankatu 3–9, 02600 Espoo, Tue-Fri 11-19, Sat-Sun 12-16
Valid World Hall Gallery, Barcelona, May 2 – 7, 2021 Artbox.project Barcelona 1.0 / Valid World Hall Gallery Career de Buenaventura Muñoz 6, 08018 Barcelona, daily 10-20
Farewell to The Boudoir Purple & Katajanokka
Boudoir Purpre in Katajanokka
Katajanokka on a cloudy day
Katajanokka, a maritime region near the center of Helsinki, has been my favorite area since I moved to Helsinki in 1981, four decades ago. Katajanokka is famous for its unified Art Nouveau architecture and is considered one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Helsinki.
In the 1990s, I was happy to share an artists’ workspace in Katajanokka, in a pink Art Nouveau house on Kruunuvuorenkatu, as one of the group of four contemporary visual artists (Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Mika Aalto-Setälä, Pekka Niskanen, Ulla Karttunen).
My love for the marine environment deepened when my spouse and I got an apartment on Laivastokatu eight years ago. The place could be called The Boudoir Purple, with its pale purple walls and top floor heavenly atmosphere.
At the end of February 2021, it was time to leave this beloved area and move to another poetic place, a century-old wooden house, or a fairy tale castle as we ourselves experience this modest nest, in Turku, next to the Cathedral and the Aura River.
all images of the Boudoir Purpre, Katajanokka; interiors by Ulla Karttunen 
Boudoir Purpre was situated in the nude pink Art Nouveau building, in the middle in the image
Art in the time of Coronavirus and Social Distancing
The exhibition Art in the Time of Coronavirus and Social Distancing, organised by the Circle Foundation of Arts, Lyon, France, continues at the foundation’s site: circle-arts.com. The exhibition is curated by Myrina Tunberg Georgiou.
Stream of Red Books – Finnish Esoteric Art
Ulla Karttunen: Red Bibles (2011)
I have always admired Hugo Simberg (1873-1917) and his focus on themes of life and death. But I had not earlier seen a small painting by Simberg, The Stream of Life / Elämän virta (oil on panel, 1896), a work that was presented at The Path to Hidden Knowledge / Salatun tiedon tie at Villa Gyllenberg last autumn.
Hugo Simberg: The Stream of Life (1896)
I was touched to find in Simberg’s work a boat loaded by red books. Or books that at least in the dark exhibition hall looked red. They might be seen as brown also, as in the other version (gouache & watercolour) of the work, presented at the net site of The Finnish National Gallery but that is not so important.
For me letters or books that speak about dark and heavy existential questions are always red.
Simberg’s work reminded me of my obsessions. Many of my works contain red or golden scriptures, or refer to red books or letters of alphabet. That might be obvious for someone like me, for whom mystic’s tears of blood have been an important symbol. Or what is to write with your own blood, with your deepest existence. Or what it is to write down messages dictated to you, messages that some could call divine, but not you, who still try to be an eternal sceptic and free spirit.
some more works with red books or glowing letters:
details of scripture works by Ulla Karttunen
detail of Eye of the Letter (2019) by Ulla Karttunen
details of scripture works by Ulla Karttunen
detail of The Madonna of the Nightly Signs (2011) by Ulla Karttunen
details of scripture works by Ulla Karttunen
Read more about the philosophical backround of these mysterious letters from the book ’Ulla Karttunen, A Modern Mystic’, published by The Joensuu Art Museum, documenting artist’s retrospective solo exhibition at the museum.
book cover ’Ulla Karttunen, A Modern Mystic’
The Eye of the Letter (2019) by Ulla Karttunen
The Path to Hidden Knowledge
One of the most impressive and important exhibitions this autumn has been The Path to Hidden Knowledge / Salatun tiedon tie at Villa Gyllenberg in Helsinki. The exhibition, curated by Nina Kokkinen, researches esotericism and occultism in Finnish art 1890–1950.
The exhibition presented artworks by Finnish artists interested in esotericism, from wellknown Finnish masters like Helene Schjerfbeck, Hugo Simberg or Akseli Gallen-Kallela, to more unknown names like Meri Genetz or Ilona Harima.
details of the exhibited works from top to down: Oscar Parviainen, Ilona Harima, Helene Schjerfbeck
Today’s Advent Calendar from London
”How did contemporary artist Ulla Karttunen manage to stay inspired despite such a fractitious year?” asks Advent Calendar, created by the Finnish Institute in London, an expert institution on culture and society, today 14th December 2020. The institute asked artists from different fields whom they would recommend as a sourse of inspiration this year. The calendar is visible in Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
My answer was my long time favorite, Hilma af Klint:
”Fresh, esoteric, philosophical, visionary, radical pioneer, and unknown for years even though today seen as the founder of abstract art – all this was Swedish visual artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944).
In 2020, Hilma af Klint became topical with the impressive documentary “Beyond the Visible – Hilma af Klint”, directed by German film-maker Halina Dyrschka. The book ”Hilma af Klint – Visionary”, edited by Kurt Almqvist and Louise Belfrage, was also published in 2020.
As an esoteric and philosophical artist myself, I have for years been inspired by Hilma’s art, and in 2013 I was lucky enough to see her big exhibition at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
For almost a century, it was thought that modern abstract art was a male project that began with Kandinsky and Mondrian. But an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2018 and widespread international interest led to the recognition that this female mystic, af Klint, was there first.”
Retrospective of Hilma af Klint at Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Contest Winner & Coronavirus Art Exhibition
Artist Ulla Karttunen, with her digital painting Blind Spot Society III, is selected one of the award-winning artists and for the show in the themed contest ”Art in the time of Coronavirus and Social Distancing”, November 2020.
The exhibition, curated by Myrina Tunberg Georgiou and organised by the Circle Foundation of Arts, Lyon, France, presents the winning works at the foundation’s site: circle-arts.com
A detail of Blind Spot Society III, by Ulla Karttunen. The work is from year 2012, so it is created years before the coronavirus pandemic.
