Exhibition Year 2023 / Ulla Karttunen
Participating in nine exhibitions in Rome, New York, Florence, Miami, Ponte de Lima, Salo and Helsinki were part of Ulla Karttunen’s artistic program in the year 2023.
Firenze Contemporary, the international contemporary art exhibition organised and curated by Rossocinabro Gallery from Rome was held in ArtArt – Armando Xhomo Gallery in Florence in February 2023.
In Rome, the international exhibition Welcome Spring was displayed in Galleria Il Leone from March 24 to April 7, 2023.
In April in New York, it was time to deal with a serious philosophical problem, the metaphysics of ice cream. The show Artbox Expo New York 2.0 was exhibited in The SoHotel Art Space Gallery, in Nolita district Lower Manhattan.
Handling with the connection between divinity and ice cream continued at the exhibition Under the Rainbow (Sateenkaaren alla). The show by Helsinki Artists’ Association Art Lending (Taidelainaamo), Helsinki, from June 12 to August 31, 2023.
The Eternal Feminine / O Eterno Feminino – Art’in Lima 2023, international summer exhibition was held in the historial buildings of the oldest town in Portugal, Ponte de Lima. Two large altar paintings by Ulla Karttunen were displayed at The Museum of Terceiros and The Chapel of Pereiras. The summer exhibition from July to September received around 16,300 visitors.
The 10th jubilee exhibition of Wiurila’s Summer: The Alchemy of Time (Wiurilan kesä: Ajan alkemia) was on display at The Wiurila Manor, Halikko, Salo, from June 16 to August 27, 2023.
The borderline between the real and the magic was processed in the artwork by Ulla in Spectrum Miami in Mana Wynwood Convention Center, Miami, December 2023.
Too much sugar! This warning should have been added to Ulla’s works in the exhibitions Syrup and Hope (Siirappia, Toivo) by Helsinki Artists’ Association Art Lending (Taidelainaamo), in January and December.
White Magic of Ostuni
Ostuni, a small town in Puglia, is called La Citta Bianca, The White City. In this southern Italian town, all the houses are brightly whitewashed.
In the 17th century, only a few villages survived the plague in Puglia. Ostuni was among them. The residents had invented to cover the buildings and walls with limestone mixed with water. Lime washing did not only illuminate narrow dark streets, it was a means of disinfection, a matter of life and death.
In this dazzling whiteness Ostuni carries such a poetic atmosphere. You believe again that only miracles make the truest reality.
Ostuni, La Citta Bianca, photographed in autumn 2023 by Ulla Karttunen
Faded Shades From Italy
This fall I had a chance to stay some months in southern Italy, in Sicily and Puglia. Here’s some examples of this autumn’s shades.
Spectrum Miami Images
Spectrum Miami at the Wynwood art district during Miami Art Week, from December 6 to 10, 2023, Miami 4.0 Artbox.projects, booth 802.
Syrup, Sugarcoating & Crazy Sweetness
a detail of Enlightened Persons, Perhaps Saints, With Strawberry and Pistachio Ice Cream / Valaistuneita henkilöitä, kenties pyhimyksiä, mansikka- ja pistaasijäätelön kera, 2023, by Ulla Karttunen, on display at Syrup exhibition
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Tomorrow it’s time for Helsinki Artists’ Associaton’s Art Lending office’s Christmas Exhibition in Helsinki! This year, the theme is Syrup.
Helsinki Artists’ Association wants to end this year lightly and to offer a taste of sweet kitsch and humour. Going crazy, exaggerating and sugarcoating were highly recommended for this exhibition.
The exhibition will be displayed 14 December 2023 – 14 January 2024. The opening is celebrated on 14 December 2023 at 5–7pm. The gallery is located next to the Rikhardinkatu library in the historic center of Helsinki.
more syrup at the same place:
The Material and Immaterial Value of Celebrity Tears 2019, by Ulla Karttunen, a unique work of mixed media & gemstone, thick acrylic coating, primed on aluminium plate. To the work and Art Lending catalogue from here
The Moment of Real and the Moment of Magic
It All Happened So Suddenly, 2023, by Ulla Karttunen, on display at Spectrum Miami 2023
°°°
Everything that matters, happens in a time that transcends time. In a time that undercuts time.
That which is miraculous and yet closer to nature than anything else, happens in an instant, in a moment that we call maybe x or maybe o because the name of the moment is missing for now.
The moment is not lost, only the name is.
It is lost because our limited understanding does not yet know the mathematics that would fold the blink of an eye and eternity together.
How is it possible?
It isn’t.
It is a miracle.
It’s melted reality.
It’s too much.
You can’t swallow that giant gem.
You can not.
Interpretation of the borderline between the real and the magic: Spectrum Miami 2023, booth 802, Artbox Gallery, Mana Wynwood, 2217 NW 5th Avenue, Miami, Dec 6th – 10th, 2023