Pauliina Pietilä, ”Abstraction For Dummies”

In the exhibition ”Abstraction for Dummies” we meet a series of new paintings by Pauliina Pietilä that reflect reality through two different perspectives; one seemingly abstract while the other is narrative. But it is really about one and the same starting point, to capture an image and a moment of light that is etched on the mind. Pauliina Pietilä often finds her motives on walking through the city at dusk or in the dark, when light from buildings and shop windows radiates in the evening and creates magical contrasts between ”outside” and ”inside”. She depicts environments and interiors in a vibrant sense of heightened presence through fascinating and suggestive representations of light, shadows and reflections.

This is also a recurrent theme in the exhibition “Abstraction for Dummies”, a set of new paintings that explore the surroundings in a condensed state of mind. Details and interiors are carved out through the images’ special lighting conditions. The motifs in the paintings appear at different distances and lead the viewer into a vision that travels in different directions. There is closeness and distance, richness of details and abstraction in an extensive world of images that go in and out of each other.

In the magnificent painting ”Marilyn”, an interior appears in an almost luminous state. The warm evening light falls into the room – a hair salon – and lights up the room in a yellow-pink glow. Reflections from the surroundings are captured in the glass window and enhance the experience of standing in the middle of the picture. It is a meticulous painting that pays great attention to every detail and element. During the painting process, a new painting emerges in parallel by stroking remnants of paint from each brushstroke onto a different canvas. The brushstrokes will eventually be a new version, an abstract mirror image, of the same motif.

The same situation applies to the painting ”Great”. It is also available in two versions; first as a large-scale detail of a plant, and then transferred in an abstract form with brushstrokes from remnants of paint applied as a sprinkling rain. Leaves and stems glimmer in a golden-pink shimmer, as if they were illuminated by a red setting sun. In the center of the painting, the sharpness is crystal clear while the colors gradually merge in the outer parts. The illusory large scale of the image creates an almost hallucinatory state, as reality may suddenly appear just before falling asleep. This feeling of an elevated and different perception permeates the whole of the paintings. Through shifting perspectives and mirror effects, a brilliant artistic process emerges that explores the magic of vision and different states of mind.

Pauliina Pietilä was born in 1982 in Ilmajoki, Finland and educated at Malmö Art Academy  2006 – 2011. Exhibitions in recent years in selection: ”Between you and me”, Ystad Art Museum 2019, ”Edstrandska stiftelsen’s scholarship recipients”, Gallery KHM, Malmö 2019, Art Fair Volta, Basel (Gallery Flach), 2018. NoCo Art Collection, Hämeenlinna Art Museum 2018. Market Art Fair, Liljevalchs, (Gallery Flach) 2018. ”Show and Tell”, Malmö Art Museum 2017. “In another place”, works from Region Skånes art collection, Ystad Art Museum, 2017. ”Collected works! 30 years with Maria Bonnier Dahlin’s foundation, Bonniers Konsthall, 2016. ”Between Red and Green”, Galleri Flach, Stockholm, 2014.

Eva-Lotta Holm Flach