“My language is a picture. If I were a verbalizer, I would be a writer,” Hanna Varis describes.
“I have always been a storyteller with pictures, an explorer in time and everyday life. I am fascinated by everyday miracles, mysteries, myths and fairy tales. I see everyday life as colorful and magical, and I want to tell these stories in my pictures.
In this exhibition, I have collected excerpts from my life and from my 40-year international and versatile career as an artist. For me, small is the new big, and on the other hand, big always grows new big!
I want to offer aesthetic joy and I hope that in this time I can convey the experiences of gratitude for what we have. In my work, I combine the precision, slowness and sleight of hand required by traditional printmaking with a touch of magic.
I have heard that my works are like little story books for adults.”
Most of the time, Varis’s works start to take shape through a real experience, a vision or a memory. His works are narrative, and so are their names, which are like keys to the story. On the other hand, Hanna Varis usually does not find it meaningful to open up the stories behind the works themselves.
“When my work is seen or changes hands, my own story ceases to be mine. It becomes a story built by another person, another experience and another miracle. Although my works can be based on the magical moments and everyday mysteries I’ve experienced, I want to use them to speak to others, and not so much to tell about myself: What do you see? What will your story be born from the picture?” , the crow asks.
However, Varis can reveal the background of some works. One of these is the work “Kaikki ihanat isiat” on display in the exhibition. It is based on Varis’ own experience twenty years ago:
“I was going on a trip to Italy to the Bay of Naples after a difficult period in my life. My sculptor friend wished me ‘Tante Belle cose’, which means all wonderful things in Finnish. On the way, I went snorkeling near the Castle Island of Ischia. An amazing miracle appeared under the water: endless columns of bubbles rose from all over the bottom towards the surface, against the sun they sparkled like diamond columns. I was moved by the beauty of the vision underwater to tears: ‘Tante Belle cose!’, I thought gratefully and enchanted”, says Hanna Varis.
Welcome to my exhibition, it is free to enter and all the works are art prints and are for sale.”
