Helsinki Contemporary takes pride in hosting Ville Andersson’s fifth solo exhibition this April. Undertones highlights the medium of drawing as a mode of being present and observing oneself and how one’s relationship with one’s surroundings keeps changing. The exhibition presents a powerful and cohesive body of work on paper that gains dynamism from subtle rhythmic accents and carefully placed surprises.
“Most of the drawings portray details or cropped views rather than the entire subject. I started working on the series by focusing on tightly cropped images of noses or eyes, but the further I got, I realized that the series needed at least one ‘classical portrait’ to pull it together, creating a rhythm that unites all the parts.”
Andersson grounds us in core experiences of everyday reality using classic elements: pen, paper, hand and eye – ways of reaching out and touching to which everyone can easily relate. He masterfully builds tension through a dialogue of familiar and unknown elements, marrying the recognizable with the uncanny. His wily chiaroscuro leads the eye into details that reveal themselves to be part of an all-encompassing unity.
“From the outset it was clear to me that I wanted to include some kind of visual ‘bug’ or ‘flaw’. I also wanted to evoke a certain ‘xerox aesthetic’ that on closer inspection would reveal itself to be dense cross-hatching.”
Both the technique and the scale of the drawings are significant. The drawings present extreme close-ups, and they are in turn viewed at close range, as if the viewer were touching them, thoughtfully and contemplatively – caringly.
“By working small, my whole body is actively engaged, and the entire picture plane is under my control. The size of the paper defines the structure, but within that structure, anything is possible. Emptiness is a space where imagination can flow freely.”
Flickering contrasts of light and shadow are interwoven, and boundaries are blurred between the figurative and the abstract. Looking at Andersson’s drawings is like viewing stills of a mystical film sequence of hazy yet perfect moments in the urban flow when it is impossible and irrelevant to distinguish when day ends and night begins. There is only that moment, that beautiful fragment, that state of betweenness.
“I hope that audiences will gain a dual sense of both movement and stillness in my drawings. For me, movement is driven by restlessness. Desire propels the mind into motion (even if the object of desire is unattainable). There is also an element of pleasure in the build-up of drawing and working my way towards a desired goal. Hopefully that tension can also be sensed by the viewer.”
Ville Andersson (b. 1986) studied at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts from 2007 until 2012. He received Finland’s Young Artist of the Year Award in 2015. He has exhibited widely both in Finland and abroad at venues including EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, the National Art Center in Tokyo, Vitraria Glass +A Museum in Venice, the Weserburg Museum für Moderne Kunst in Bremen, Germany, the Centrum för Fotograf in Stockholm and FOMU – Fotomuseum Provincie in Antwerp, Belgium. His work is represented in collections such as Saastamoinen Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Amos Andersson Art Museum, Pro Artibus and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Art Foundation. His recent projects include the design of Tampere’s new tram stops, artworks for family rooms at Kerava Health Centre, the new graphic look of the Academic Bookstore and a piece commissioned as part of the Helsinki Festival’s Open Art Gallery project. In 2022, Andersson was awarded the Watermill Center’s Inga Maren Otto Fellowship and the Finnish Art Society’s William Thuring Prize.
