THE HOUSE OF POETS
We are happy to announce The House of Poets, Timo Kelarantas first exhibition in Norway. Photographer Timo Kelaranta is best known for creating abstract, hushed and minimalistic works. He describes his artistic practice as a physical process. He works with found materials such as metal, stone, plastic and paper, all with the aim of imbuing his photographs a new, poetic, immaterial and timeless dimension. The exhibition The House of Poets contains works from the series Juego from 2012, For Auli from 2011, as well as the series The House of Poets from 2013, which has not previously been shown.
Instead of addressing any subject in isolation, his photographs operate rather like a language that follows its own unique rules of grammar and syntax. In contrast to what is typical for most photographers, he lets the identification and scale of a motif fade away, and in their place, elements of painting and drawing gain ground. The motifs in most works in this exhibition arise from shapes made out of paper. Circles, ellipses and droplet are leitmotifs, yet the role of emptiness always remains the core subject. To find meaning in his works, one must often identify precisely what is absent.
As far as Kelaranta is concerned, light is the true protagonist in his works. By experimenting with light, he is able to mould and manipulate an object’s surface, scale and space into something that was not there before.The exhibition also features the artist’s newly published book ́The House of Poets ́, published by Kehrer Verlag and supported by Fotogalleriet, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation / Uusimaa Regional Fund, FRAME and Finsk-Norsk Kulturinstitutt The exhibition The House of Poets is supported by Frame Visual Art Finland and Finsk-Norsk Kulturinstitutt.
Timo Kelaranta (b. 1951, Helsinki) graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 1975. As a central figure in the artworld since the mid-70s, he has twice served as Professor of Photography at his alma mater (now named Aalto University).Of his most recent solo exhibitions, we make due to mention Outo rakkaus/Strange Love, the Finnish Museum of Photography (2012); Taik Gallery Berlin (2008); The Quiets,Espoo Museum of Modern Art (2006) and Image Gallery, Århus (2004). He has participated in group exhibitions such as Paris Photo (2012); ViennaFair, (2012); Korjaamo Gallery, Helsinki (2011); Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris (2008) and at the Helsinki Art Museum, (2007). His works have been acquired by (among others) Kiasma Helsinki; the Art Collections of Espoo City; the Photographic Museum of Finland, Helsinki; the Art Museum of Oulu; and the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg.
