26.9.-15-10. 2023

A boy is gutting perch on the summer cottage dock and a big thunderstorm front is approaching from the sea, seagulls are swarming around for the fish bait – it is just perfect, and yet something is lurking in your mind: climate change is increasing dangerous storms, are the seagulls carrying bird flu?

In this exhibition I try somehow to deal with this sense of threat that underlies everything we do in everyday life, the constant feeling of being wrong that takes some of the joy out of even the best moments of life. Do I have permission to take a moment to myself, permission to go to the cottage and forget everything for a while?

And yet those perfect moments in life are real – no one can live without them, and they are given to me, to us. Am I allowed to protect my own well-being when the means or reason for it is escape, not participation.

Sampsa Sarparanta (b. 1973) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2006. She lives and works in Perniö. During her more than 20-year career as an artist, she has held dozens of solo exhibitions and participated in several group exhibitions in Finland and abroad. Sarparanta’s works are in the collections of Kiasma, the City of Turku and the Salo Art Museum, among others.

Sarparanta is known for his social realism. The subjects of his works range from global grievances to topical domestic issues. On the other hand, he also depicts personal portraits and everyday glimpses into the lives of people close to him. Helsingin Sanomat called Sarparanta a brilliant photographer of the wonderful horror of everyday life (January 2011).

Sarparanta is also known for his 20-year career as a singer-songwriter in the punk band No Shame (1996-2016), and now for his new band SARPARANTA.

All works are for sale, inquiries through the gallery