Ninna Korhonen, 1976 in Finnland geboren, ist eine Absolventin der Frankfurter Städelschule und der finnischen Akademie der bildenden Künste in Helsinki. Zuletzt war sie Gastkünstlerin des Atelier Frankfurt, Institut für zeitgenössische Kunst in Frankfurt am Main.

Ninna Korhonen präsentiert die Gruppe immer bekannter werdender, dynamischer und starker junger Malerinnen Finnlands. Die Tradition der finnischen Malerinnen geht zurück in die Zeit vom Beginn der 20. Jahrhunderts. Aus der Zeit findet sich auch die wohl bedeutendste finnische Künstlerin auf dem Weltkunstmarkt, Helena Schjerfbeck. Nicht ohne Grund vergleicht man die jungen Künstlerinnen mit den alten Meisterinnen des Landes. Die Rolle der Frau war und ist von Unabhängigkeit geprägt und die Vorliebe in der Darstellung liegt im menschlichen Entwicklungsprozess und ihrer Projektion in die Umgebung und die Wirkung darauf.

Ninna Korhonen – January ´06

Interview with Curator Mark Maher

Ninna Korhonen answers three questions from ArtSpace:

How autobiographical are your paintings?

I use autobiographical material as a starting point for my work but my aim is to deal with a broader sense of human condition. Since I work with issues of identity, human emotion and subjectivity I find it important to position myself always first in front of the questions I am dealing with. I feel I cannot discuss for example topics of identity crisis or contradictory emotions in a relationship if I haven’t lived through them myself. By working with myself, and the people closest to me I believe that I get closer to the core of issues of human beings and bring out a more honest point of view.

One thing I find very interesting about your paintings is that they seem both brutally specific and quite universal. Would you agree – and if so, was this on purpose?

I try in my art to be as direct as possible and grab onto thoughts and realizations, which feel most urgent and crucial in that moment, whether it is something personal, political or otherwise relevant on a existential level. A certain level of subjectivity and directness in my work can often seem brutal and too explicit. For me the artist carries a responsibility to reflect upon the world as openly and honestly as possible. This means to ask questions that no one else is asking, challenge common ways of thinking and most of all daring to communicate and play around with ideas and issues which cannot be expressed or communicated in other ways.

In my paintings I also search for different ways of expression and do not limit myself only to certain genres of painting for example classical or expressive. I enjoy mixing and matching, as well as playing around with the material to reach content and more dimensions to a theme. Most exhibitions of mine have usually a great mixture of different kinds of paintings. Many can see this also as disturbing.

What interest me though most in art is when one reaches a level, which is not attainable with words or intellect but still tells us something about ourselves as human beings. When art arouses thoughts and emotions, which are universally appealing. This is a very difficult but a challenging goal.

We live in a very digital era. Why keep painting? What’s the continued relevance? Are you, like, Amish?

I have worked with many different mediums of art including video, installation and performance. Through that I have made the experience that each medium from digital to classical have their own unique qualities and limitations of expressing an idea and that each form of art tends to communicate to the viewer in a different way. I believe that there is a difference especially in the distance that each medium creates between the viewer and the work. I feel for example that one cannot reach the directness, immediacy, and physicality of a live performance, sculpture, or even painting through digital forms of art. Then again I believe that digital art has possibilities in creating a greater precision, interaction and achieving unseen esthetics that one can only dream about when one is only limited to the body or canvas. I continue to paint because of its suggestiveness and incredible capability to reflect unconscious thoughts. It is for me the most natural way of unraveling complicated ideas and reaching into the core of what I am trying to say. Painting does not have for me some kind of sacred position in art but through its long history and capability of always living up to its times, it is still in my opinion the most challenging and thrilling form of art. I believe painting will always be relevant and in dialogue with newer forms of art. I also think the fact that there exists art these days in both traditional and digital form just adds to the richness and depth of the art world. It gives artists an even greater possibility to try to express oneself more on point and to communicate their ideas as widely as possible. Therefore I consider myself everything else than Amish.