GALLERY ASKI: MAIJA NÄRHINEN – AMONG OTHER THINGS

The works in the exhibition bring together, among other things, man-made objects and natural materials I have gathered from forest paths. These elements are juxtaposed and arranged based on visual criteria, such as similarities of shape. They create new environments for one another in works where a superfluous or unnecessary object gains a new right to exist.

In some of the works, I have focused on a single material—such as wood—and brought together its various manifestations. Other works, meanwhile, incorporate materials such as textiles, plastic, wood, porcelain, metal, and paper, in which case the common denominator between the different elements is their similar shape.

I have been interested in fitting together parts that differ from each other: in my works every single part is slightly different from each other. Our environment is composed of small details among which we constantly establish connections and create order. The elements selected for my works can be viewed as objects of the present, the past, or perhaps the future, yet the groupings in the exhibition differ significantly from the ways we classify everyday objects.

Maija Närhinen’s works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad, recently for example at the Oulu Art Museum and Mänttä Art Festival in 2025. Närhinen assembles her three-dimensional works from countless different components, and these methods of artistic practice were also addressed in her doctoral dissertation in visual arts, completed in 2024. A commissioned work for the EMMA collection was completed in 2023, and her works are also held in, among others, the collections of Kiasma, Kuntsi, Helsinki, Oulu and Rovaniemi Art museums, as well as the Saastamoinen and Serlachius Foundations. Närhinen was awarded the Finnish State Prize for the Visual Arts in 2024.

The exhibition has been supported by the Kone Foundation.

Artist Maija Närhinen:

www.maijanarhinen.fi

www.instagram.com/maijanarhinen/

Welcome to the opening on Thurdsday, September 10, from 5 to 7 PM.

An artist talk will take place on Sunday, September 27, from 3 to 4 PM.