Kristján Gudmundsson | Niko Luoma | Jussi Nahkuri | Finnbogi Pétursson | Diogo Pimentão | Mikko Rikala | Józef Robakowski | Ragna Róbertsdóttir

Exhibition: 26 November 2022 – 25 February 2023

Venue: Persons Projects, Lindenstr 35, 10969 Berlin

David Hockney, once said, "drawing takes time, a line has time in it.” Inspired by this, Persons Projects is proud to present a group exhibition exploring the various approaches that shift the parameters of understanding what a line can be in the context of a drawing. These selected artists use a multitude of different materials as well as the passage of time to express their conceptual propositions in visualizing these linear representations.

Exhibition: 26 November 2022 – 25 February 2023

Venue: Persons Projects, Lindenstr. 34, 10969 Berlin

Persons Projects is proud to present Jari Silomäki’s new series The Affectionate Kalpana – My Story of Class Mobility which depicts the many different shades and outcomes of social class mobility. The selection of works presented in the exhibition consists of portraits, group pictures, and landscape photographs that the artist combines with text, written by the subjects in their native language, telling their life stories from their own perspective. Between objective documentation and subjective artistic perspective, this group of works introduces the viewer to the complexity of a global phenomenon that is still quite unknown to the western society. To further inform about this sociocultural matter, the series will be included in Silomäki’s latest monograph Jari Silomäki: Atlas of Emotions.

Persons Projects is proud to present Niina Vatanen’s solo exhibition titled Gravity Experiments and Cyclic Phenomena. This exhibition follows her 2015 solo show at C/O Berlin, and her latest book Time Atlas (Kehrer Verlag, 2019). One’s experience of time is incredibly complex. By studying the movements of the planets, and with the help of various omens and prophecies, religions and oracles, humans have investigated not only our place in the universe, but also searched for answers to existential questions. In this exhibition, Vatanen does the same – she has combined images from various archives to create a multifaceted visual essay concerning time.

Janne Lehtinen | Dominik Lejman | Jyrki Parantainen | Mikko Rikala | Santeri Tuori

Exhibition: 14 September – 19 November 2022

Persons Projects is proud to present a group exhibition In the Sky Unlike a Bird which is a collection of five artists’ interpretations of how an individual weighs and ponders upon the different volumes of nothingness. It’s an exhibition that creates a space where words float in the air and islands hang by a thread pinned to an infinity of blue on blue. Imagine an image of gravity dangling by its arms or a man in the moon who teases the tides by splashing the ocean one wave at a time. Howard Altmann says it best in his poem used in collaboration with Dominik Lejman’s painting, "could it be the sky has changed its colors? The natural order is where I turn now to turn myself around”. It’s not about what we see but more so how we perceive the place we are in.

Opening: Friday, 1 July 2022, 6 – 8 pm

Venue: Persons Projects, Lindenstr. 35, 10969 Berlin

Ilkka Halso | Sanna Kannisto | Sandra Kantanen | Mikko Rikala

Opening: Friday, 1 July 2022, 6 – 8 pm

Exhibition: 2 July – 3 September 2022
Venue: Persons Projects, Lindenstr. 34, 10969 Berlin

Persons Projects is proud to present four artists from The Helsinki School who challenge pressing questions concerning the fragility of our ecosystem. In a world that is facing rapid changes in industry and capitalism, how can one reconnect with nature? What does it mean to slow down, to focus on the unseen, and appreciate nature’s temporality? These artists are among those few who remain in dialogue with nature, making a radical decision to treat our ecosystem with respect and to strengthen the human connection to it. They see that nature is unpredictable, asking if anything is predetermined. Rather than trying to control and suppress our environment – much like the large corporations fuelling climate change – Halso, Kannisto, Kantanen, and Rikala work with the unreliability of the landscape, embracing it to further cement our relationship with it.

Opening: Friday, 29 April 2022, 6 – 9 pm

Venue: Persons Projects, Lindenstr. 35, 10969 Berlin

During Gallery Weekend Berlin 2022.

Persons Projects is proud to present Grey Crawford’s solo exhibition, Chroma Figura, which focuses upon his previously unseen color works from 1978-1984.
The Southern California art scene of the 1970s and early 80s radiated with an energy that was unparalleled to any other time it had ever experienced. This cultural pulse could be felt in everything from ceramics to the Chicano art movement and this acute sense for creativity was never more evident than in the various art schools that surrounded the LA basin. Chasing an MFA in Southern California during the 1970s, whether it be at the Claremont Graduate University, where Grey Crawford attended, or any other Grad school in California, felt more like attending an event than being exposed to the rigors of academia. The Open Studio Concept, championed by Roland Reiss at Claremont Graduate University, and John Baldessari at CalArts reflected the creative spirit that was driving the times.
This exhibition introduces his Chroma Figura series and focuses upon his breakthrough, highly original color works. In seven years, the artist created over 200 works. This selection of photographs represents an extension of Crawford’s interest in using masked geometric basic shapes we first saw in his black and white Umbra series. These photographic images still reflect his painterly roots inspired by two of California’s hard-edge painters Karl Benjamin and John McLaughlin, yet Crawford’s experimentations add a new dimension to this ongoing dialogue. Most importantly, they now establish and give credit to Crawford’s uniqueness.

Venue: Persons Projects | Helsinki School, Lindenstr. 34, 10969 Berlin

During Gallery Weekend Berlin 2022.

Persons Projects is proud to present Milja Laurila’s Untitled Women series, which utilizes a present day feminist lens to understand how women have historically been viewed by men.

The 1930s book titled Woman. An Historical Gynæcological and Anthropological Compendium acts as a point of departure for Laurila’s work. Originally published in German in 1885 and written by three men, the book is illustrated with hundreds of photographs of naked women and children from all over the world, primarily colonized countries. This cross between anthropology, racism, and sexism, come together to create an uncomfortable viewing experience that claims to be ‘scientific’. The photographed women have no voice and they are presented as exotic specimens found in nature. The ethnographic pictorial style allowed the pretence of looking at women objectively and innocently. The exoticizing gaze, with its sexual desire, was hidden behind the veneer of legitimate scientific inquiry.

Zofia Kulik | Anni Leppälä | Ragna Róbertsdóttir | Niina Vatanen

Opening: Friday, 11 March 2022, 6 – 8 pm

Exhibition: 12 March – 23 April 2022

Venue: Persons Projects, Lindenstr. 35, 10969 Berlin

Persons Projects is delighted to present a unique selection of female artists who share a common ground within their artistic practices as they all incorporate and draw from their own personal histories. Their work and overall creative development were influenced by a female presence that played a significant role in their upbringing. Under this aspect, this group exhibition intends to explore four different female perspectives and how they are joined together through the process of objectifying their own fears and doubts in their search for their own identity. Their artistic arsenal ranges from threads and pins to textile ornaments and patterns. Regardless of the materials used, the works collected in this exhibition reflect a tactile sensibility in the way the artists apply them.
Embroidery, sewing, and working with fabric are historically associated with women and ‘domestic tasks’, overlooking the intense skill and creativity required to create the artwork. But since the early days of Surrealism, these specific activities have been one of the tools used to characterize the feminist voice of discontent. Generations of female artists seeking to negate and escape society’s expectations consciously avoided this direction. Today, contemporary women artists are reusing these traditions in their artistic expression, referring to the repetition of daily activities as the basis of our existence.