CEESAY, HELLSTEN & KONTIOKARI JANUARY 11th – MARCH 4th, 2023

The first exhibition of 2023 at Pasila Urban Art Center features art by Saikou Ceesay, Juho Hellsten and Roosa Kontiokari. The vernissage of the joint exhibition will be celebrated on Wednesday 11th of January at 6 PM – 8 PM. After the opening day, you can come to see the exhibition during the center’s opening hours:

WED 12 PM – 8 PM 
THU 12 PM – 6 PM 
FRI 12 PM – 6 PM 
SAT 1 PM – 5 PM 

Saikou Ceesay is a Gambia-born former professional footballer, who turned into art and design after his professional career. Painting is a way for Ceesay to escape, express and navigate different rhythms of life. Ceesay wants the viewer to experience admiration, critique and even disturbance while viewing his artworks. “I like to hide small details in my art that the viewer has to search for. I don’t assume that every viewer finds all of them – after all, this planet has over 7 billion people, and not even two twins have similar irises”, Ceesay explains. 

Juho Hellsten is an artist and teacher, whose art can be found both on streets and at galleries. Hellsten’s art has influences from urban environments as well as from 1800s romantic scenery painting.  In his works at Pasila Urban Art center, we take a look at longing towards trekking and mountains. The topic is a direct opposite to to urban life and a fantasy that is born from urban dwelling. “I have trekked on the Alps and climbed on the Lofoten Island, but as I paint, the first experience I can reach are the nightly concrete peaks, gaps and parking lots of Merihaka, rooftops of Iso-Roba and wastelands of Malminkartano and Vuosaari. They are spaces and nature that has driven me to reach the higher peaks and mountaintops”, Hellsten illustrates. 

Roosa Kontiokari is an Oulu-born artist who finds inspiration from boredom and depicts mundane thoughts and experiences through a subtle humor. In her collection at Pasila Urban Art Center she focuses on feelings of bottled up anger and annoyance and the inevitable and gradual fading of such. “We all have feelings and thoughts that are probably best to keep to ourselves, and some of us are better – or to be exact, forced to be better at hiding their true thoughts and feelings and conveying them through more amicable manners”, Kontiokari explains her thoughts behind the series.