My artistic work operates within the field of expanded painting, where conventional two-dimensional paintings expand into sculptural and spatial experiences. In this expanded field, colours, paint, and compositions familiar from the tradition of painting combine with the methods of sculpture, and time and space arts. The limit between reality and fantasy are the starting points in the work on a spatial installation of paintings where everyday elements assume new poses and positions.
Finland-based visual artist Kaija Hinkula (born 1984) has graduated as a Master of Fine Arts from the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts and as a visual artist from the Saimaa University of Applied Sciences . Hinkula has held solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Finland and abroad since 2007. Her works are featured in the Finnish State Art Deposit Collection and in the collections of HAM Helsinki Museum of Art.
CV
Kaija Hinkula
b. 1984
Finland
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
2023 KCCC, Klaipeda, (with Henna Aho) LT
2024 Turku Art Hall (solo), FI
2024 Monumentaan Gallery, Tarto Art House, (with Henna Aho) EE
SOLO EXHIBITIONS ( SELECTED )
2023 Boulder Star, Pragovka Gallery, Praque, CZ
2023 CORNER, Woikka Contemporary FI
2023 Stargazer, Ham Gallery, Helsinki Art Museum, Finland
2022 Play, Oulu Art Museum, Finland
2021 Fire Hose 50 Bar, Forum Box, Helsinki, Finland
2019 Builder, Gallery Harmaja, Oulu, Finland
2018 Matter, Huuto Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2016 Indian Express, TM Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2015 Journey, Gallery Katariina, Helsinki, Finland
2015 Journey, KOUTA Gallery, Art Museum Poikilo, Kouvola, Finland
2014 The Butterfly Effect, Gallery Mältinranta, Studio, Tampere, Finland
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)
2023 On Furlough – My Paracosmic Playdate Reality Show, Festung Hohensalzburg, Salzburg, AT
2022 Zoning, SIC, Helsinki, FI
2022 Serlachius Residency, Mänttä, FI
2022 PADA Gallery, Lissabon, Portugal
2022 Pori Biennale, Visitors, Helsinki, Finland
2021-2022 Nordisk Salong, Helsingborg, Sverige
2021 Supermarket Art Fair, TM Galleria, Stockholm, Sverige
2021 International festival of Manuports, Kohta Art Hall, Helsinki
2020 Kuvan Kevät, MA Degree Show of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki
2019 Karuselli, Tm Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2019 Finnish Painters` Union 90 years, Art Museum of Lappeenranta, Finland
2019 Finnish Painters`union 90 years, Galleria 5, Oulu
2018 Kerronta, Art Center Haihara, Tampere
2018 Home called Krimi, art in to-be-demolished houseArt Center Krimi, Imatra, Finland
2017 Kyllä, Art Museum of Riihimäki
2017 Katajainen Kansa, art in to-be-demolished house, Mäntyharju, Finland
2017 Decadence, Gallery Krimi, Finland
2016 ARS Kärsämäki, Finland
2016 Pohjaveed, Monumentaalgalerie, Tartu Kunstimaja, Tartto, Estonia
2016 Works on Paper, DLUL, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2016 5000m2, art in to-be-demolished house, Lappeenranta Finland
2015 Exhale, Galerie Pleiku, Berlin, Germany (Hinkula & Peräkylä)
2015 Matka, Art Museum of Imatra, Finland
2014 The snowball Effect II, biennal of Northern Finland, Art Museum of Rovaniemi, Finland
2014 Growth, The Art Of Basware – competition for young artists, Music center, Helsinki, Finland
2014 Itää, Gallery Rantakasarmi, Helsinki, Finland
2013 Connections, The Art of Basware- competition for young artists, Helsinki Music Center, Helsinki, Finland
2013 ArSboretum13 – “Temporary happiness ja muita tarinoita”, Kemiö, Finland
2013 Inner Landscapes, Tartu Kunstimaja, Tartu, Estonia
2012 Second Ground, Loov Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia (Hinkula & Peräkylä)
2012 The Snowball Effect, Biennal of Northern Finland, Art Museum of Oulu, Finland
2012 Billnäs Young Artists, Billnäs. Finland
2011 Art Museum of O.Jauhiainen, Kiiminki, Finland
2009 Riskiryhmä, The Cable Factory, Helsinki, Finland
2008 Staalkaart, Amersfoort, Netherlands, Finland
2008 Riskiryhmä, Art Museum of Imatra, Imatra, Finland
WORK IN COLLECTIONS
HAM Helsinki Art Museum
The Collection of Finnish State Art Commision
HUS Art Collection
Art Museum of Oulu
Finnish Art Society, annual art lottery 2018
City of Amersfoort, Netherlands
Helia Foundation
SEK
Art Center Salmela
City of Mäntyharju
Osuuskauppa Suur-Savo
Vyborg´s artist Studio
Billnäs Ruukki
Saskiat Oulu
Pique Nique Helsinki
GRANTS / STIPENDS / PRIZES
Finnish Cultural Foundation
Arts Council of Finland
Finnish Art Society
VISEK
Art Council of Pohjois-Pohjanmaa & Kainuu
Frame
City of Oulu
Saskiat Oulu
Oulu Valistustalo
City of Imatra
Osuuskauppa Suur-Savo
RESIDENCIES
2022 Serlachius Residency, Finland
2022 PADA Sudios, Portugal
2016 Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
2013 Kemijärvi, Finland
2012 Kochi, India
2010 Vyborg, Russia
2010 Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain
2008 Kunstenaarslogies, Amersfoort, Netherlands
PUBLIC WORKS
Kummeli, public sculpture, Oulu, 2021
OTHER
2022 OuluDanceHack22, multidiciplinary artists group by Taikabox, Oulu, FI
2019 Bones of Amelia, Valvegallery , Oulu (multdiciplinary installaton/performance)
2016 Ocean, light/paintng installatons, Lumo Light festval, Oulu, with Mika Kiviniemi
EDUCATION
2019–2021 Master of Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki
2004–2008 South Carelia University of Applied Sciences, visual artist
2006 University of Granada, Fine Arts, Spain
2003–2004 Liminka Art School
MEMBERSHIPS
Art Assosiation of Oulu
Finish painter`s union
Mehiläispesä Ry
POSITION OF TRUST
Board of Finnish Painters Union 2020-2021
Representatives of the Artists’ Association of Finland 2019-2020, 2021-2022
Chairman of Art assosiation of Oulu 2015–2016
Board of Art assosiation of Oulu 2010–2012
Vice-Chairman of Art assosiation of Oulu 2012
“Hinkula blends different worlds together in uninhibited ways creating playfull fantasies, so the severity or restraint often linked to minimalism is not present here. Readymade and handmade as well as two-dimensional and three-dimensional are both contradictions that the artist combines together one work at a time. This time, spatiality is present inside the paintings, where audience can peek into, thanks to the holes cut in the surface. On one hand, Hinkula’s works bring to mind parallels to cubistic ideas or Brazilian concretism of the 1910s, but they also seem to fit well in this time and place while also reaching towards the future sci-fi aesthetics.
When the artist asks if it would be possible to imagine alternative realities and word orders, the answer is yes. And she proves this through her works and exhibitions, showing how art is always a form or dissidence and rethinking. Hinkula takes her audience into an experience that reveals surprising directions and views. She does not offer a static style or expression, but rather shows the fantasty-like views born in her studio. Hinkula’s workspace does not have a chair, because the artist never remains still and is always in motion. The same applies to her art, described as ‘malleable geometry’ or a ‘place between realities’. Stargazer à la Kaija Hinkula takes the viewer to galaxies far, far away, simply by sight. This, if anything, is fantastic minimalism.” – Ph.D. Juha-Heikki Tihinen
“The paintings and installations of Kaija Hinkula are constructed by compiling everyday industrial material and objects in vivid and intense colors. The visual landscape, or perhaps cityscape, she presents is surprising, joyous, and triggers our imagination. Experiencing Hinkula’s sculptural environment like spatial and temporal painting expands and challenges our perception of our regular environment while making us think about what structural globalization does to the individual. The work reflects on our reality, and our perception of our society and how we operate in it.” – Power Ekroth