Cooperative Forum Box is delighted to welcome six new member artists: Riikka Anttonen, Taru Happonen, Kaija Hinkula, Juuso Noronkoski, Leonor Ruiz Dubrovin, and Päivi Takala. Read more about each artist below.
RIIKKA ANTTONEN is a Helsinki-based visual artist who works in the expanded field of sculpture and painting. They hold an MFA degree from the University of the Arts, Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki, and an MA degree from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Their space-sensitive works combine sculptural elements with marble mosaic and painted relief surfaces. Currently, Anttonen is working towards their next solo exhibition at Sinne Gallery in Helsinki, and their works can be seen in different group exhibitions, for example at Pesula Gallery in Sipoo, Kai Art Center in Tallinn and in Kunsthalle Helsinki.
Riikka Anttonen’s solo exhibition Acorn Hunt was on view at Forum Box January 5—28, 2024.
Photo: Arto Marttinen.
TARU HAPPONEN (b. 1989, Lahti) is a Helsinki-based visual artist who works with paintings, sculptures, and drawings. She graduated with a Master’s degree in 2023 from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki.
In her works, Happonen examines the environment and organisms from both microscopic and cosmic scales. Her works blend figurative and abstract elements, featuring patterns found in nature and utilizing diverse materials such as oil paint, recycled plastic, and mineral resin. Her artworks convey the significance of wonder, viewing the world as complex and constantly changing.
Her next solo exhibition will open in November 2024 at the HAM Gallery in the Helsinki Art Museum.
KAIJA HINKULA (b. 1984) works in the field of expanded painting making sculptural paintings, installation and video performances. Her artistic practice deals with the role of fantasy as a part of everyday reality and future images construction. Hinkula has graduated as a master of arts from the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts. She has exhibited solo in Forum Box, HAM Gallery and Oulu Art Museum, and as a duo with Henna Aho in KCCC Lithuania and Tartu Art Hall 2024 (upcoming). Her works are featured in the Finnish State Art Deposit Collection and in the collections of HAM Helsinki Museum of Art. She`s the stipendiat in the residency program ISCP in New York for the year 2025 by Academy of Fine Arts & Saastamoinen Foundation. Her next solo show is coming up in Turku Art Hall during the summer 2024.
Kaija Hinkula’ solo exhibition Fire Hose Bar 50 was on view at Forum Box September 17—October 10, 2021.
JUUSO NORONKOSKI (b. 1983) is a visual artist living and working in Helsinki. He graduated from the Master’s program in Photography at Aalto University in 2015. The relationship between a photograph, place and time duration plays a central role in his work. Noronkoski’s works are installations where he combines photography, video, sound, sculpture and text fragments. Noronkoski has held solo exhibitions in Finland, Germany and Japan. His works have been on view for example at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Loko Gallery, Tokyo, Sinne Gallery, Galerie Anhava, SIC, Hippolyte, and Forum Box, Helsinki.
Juuso Noronkoski’s joint exhibition Two Million Seconds together with Joonas Siren and Tuomo Rainio was on view at Forum Box April 8—30, 2023.
LEONOR RUIZ DUBROVIN is fascinated by the physical properties of oil painting. Her work focuses on maximizing the possibilities offered by this medium. Through various blending and layering techniques, Dubrovin seeks to create depth, imbue intricate details, and create complex visual effects. Her artistic work is a fusion of diverse dualities, such as the representative and the suggestive, reality and fiction. Through different portraits and embodiments, her paintings depict the exaltation of the individual and the search for an authentic self. Dubrovin’s motifs reflect a profound concern with the construction of the self, the multifaceted ways in which personal identities are formed, restricted, or enhanced, and how external perceptions and labels shape us.
Dubrovin graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2008. Her contributions have been exhibited in Finland and abroad, including venues such as the Finnish Cultural Institute and the Gallery Modus Operandi in Madrid, Tool Box Gallery in Berlin, and Helsinki Contemporary Gallery and Forum Box Gallery in Finland. Her works are featured in collections in Finland and abroad. Including the Wihuri Foundation, Pro Artibus Foundation, Finnish State Art Deposit Collection, Päivi and Paavo Lipponen Trust’s Art Collection (deposition) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Finnish Art Society and Private collections in Finland, Spain, Germany, Austria and Denmark. She was awarded the Grönqvistska Foundation Prize in 2023.
Leonor Ruiz Dubrovin’s solo exhibition Bolthole was on view at Forum Box March 10—April 2, 2023.
During her career PÄIVI TAKALA (b. 1970) has explored the disintegration and modification of paintings over a long period. She has painted illusions of disintegrating images on canvas and then perforated the paintings with three-dimensional objects. In her latest pieces she has focuses on the gesture of repair. Repairing is a way to study the material nature of the painting and it opens up opportunities to consider in broader perspective the meanings of fixing and patching things.
Päivi Takala, Pia Euro and Elena Näsänen’s group exhibition was on view at Forum Box May 5—27, 2007.