Invitation to press conference: Villa Gyllenberg to exhibit new works by Jarmo Mäkilä in October 2024

Hidden and visible lives

While Mäkilä's visual language is realistic, even meticulous, the events he depicts are far from everyday reality. His works are mental landscapes where the inner and outer meet. He paints metaphorical worlds that include all of his selves, from knee-high boy to the threshold of adulthood, plus alternative presents and futures, real and imagined.

“Things are not what they seem,” Jarmo Mäkilä says. “A picture is not what you see, but what it awakens in you and what is behind it. A person lives, in a way, two lives: external and internal. One is hidden and the other is visible. I am trying to engage with the hidden life.”

Ane Gyllenberg too was interested in the development of the self and the effect of spirituality on a person. This interest is reflected in the art collection of the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, which includes numerous works depicting inner dialogue and spiritual exploration. Mäkilä feels that his reflections on the development of the self connect him with Ane Gyllenberg, and he has selected works from the Gyllenberg Collection that he feels are meaningful to him. The artist's works have previously been exhibited in parallel with works at from the Gallen-Kallela Museum’s collection (2020) and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum’s collection (2021–2022).

New works explore ageing

Jarmo Mäkilä (b. 1952) is one of the most significant painters of his generation and has had many selves, also as an artist. He has always followed his own path, making his breakthrough in the 1970s as a social realist, rising to the top of Finnish postmodernism in the 1980s, and surprising in the 1990s as a prominent cartoonist. In recent decades, he has looked at his childhood in post-war Finland and done so in a way where the individual’s subjective experiences expand to become recognisable on a general level.

The exhibition at Villa Gyllenberg consists of Jarmo Mäkilä’s recent works, many of which have been created especially for this exhibition and are being exhibited for the first time. One of its prominent themes is time: on the one hand growing up and on the other, physical ageing. Over the years, Mäkilä has painted several portraits of his mother. In the exhibition, these portraits are compared to Helene Schjerfbeck’s self-portraits in the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Collection, in which the artist mercilessly depicted her ageing and frailty.

No forest without trees

Another strongly present element in Mäkilä’s art is the forest. It is not only a playground for little boys, but also a stage that offers the artist insightful liminal spaces and places where the subconscious lives. He often includes a restless dog in his paintings who senses what we cannot see. But there is no forest without trees. As can be seen in the dark spruces painted by both Ernst Krohn and Jarmo Mäkilä, in art a tree is more than a representative of its species. It is a signpost or gateway from the outer reality to the inner world.

“We are happy to have Jarmo Mäkilä's works on display at Villa Gyllenberg,” says Lotta Nylund, Chief Curator at Villa Gyllenberg. “In our recent exhibitions, we have mainly presented classic art, so it's interesting to do something different for a change. New aspects of our own collection emerge when they are presented alongside Mäkilä’s contemporary artworks."

In addition to Mäkilä’s paintings and sculptures, the exhibition also presents works by such artists as Fanny Churberg, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Ernst Krohn, Väinö Kunnas, Helene Schjerfbeck and Tyko Sallinen.

 

Contacts and interview requests:

Jarmo Mäkilä, 041 440 9452.
Lotta Nylund, Chief Curator, lotta.nylund@gyllenbergs.fi
Siiri Oinonen, Head of Customer and Program Services, siiri.oinonen@gyllenbergs.fi (image requests).
Timo Valjakka’s contact information on request from Nylund or Oinonen.

Opening hours

Wed, Sat, Sun 12–17
(Closed during change of exhibition from September 30^th to October 22^nd).

Admission

12/10/0 € with Museum Card

Tour bookings

villa@gyllenbergs.fi