Portraits without a face

Our world in circles, triangles and lines: Minttu Polso uses the simplest geometric shapes to create multi-layered works of art. Her sculptures and paintings refer to visible objects as well as to thoughts and feelings, to which the Finnish artist gives individual expression. In the exhibition Rajapintoja (Interfaces) of the Nurmijärvi Art Association, founded in 1979, Polso is showing a selection of her works. With the sculptures Cube 2 and Sphere, she explores the spatial effect of her geometric structures. Her paintings The party can start and Saint of Cats, on the other hand, add new aspects to portrait painting: the facelessness of the figures refers to the anonymity created by temporal distance. Polso thus addresses emerging feelings of strangeness that can arise when looking at old portrait paintings or (own) photographs. The exhibition can be seen from May 10 to 18 at Rajamäen Hiivatehdas, a former yeast factory, near Nurmijärvi, where Polso lives and works.

Minttu Polso's artistic concept is based on her scientific background as a cancer researcher: analogous to simple molecules, which make up complex structures and even living beings in unimaginable numbers, she uses geometric shapes to create worlds of feeling and thought that are almost impossible to grasp with words. Characteristic of her work is the almost perfect, but deliberately hand-crafted execution – a quality that creates a special closeness between the artwork and the viewer and differs fundamentally from the effect of computer-generated images.