Galleria Saskia, Tampere 2020. Exhibition curated by Veikko Halmetoja.
The exhibition project was supported by Serlachius Residency and SKR Etelä-Savo / Finnish Culture Foundation, South Savo
| Wyborg, Malva, Lahti 2024 | Aprés moi, le dèluge, Galleria Halmetoja, Helsinki 2023 | Crossroads, Kulttuurikeskus Poleeni 2016 |
”In her series Modelling Poses, Kirsimaria E. Törönen creates interpretations of human figures from fine art. She borrows and moulds, draws lines and luxuriates with form. The figures, borrowed from significant artworks from art history, are not replicated. Törönen renders them freely. The outline wanders and cleverly illustrates the figures,in an easily recognisable, but still fresh and different way.
Cut from steel or MDF-board, the figures retain an airy and light feeling. The works settle into a space, slightly off the wall, as if they were part of the building’s architecture. The customary rectangular shape of a canvas is unambiguous. The artworks, cut to form, feel like an integral part of the space – created and owned by it.
In the Modelling Poses series, Törönen also considers gender in the context of fine art. Through her interpretation, the shivering nude female model is given a voice, the object becomes the subject and the form is no longer forced to fit into a mould. Male figures are also depicted, some of which have wound up nude like their contemporary female counterparts. … ”
Veikko Halmetoja
Galleria Saskia, 2020 
Left Small nude, 2019 (sold) Right Wives, lovers, whatever, 2020 painted aluminium 
Wives, lovers, whatever, 2020 painted aluminium 
From left to right: Shikumen, 2009 painted mdf, height app. 185cm / Egon, 2019 painted metal / Balzac, 2019 painted metal 
Modelling poses, Galleria Saskia, 2020 curator Veikko Halmetoja 
Black Nude, 2019 painted mdf, height app. 90 cm 
Galleria Saskia, 2020 
Modelling poses, Galleria Saskia, 2020 
Le bain, 2019 painted metal 
Le Bain de Marthe, 2019 painted metal 
Petit Marthé, 2020 painted mdf, bathtub app. 80 cm in width 
Left: BLue Nude, 2019 painted mdf, diagonal measure 120 cm 
Left: series Small Nudes, 2019 (sold out) Right: O`Nevermore, 2019 painted mdf 
On the left Nude, 2019 painted mdf, on the right series Small nudes, 2019 mixed media on mdf (all sold) 
O’Nevermore, 2019 painted mdf, width 120 cm 
Modelling poses, Galleria Saskia, 2020 
West of Eden, 2009 grooved and painted mdf with metal leaf application, Tampere art museum collection 
Small nude, 2019 mixed media on mdf, private collection 
Small nude, 2019 mixed media on mdf, private collection 
Blue nude, 2019, painted mdf 3200€, diagonally 120 cm
Individual works from the Modelling poses series:
Venus, 2016
corten metal
(painted metal, white, not available)
Venus and Sisters are the first two works in the series.
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, 1485 served as an inspiration for my version
cut from corten metal commenting on the intercultural aspects of the
2016 refugee crisis. My Venus is devoid of her iconic golden locks, often
depicted as the crown of womanhood and instead clad in a hijab resembling
headgear.
Sisters, 2016
corten metal
height 90cm
Venus and Sisters are the first two works in the series. Botticelli’s Primavera, 1470 or 1480, served as an inspiration for my version of the three muses cut from corten metal.
Two variations, Sudenhetki 1 and Sudenhetki 2, of the muses feet I made for Horizon exhibition in Laupa art museum in 2024.
Blue nude, 2019
painted mdf
diamater 120 cm
Inspired by the Blue Nude series of collages and litographs by Henri Matisse, I made my own Blue Nude figure. This figure evolved into a whole series of small nudes in mixed media (sold out) and several nude studies in various sizes made of painted mdf.
Small nude, 2019
mixed media on mdf
height 20 cm
Variations from my own work Blue Nude, which was inspired by Matisse’s Blue Nude works.
Le Bain, 2019
painted metal
white tub 180 cm wide
The beautiful paintings of Pierre Bonnard contain a tense psychodrama. I am fascinated by the paintings depicting his wife Marthé bathing. Feeling he painted her somewhat indifferently, with a rather cold approach, I wanted to give Marthé back some charm and seductiveness.
Le bain de Marthé
painted mdf
width 60 cm (black) and 80 cm (white)
All the Marthé works are versions of Pierre Bonnard’s Le Bain paintings.
O’Nevermore, 2019
painted mdf
width 120 cm
Reinterpreting iconic and canonized artworks requires background research. Moralizing the past according to present day values is out of place, it is crucial instead to try to understand the time that gave birth to a specific work of art.
I have combined two famous model figures of art history, of whom hardly anything has been left in the history books as individuals, despite the fact that one of them was an artist in her right, exhibiting in the Paris Salon. The creators of both paintings (Olympia, 1863 and Nevermore, 1897) have been praised as geniuses.
Balzac, 2019
painted metal
height 185cm
”In the Modelling Poses series, Törönen also considers gender in the context of fine art. Through her interpretation, the shivering nude female model is given a voice, the object becomes the subject and the form is no longer forced to fit into a mould. Male figures are also depicted, some of which have wound up nude like their contemporary female counterparts.”
Veikko Halmetoja
Wives, lovers, whatever, 2019
painted aluminium
width app. 300
This piece and the Bitch Please! works are a commentary on the numerous studies of women by Pablo Picasso.
Bitch Please!, 1 2021
painted metal
width 154 cm
Bitch Please! 2, 2021
painted metal
width app. 145cm
Bitch Please! 2, 2021
painted metal
width app. 145cm
Egon 2, 2019
painted metal and mdf
height 120 cm
Egon 1 and 2 are interpretations of Egon Schiele’s selfportrait in the Leopold museum collection in Wien. I have tried to capture something of tragic essence of Schiele; these works of mine have often been interpreted as Christ figures as well.
Henrietta, 2021
painted mdf
height app.140cm
Inspired by Francis Bacon’s ”Portrait of Henrietta Moraes”, 1963
Images on this page by: Kirsimaria E. Törönen, Veikko Halmetoja, Anton Ripatti, Sami Funke
Kirsimaria E. Törönen 