• Art
  • Artist to watch: Marianna Uutinen

Art

Artist to watch: Marianna Uutinen

Everything closed for Weihnachtspause but you still hunger for art? Check out Finnish queen of painting Marianna Uutinen, our December artist to watch. Her joint exhibition with Anselm Reyle is open over the holidays (aside from Dec 24-26).

Image for Artist to watch: Marianna Uutinen
Photo by Charlotte Eberwein

Berlin doesn’t know what it’s been missing! Exploding onto the local art landscape is Finnish artist Marianna Uutinen. Although she has spent the last three winters here and is internationally quite successful, her current exhibition forms a calling card of what her powerful work can do.

At Salon Dahlmann, she’s joined forces with Anselm Reyle for Last Supper, completely turning the pristine space into a rock ‘n’ roll art embassy.

Part of Uutinen’s magic is how her powerful artworks mix with a quiet, yet strongly self-assured demeanour. Her pieces use kitschy neon and unorthodox processes, such as painting images of frilly underpants with cake icing or draping sheets of acrylic to turn the canvases into reliefs of plastic, bombastic colour. Physical activity, such as laying the large canvases onto the floor to paint them, totally energises the works (even without knowing this, it’s still clear).

Balancing out her edgy wisdom in technical practice is a hard, dark humour that draws the viewer in, while at the same time inevitably turning the joke around on them. Berlin has a new queen of painting! Long may she reign…

LAST SUPPER Nov 9-Jan 25 | Salon Dahlmann, Marburger Str. 3, Charlottenburg, U-Bhf Wittenbergplatz, Mon-Sat 11-16

Originally published in issue #122, December 2013.