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VILJAMI HEINONEN

Born 1986 | Lives and works in Vesilahti, Finland

Viljami Heinonen’s way of working is restless, intense and precise. His works are kinds of painted collages, still images whose lushly ragged exteriors in places make them look as if the fiercest of battles had been waged on their surface. Heinonen knows the recent history of art and is able to make use of what it has to offer. His visual language and his treatment of the subject matter has multiple links with the punk aesthetic and with the tradition of post-war informalism and neorealism.

Heinonen’s highly painterly and expressive works are continuously waging between abstract and figurative. Radiant oil paintings depicting tropical forests and the animals inhabiting those green and lush environments have superseded Heinonen’s dystopic interior and landscape paintings of past years. In his butterfly-themed works, the colour and paint oozes with every brushstroke and patches of incandescent white emerge from the midst of pitch black.

Heinonen graduated from Kankaanpää Art School in 2012 and currently lives and works in Vesilahti. Heinonen’s works can be found in numerous private and public collections including the City of Tampere, HAM / Helsinki Art Museum, Wihuri Foundation, Saastamoinen Foundation, Pori Art Museum. He has taken part in group exhibitions in Kunsthalle Helsinki, Pori Art Museum and has held numerous solo exhibitions around Finland.

CV | VILJAMI HEINONEN

Born 1986 | Lives and works in Vesilahti, Finland

EDUCATION

2008-2012 Kankaanpää Art School | Kankaanpää, Finland
2010-2011 Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts and Design | Slovenia

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022
Laukko Manor Summer Exhibition | Vesilahti, Finland
TBA | MAKASIINI CONTEMPORARY | Turku, Finland

2021-2022
Arboretum | Galerie Forsblom | Helsinki, Finland

2021
Halcyon Days | MAKASIINI CONTEMPORARY | Turku, Finland

2020
Laukko Manor | Vesilahti, Finland

2019-2020
Weather The Storm | MAKASIINI CONTEMPORARY, Turku, Finland

2018
Forum Box, Helsinki, Finland

2017
Zone | MAKASIINI CONTEMPORARY, Turku, Finland
Phantasmagoria, MAKASIINI CONTEMPORARY | Turku, Finland

2016
TM-gallery | Helsinki, Finland
Galery Pleiku | Berlin, Germany

2014
Gallery Å | Turku, Finland
Gallery Technopolis | Espoo, Finland
Gallery Ronga | Tampere, Finland

2013
Gallery Katariina, Helsinki | Finland
Kankaanpää Art School | Kankaanpää, Finland
Poriginal Gallery | Pori, Finland

2011
Gallery Ronga | Tampere, Finland

2010
Paintings | Kankaanpää City Library, Kankaanpää, Finland

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021
Untitled Art | MAKASIINI CONTEMPORARY, Miami FL, USA

2020
My Perversion Is the Belief in Art | Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland
The Centenary Exhibition of the Tampere Artists’ Association | Tampere Art Museum, Tampere, Finland

2017
Art Goes Logomo | Turku, Finland
Real Celebration! | Rovaniemi Art Museum, Finland
Between the Past and the Future | Mikkeli Art Museum, Mikkeli, Finland

2015
Young Artists 2015 | Kunsthalle, Helsinki, Finland
The New Members of Tampere Artists’ Association | Tampere Hall, Tampere, Finland

2014
The Art of Basware Exhibition | Music Hall, Helsinki, Finland

2013
ArtHelsinki International Contemporary Art Event | Gallery Katariina’s section, Helsinki, Finland
The Art of Basware Exhibition | Music Hall, Helsinki, Finland

2012
The Empire of Art | Imatra Art Museum, Imatra, Finland
The Art of Basware Exhibition | Sanomatalo, Helsinki, Finland
Kankaanpää Art School Degree Exhibition | ”Eyewitnesses” | Cable Factory, Helsinki, Finland
AvaraTaide ry: Group Exhibition | Tampere House, Tartu, Estonia

2011
The Art of Basware Exhibition | Sanomatalo, Helsinki, Finland
Ljubljana Art Academy Student Exhibition | Ljubljana, Slovenia
Imatra Art School Exchange Show | Imatra, Finland

2010
Spring Exhibition | Kankaanpää Art School, Kankaanpää, Finland

2009
Fall Exhibition | Kankaanpää Art School, Kankaanpää, Finland
Open Exhibition | Gallery Portaits, Pori, Finland

2008
Open Young Artists Exhibition | Rauma, Finland

AWARDS | GRANTS

2020
Art Promotion Centre Finland, COVID-19 Grant

2019
Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Project Grant

2017
Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Public Display Grant
Finnish Art Society | Young Artist Grant

2015
Pirkanmaa Cultural Fundation, Finland | Grant for 6 months

2014
Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Finland | Grant for 6 months

2013
The Art of Basware 2013, Finland | 1st Price
Satakunta Art Committee, Finland | Grant for 6 months

2012
Kankaanpää Art School, Finland | Exhibition grant

COLLECTIONS

HAM | Helsinki Art Museum, Finland
Saastamoinen Foundation | Finland
Tampere City | Finland
Kankaanpää Rehabilitation Centre | Finland
Kankaanpää Museum | Finland
Satakunta University of Applied Sciences | Finland
Pori Art Museum | Finland
Basware Ltd. | Finland
The State of Finland
Wihuri Foundation | Finland
Miettinen Collection | Finland
Heino Collection | Finland
Nelimarkka Foundation Collection | Finland