A new exhibition of oil on canvas paintings by Portland-based artist Petra Sairanen is now on view in Concourse E. Three circular paintings (referred to as tondos in Art History) measure 6 feet in diameter – the length of the artist’s wingspan. These paintings reference memory, the shifting nature of seasons, and the human experience.
This series of paintings uses layered web forms which emerged from observational landscapes painted in the artist’s native country of Finland. Sairanen painted light filtering through moving trees and across water which led to a longstanding series of layered abstractions wherein movement, flux, and the presence or absence of light became metaphors for the human condition.
Some paintings, like Varis, were begun on a black background, referring to a period of complete darkness in Finland called kaamos. Others capture the luminous and colorful midnight sun which occurs during the other half of the year.
Looking at the unique patterns and details on each painting, it would be easy to assume these effects were achieved by stencils or stamps. But as the artist explains, “Each layer is painted by hand without the use of stencils in an act which requires my patience, presence, and faith in an outcome I cannot yet see.”
Petra Sairanen is a Finnish-born artist living and working in Portland, Oregon. Sairanen has exhibited her work at multiple gallery, museum and university settings, including the Schneider Museum of Art (Ashland, OR), 808 Gallery at Boston University (Boston, MA), Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR), Washington State University Vancouver, studio e gallery (Seattle, WA), Nahcotta (Portsmouth, NH), and DK Project Art (Boston, MA). Numerous public and private collections house her works, including the Schneider Museum of Art (Ashland, OR), Portable Works Collection (City of Portland, Oregon), North Shore Children’s Hospital (Salem, Massachusetts), Children’s Hospital of Boston (Boston, Massachusetts), Astra Zeneca Pharmaceutical Company, (Newton, Massachusetts), and the Boston University Fuller Collection. Sairanen teaches painting and design at PCC Rock Creek and is the director of the Helzer Gallery.
For more information on this exhibition or artwork inquiries, please contact petra.sairanen@gmail.com or visit petrasairanen.com
Guest Curator Ben Buswell of OPENS Gallery, benbuswell.com/opens