Outi Heiskanen’s retrospective exhibition at the Ateneum from October 2021

A multidisciplinary artist who draws on nature and the mysteries of being human

The arts academician Outi Heiskanen (born 1937) is one of the most successful and famous Finnish artists. Heiskanen’s retrospective exhibition brings together different facets of her diverse and multidisciplinary art. The exhibition, featuring more than 300 works, presents prints, drawings, paintings and installations, as well as recordings of performances from a period of more than fifty years. The exhibition also features a whole gallery’s worth of joint works by Outi Heiskanen and the photographer Janne Laine. Shedding light on the course of the prolific artist’s life is a rich selection of photographs and moving images, created, for example, by Sakari Viika, Jorma Puranen, Tarja Stranden and Georg Grotenfelt.

The mythical world created by Outi Heiskanen is full of stories about the mysteries of being human and our relationship with nature. In her characters, the boundary between man and animal can be blurred when the focus is on our basic instincts and the cycle of life. Her works, created using various techniques, intertwine womanhood, motherhood, eroticism and death. The works are characterised by her undeniable virtuosity and a desire to experiment, which is sometimes even anarchistic in its flouting of the rules.

Outi Heiskanen’s most important mentor, the graphic artist Pentti Kaskipuro (Mestari K; ‘Master K’), has said: ”Outi is the yeast that makes the dough rise, whatever the context. Her artistic expression is completely untouchable: she relies on tradition, yet she is completely original and open-minded.”

The opening of the exhibition coincides with the publication of the biography Outi Heiskanen – Taiteilija kuin shamaani (‘Outi Heiskanen – Artist and shaman’), written by Tuula Karjalainen (Siltala 2021).

An artist who loves to perform created performance, land and environmental art

Community and close friendships have played a key role in Outi Heiskanen’s art since the 1970s. The performances by the Record Singers and Bellini-akatemia (‘Bellini Academy’), which were formed around Heiskanen, were legendary. One of the most memorable performances was Kluuvin ruhje (‘Kluuvi fracture’), which was seen at the closing event of the Ateneum Art Museum before its renovation in 1984. Siirrettävä Tuonela (‘Movable Tuonela’), which was created by Heiskanen and her artist friends in 1983, spread around the park of the Meilahti Art Museum, constituting one of the first exhibitions of environmental art in Finland.

Outi Heiskanen has broken unwritten rules both in her art and in her life. Heiskanen is the most spectacular brand of her time: a brave and unapologetic pioneer. A master of puns and games, the most public of the artist’s many pseudonyms is Immi Piilo, an outsider artist who made her debut in 2010 and whose works, featuring uninhibited splashes of colour, are also included in the exhibition. Colours became more important to Outi Heiskanen during her several trips to Asia, from which the influence of Tibet, in particular, is reflected in many ways in her art.

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