Mikko Rikala
Various cycles under the Sun

3+1 Arte Contemporânea has the pleasure of presenting the exhibition Various cycles under the Sun by the Finnish artist Mikko Rikala (Tampere, 1977).

Mikko Rikala is part of the latest generation of photographers from the prominent Helsinki School. Marked by an intense aesthetic conscience, the photographic works from The Helsinki School are based on a conceptual approach that, although eclectic in themes, is distinctly Finnish, as they have put it. In his first solo exhibition in Portugal, the artist will show a selection of photographs that extend his epistemological reflections around ‘seeing’ and ‘perceiving’. The artist questions “What are the possibilities of Man to observe and understand the world beyond the rational mind?”. The links to conceptualism and minimalism provides the framework for the ideas and aesthetic choices. On the other hand, the influence of Finnish culture is highlighted in the staging of desolate landscapes as well as in the representation of nature, alluding the Nordic isolation.

The title of the show refers to the artwork Eight days under the Sun (14.07–21.07.2018), 2018, where the circular mark left by a stone after eight days of sun exposure is revealed on a blue paper. Various cycles under the Sun invokes some of the recurrent themes throughout Rikala’s work – the passing of time and its transformative phenomena, from decay to self- enewal. Cycles and circles are constant motifs that manifest themselves in the artist’s imagery in both their physical and metaphorical forms. In the photographs that compose the exhibition, time becomes measurable through repeated actions, and the author himself often becomes a unit of measurement. According to the artist, the exercise of repetition allows for a meditative space between the mundane and the unthinkable, where a glimpse of the transcendental is possible. The purpose of Mikko Rikala’s artistic practice is, therefore, the transcending of the limits of human intellect.

Mikko Rikala (Tampere, 1977) lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. He received and MA in Photography from Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, becoming part of the newest generation of artists to form The Helsinki School. He was awarded the 2010 EmmaPrize, Espoo Museum Museum of Modern Art, Finland. He is a member of the Maanantai Collective, who in 2013 were nominated for Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation, First PhotoBook Award. Selected solo exhibitions include: Overlapping Instants, with Juuso Noronkoski, Gallery Alarcon Criado, Sevilla, Spain (2018); Emptiness Ceases to Be Blue, Gallery Rotwand, Zurich, Switzerland (2016); 10 Weeks by the Sea, Gallery Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (2015); and Towards Nothing, Gallery TAIK Persons, Berlin, Germany (2013). Recent group exhibitions: Zeitspuren – The Power of Now, (Martin Creed, Elmgreen & Dragset, Julien Charrierer, On kawara, Ragnar Kjartansson, Daniel Gustav Cramer, Taryn Simon), Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel, Switzerland (2018); Considering Finland, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany (2018); El Paso (The Passage), R/E Projects, Madrid, Spain (2017). His works are in the Tapiola Collection, the Artek Collection, the State of Finland Collection, as well as other international private collections.