Gun "Gunzi" Holmström

Basic information

b. 1964, Porvoon mlk
Visual Artist
Residence: HELSINKI

Artist’s Statement

For about 20 years I was working with digital art, mainly video, but after 2013 I have focused on painting. I paint with oil paint and water colors. I'm fascinated by transcendental concepts and mysticism. I think the spiritual reality is the essence of life and by learning it you can learn to understand oneself. The images contain archetypal shapes and energies. Actually they could be called abstract icons. Through contemplation and other means I search for my own inner visions and try to express them. I combine universal structures and symbols in reflections concerning the visible and invisible world.

Mysterious traditions of different religious beliefs and the revelations of prophets and saints inspires me. I'm interested in old religious art, abstract tantra painting and art by the North- and South American Indians.. Museum Director Päivi Kiiski wrote about my art that "When encountering Holmström's paintings I come to think about the medieval abbey and visionary, Hildegard von Bingen, and the art by Hilma af Klint.
But Holmström's expression is completely original. "

J.O.Mallander writes in 2018 about my art that: / ... even more the writer finds delight in the fact that someone who has has found a channel to the spiritual reality appears on the stage, starting to make statements about it's insights and methods, as well as manifesting the process of spiritual development. Genuinely, with good taste - new, but connecting to the given codes.. I suppose there is nothing completely New, but There is nothing new to innovate. In fact, the spiritual struggle is new for everyone - working with the unknown./..
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Current information

http://www.gunholmstrom.com/current.html

Bio

I grew up on an island in the south of Finland. After a few years of sociology studies, I realized that I wanted to become a visual artist and went to art school. I have a BA in sculpture and a MA in "context and digital media". During the past fifteen years I have participated in numerous exhibitions and other art happenings in Finland and abroad. My works are presented in different contexts from traditional gallery exhibitions to events with direct audience interaction. One of my permanent public art works is a playable sculpture, the Omphalomin, which is placed in a park in eastern Helsinki.Year 2013 I stopped working with digital media and since then I've been painting with water colors and oil colors. The theme changed as well - now I'm researching spiritual mysticism and transcendental concepts.