Ville Laaksonen

Basic information

b. 1978, Turku
Visual Artist, Painter
Residence: Turku

Contact information

Phone number: +358 50 3537071

Artist’s Statement

Born in Turku, 1978

Ville Laaksonen is a painter currently working in Turku, Finland. Laaksonen also works as a independent curator and organizer of thematic exhibitions. He also works on the board of Finnish Painters Union.

Laaksonen's paintings happen on the edge of realism, where impressions and expressions cast their shadow. They appear as figurative to some, abstracting the concept of metaphores; they exist as 'pataphores. Both inner and external worlds are present. The future and the past meet with questions about the nature of existence, nature of beauty, question of sophrosyne.

More is More.

Going against the ‘German Gothic' trend, he's paintings are unusually optimistic, spilling over with life-affirming, anarchic energy. Though there is a representing way to approach these works, it is hard to identify distinct figures.

Laaksonen indulges in the retro particles of art, in historical sense. "He doesn't look for solutions, instead he seeks out states, which are stories of life from most general point of view". He uses oil paint on canvass sweepingly, allowing it to speak to us as oil paint, thus enabling us to perceive painting for what it is - painting!

A mixture of abstraction and figuration is the result, giving off the welcome sensation of a positive outlook on the world.