Eeva-Liisa Isomaa’s exhibition at Taidehalli Häme consists of the Waterfall installation (1998) and the new Waterfalls and Water Diaries.

The idea behind the Waterfall installation is a nature experience in written form. Opened book pages depict a waterfall, water. The shape of the installation also cascades down the wall like a waterfall. The work consists of several open books of different sizes. Isomaa has printed the work using the polymer gravure technique on linen and campi paper and made the linen papers themselves. The second material in the books is transparent campi paper, so the pages of the book can see through each other. The largest open sides are 130x100cm and the smallest 30×40 cm.

The idea of ​​the waterfall installation is the unpredictable path of a rushing, powerful mass of water down. The waterfall also carries with it literary content: opened pages of a poetry book. The fall also contains the landscape of the artist’s childhood, both as photographed by his grandfather in the 1930s and by the artist himself in the 1990s. At the same time, the work is literary; a story about a waterfall.

The new works are all from this year, and the works are unique polymer engravings.

In the words of Eeva-Liisa Isomaa: “The landscape opens up wide around me, it has the space and light of the northern landscape. Often, the starting point is a distant place and moment of memory or recollection, but it takes me to a familiar waterside. My childhood landscape in the Tornionjoki Valley is also present in these waters.”

After graduating from the Academy of Arts in 1987, Eeva-Liisa Isomaa has worked as an artist holding solo exhibitions and participating in joint and group exhibitions both at home and abroad. He has mainly worked with monumental, multi-part works and installations.

Isomaa has held solo exhibitions since 1986. Exhibitions in recent years: Galleria Harmaja, Oulu (2019, 2015, 2009), Galerie Pleiku, Berlin, Germany (2019, 2016), Galleria Ratamo, Jyväskylä (2018), Porvoon Taidehalli (2018), Gallery G, Helsinki (2017, 2014), Soho art gallery, Osaka, Japan, Villa Mac, Tampere (2011), Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil (2010), Forum Box, Helsinki (2009).

Recent exhibitions abroad: BABE, Bristol UK(2022), Bibliotek Nordica, Chart Art Fair, Kunsthal Charlottenbourg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2021), Nordisk Grafiktriennal, Galleri Sanders, Norrköping, Trelleborg Museum and Luleå Konsthall, Sweden(2020), Codex Nordica , San Francisco, USA(2019), Bibliotek Nordica, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol UK (2019),Centro Cultural dos Correios – Casa França Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (2019), Light/matter, UAlberta museums, Canada(2018), Light /matter, Grunwald gallery, Indiana, USA(2017).

Isomaa’s works include e.g. In the collections of Kiasma, Emma, ​​Wihuri Foundation, Helsinki City Art Museum, Oulu Art Museum, Aine Art Museum, Parliament and State.

More Info:
kuvataiteilijamatrikkeli.fi/taiteilija/eeva-liisa-isomaa