ON THE SUBJECT
Why make pictures of late middle-aged, white men? The creator of art often starts with either something he knows or something he wants to get to know better through work. I myself am a late middle-aged man. Socially, I mostly know other middle-aged people, both men and women. We are basically at the peak of our life arc in terms of work and achievements. At the same time already at the beginning of the descent of the curve, maybe even further downhill.

Still, the questions about being human and what it means to be in one’s own social gender are puzzling. So in my case: what does it mean to be a man? How can or could one be a man? When will I be a good man? Why do some men have a strong tendency towards violence and power games? And how does the competition that follows define everyone (men)? And what about aging, death and abandonment? The so-called hegemonic masculinity, understood as one model of masculinity, has broken down some time ago. Individual choices are what remain. And confusion: “Didn’t this become clearer?”.

My exhibition works are based on meetings in my studio. Something about the atmosphere of each meeting and the way of meeting and the conversations will hopefully still be seen in my work. Some of the men in the works look like their models, some don’t. However, the works are not primarily portraits, more a representation of diversity in similarity. It is also important to play with the ways of presentation. The people’s expressions are focused because posing is a serious matter. This is no laughing matter. We try to be ready and alert when faced with a new thing, but sometimes we are just tired and at the end. The important thing is to endure and keep the promise to be a model.

PORTRAITS
In the fall of the pandemic 2020, when the restrictions eased for a while, I invited seven middle-aged men – old friends, friends, acquaintances – to my office. They each came in turn for a session of about 60 minutes, where I sketched a 175×160 cm portrait of a face directly on the canvas with one color. At the same time, we talked about this and that, from art to health, from family and work to the future. I also took cell phone pictures, which I used to help me continue the works. The pictures were completed during spring 2021. Each work consisted of two parts: a poster-like, large picture painted with a limited color scale, and a small, mostly realistic thumbnail, which I had painted only based on a photograph, from a different angle and with a different border than the large painting.

MEN IN THE STUDIO
From summer 2021 to spring 2022, mostly the same models visited the atelier again. In about 90-minute sessions, I sketched them into full-body portraits in a sketch-like studio space. Since then, I have continued these beginnings, each in their own, eclectic and expressionistic direction. Each work is a fusion of its own look, different styles, painting methods and forms of presentation. In these works, I have played with both painting methods and pictorial narration.

OF THE WHOLE
My exhibition at Taidehalli Häme is complemented by the paper-cut works on the walls and the jugurt paintings on the windows, where the theme of the exhibition is treated using collage methods. The exhibition complex is abundant and full.

UNDER 160 CHARACTERS
My male portraits are paintings. Some portraits, some playful performances of men my age diversity. There are many of us. Let’s endure that too.

In Helsinki on 16 December 2022
Juha Okko

Juha Okko (born in Rovaniemi 1963) lives and works in Helsinki. He paints with acrylic, oil and yogurt. Installations consisting of individual paintings and wall paintings or drawings are a typical expression of the works. Okko uses photographs of people or works of art as material, sometimes editing them using collage methods. The subject is always carefully thought out, the execution improvised. He is interested in power and weakness, aggression and weakness, the languages of art and the history of art. In his latest works, Okko has asked friends and acquaintances as models for my studio: middle-aged men as such.

More Info:
https://kuvataiteilijamatrikkeli.fi/taiteilija/juha-okko