Jussi Juurinen (b. 1976) is a visual artist from Vantaa. The pictorial world of his works stems from the tradition of abstract art, but is also connected to the author’s personal history and things that are important to him. The starting point of his work can be grandfather’s checkered work shirt, ceramicist mother’s glazing experiments or Excel tables made for teaching work. In the work process, the image idea breaks away from its starting point, acquires new levels and meanings. Juurinen’s works are characterized by playfulness and a willingness to experiment that stretches the concept of printed art.

My artistic work is the arrangement of things. I approach my works as systems that can be broken down and reorganized. I like the visual play enabled by the systems, the possibility for variations, and on the other hand, the structure formed by the system, which creates a frame for the visuals.

The name of the Cells collection of works on display in the exhibition refers to the cell-like building blocks used in Excel spreadsheets. The starting point of the work is the Excel tables I use in my work as an art teacher. From the first impression of wooden lesson resource charts or lesson planning period tables, over the years, as I work, they have become increasingly visual, and thus more interesting to me. Visuality, such as colors and the scale of cell-like building blocks, naturally have their function in the tables, but at the same time they can be detached from their context and seen as abstract compositions of colors and images.

In the series of works, I have started playing with the visualization of spreadsheets, extending their imagery to spatial and three-dimensional elements as well. While the connection to the tables is still recognizable in the small woodcuts belonging to the series of works, the spatial works of the series break away from their starting point, gaining new meanings and referential relationships. The works in the series also create dependency relationships. They refer to each other and are interpretations of each other. Two-dimensional gets a three-dimensional interpretation next to it and vice versa. Like cells, the works of the Cells series are a series of continuities, reinterpretations of each other’s filaments, which are modified and continue to develop again and again.

Jussi Juurinen graduated from Aalto University in 2011 and works as a lecturer at the Pekka Halonen Academy. His works have been exhibited in Lahti, Riihimäki, Hyvinkää, Kerava and Lapua art museums, Helsinki and Seinäjoki Art Halls and Mänttä Art Weeks. Juurien has had private exhibitions in Porvoo art hall, Gallery G, Gallery Kone and Gallery Joella, among others. Most recently, his works have been exhibited in the Private Archives exhibition at Forum Box in Helsinki and at the Järvenpää Art Museum in the Kiertokulku exhibition together with Sampo Apajalahti and Kim Jotun.

For the past year and a half, Juurinen has been working on a large public commission commissioned by the Helsinki Art Museum. The work will be announced at the beginning of 2023. Juurinen’s works are among others in the collections of the State of Finland, the Vantaa, Järvenpää and Jyväskylä art museums, the Academy of Fine Arts, HUS and the Midwifery Hospital.

More Information:
jussijuurinen.com