“Under the film of water lives a tree, from which the light miraculously refracts. From there it is lifted, examined and eaten. Sometimes it is painted.

The history of painting is full of fish still lifes, silver-sided fish on silver platters, fish juxtaposed against a translucent onion, or floundering on the dirty counter of a market stall. The fish as a subject is loaded with meanings, often Christian ones, vanitas and everyday description, but above all it seems to be full of the painter’s pure joy. The subject often feels like an excuse to fill the surface of the painting with a silver shimmer, endless layers of scales and the light that reflects from them.

In the last three years I have painted fish and even fished a few times. I marveled at the shapes and light in the study, but also at the fundamental similarity between the fish and the human body. These lumps of flesh containing very similar shapes, which are full of the same silence and dumb, clammy surface”.

Niina Räty is a visual artist and painter working in Helsinki, who has focused on large series of works. In 2023, her works have been exhibited in Berlin (Galerie Wolf & Galentz and Projekt raum Toolbox). The next time her paintings will be exhibited in a group exhibition at Haa Galleria in the summer of 2024.

Räty has studied at the Lahti Art Institute (fine artist AMK, 1999) and the Academy of Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in the department of painting (KuM, 2016). Räty has held exhibitions since 1999 both in Finland and abroad and has received several national and regional grants. She is a member of the Association of Artists and Kuvasto.

In addition to private collections, Niina Räty’s works can be found in e.g. In the collections of HUS and Helsinki Art Museum.

More Info:
https://cargocollective.com/niinaraty