Free Art School class of 2024 graduate exhibition
Kaapelitehtaan Puristamo, Helsinki, Finland
3.5.2024

Participating artists:
Ida Malmi, Tuomas Aitamurto, Miranda Dunderfelt, Jaakko Pennanen, Emilia Hakkarainen, Katinka van der Jagt, Emma-Sofia Hyytiäinen, Amanda Lindström, Emmi Vänttinen, Miska Kukkohovi, Kristo Saarikoski, Riikka Virtanen, Arttu Hakala, Linda Mattson

Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue, Helen Korpak (writer, art critic, photographer):

Miska Kukkohovi belongs to the first generation for whom the internet has always existed, a fact he consciously reflects in his art. His works are strongly influenced by his coming of age in a digital era and include references to online phenomena and video games. In his paintings, Kukkohovi also explores the very specific modern restlessness resulting from the endless feeds of images on the internet. His works are rarely limited to a single image as a subject matter, and the surface of the paintings usually contain multiple overlaid pictures and icons.

Despite their cyber-inspired motifs, Kukkohovi's paintings are rooted in material reality and the tradition of painting. Unlike the artists of the post-internet movement, Kukkohovi does not use irony as a tool in his subject matters or in his aesthetics. Instead, he seeks to discover digital places where some semblance of a sacred atmosphere can be discerned. He finds these in screenshots of empty landscapes and buildings, taken from old video games such as Counter-Strike. As these immaterial digital images are transferred into the physical world, they undergo an ontological transformation. Are they more real when painted in oil on a stretched canvas, or less? The only thing that can be certain is that whole new networks of meaning are created when the still images from games are removed from their original context. When Kukkohovi depicts three-dimensional spaces from aged first-person shooter games, connections to the history of art are instantly forged. Everything is connected, both online and offline.