Gallery Katariina is delighted to present the exhibition The Hare and the Sunflower by Janne Kärkkäinen from January 5th to 28th, 2024.

 We warmly invite you to the exhibition opening on Thursday, January 4th, from 5 to 7 pm!

Janne Kärkkäinen: Jänis ja auringonkukka (The Hare and the Sunflower), oil on board, 120 x 80 cm, 2023.

Janne Kärkkäinen: The Hare and the Sunflower 

“A brave and determined-looking hare, the courageous main character of my paintings! With fire in its nostrils, it leaps towards adventures! 

The hare figure has been the recurring theme of my paintings for the past few years. Mostly, my hares have been fierce, but sometimes also a bit bewildered. However, they are not scaredy-cats! The hare character is a sort of self-portrait, as hares are often seen as timid and fearful, just like how I perceive myself. By painting, I wanted to give the hare characters qualities that are not usually associated with them, and qualities that I myself have craved. We tell a certain kind of story about ourselves to ourselves and to others, but what are we really like? Perhaps in each of us, there are also contrasting sides that we are not so aware of. Let my hare paintings be brave adventurers, just like me – even that!” 

Janne Kärkkäinen (b. 1981 in Oulu) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2011 and works in the field of painting. Kärkkäinen’s works have been previously exhibited at HAM and Galleria Huuto in Helsinki. His paintings can also be found in the collections of the Tampere Art Museum.