kirjastonäyttely
23.5.-16.6.2026
Galleria Mältinranta
" Paavo Kärki’s kirjastonäyttely (library exhibition) is an exhibition about the loss of a parent set in a library. The situation however, is imaginary: the library is revealed to be a painted set, and the artist’s parents are still alive.
The exhibition consists of paintings and objects arranged across two areas. Paintings of bookshelves and selected objects create a library within the exhibition space of Gallery Mältinranta. Interspersed within it is a series of dreamlike oil paintings that deal with loss.
Kärki reflects on loss as both an inevitable and an ordinary part of life, asking how it is processed as part of life. What do grief, longing, loss, or death look and feel like? The imagery of the paintings do not aim to define a single shared narrative around the topic. Time and place remain undefined; instead, the paintings may convey a sense of stillness and emptiness. The motifs and symbols may be recognizable, but they do not settle into any one specific situation.
In the exhibition, the library is viewed as a public space that serves as a framework for everyday life. It contains books and stories, shared and collective knowledge, but its significance extends beyond a space for bookshelves. Libraries often function as multipurpose public spaces, which partly reflects the values upon which our society is built. They offer a place to spend time alone and together with others simultaneously. Often, libraries also host art exhibitions.
Kärki has paid attention to the nature of libraries and the exhibitions held within them. The figurative and direct visual language of the works in the library exhibition reflects the artist’s contemplation of the relationship between painting and reality, and how meaning is constructed in exhibitions. Art may often engage with fundamental topics, as it allows the real and the imagined to coexist. Artworks can enable processing of emotions for both the artist and the viewer. Forms, objects, and gestures become placeholders for what each person brings to them. In the absence of our own interpretations or knowledge, we momentarily borrow the depictions of others and relate them to our own experiences. Forming a connection with another supports us; we feel that someone else has felt like this too.
In the bookshelves of the library exhibition, the books are not named or detailed, but rather suggestive. The bookshelf paintings function as stage props; instead of physical objectivity, they primarily create the idea of a place. The spatial dimension of the exhibition and its objects extend the theme beyond painting. In the exhibition as a whole, no single element is more important than another; instead, all components come together to question whether an imagined or staged situation can enable the processing of a difficult topic.
Kärki is interested in public spaces, everyday environments, and objects, and how examining them can reveal the assumptions embedded within them. This involves a social dimension, shaped by attempts to understand questions of communication and connection, as well as implicitly agreed boundaries and frameworks.
The library exhibition does not seek to shock or to be ironic; rather, it gently asks whether the loss of a parent can be thoughtfully addressed before it happens. In the topic of the exhibition there may be something shared, though not generalized. The exhibition aims to give space and value to stillness and emptiness. Perhaps it is a certain kind of absence, loss. When there are questions, but no answers, and one does not quite know how to move through life.
When he interrupted his reading, he could never shake off the feeling that he was someone whose clothes were too big. As he chucked the clods of soil into his father’s grave, it dawned on him that there was a connection between the eulogy, the endless row of acquaintances and his own thoughtlessness.
Benjamin, Walter, et al. The Storyteller:
Tales Out of Loneliness. Verso, 2016, p. 87.
Included in the library exhibition is Oula Haapala’s text Kevään odotus ja muut vastaavat (Waiting for Spring and Other Similar Things), which is just as true as the exhibition within the library itself."
-Isa Lumme
Texts: Isa Lumme & Oula Haapala
Photography: Tuure Leppänen
pihaleikki
2026
oil on canvas
125 cm x 145 cm
sypressit
2026
oil on canvas
120 cm x 180 cm
kaste
2025
oil on canvas
121 cm x 139 cm
juurilla
2025
oil on canvas
125 cm x 139 cm
taimi
2025
oil on canvas
24 cm x 19 cm
vanha talo
2025
öljy kankaalle / oil on canvas
70 cm x 59 cm
ovensuu
2025
oil on canvas
139 cm x 125 cm
kirjasto 1-16
2026
oil on canvas
à 200 cm x 120 cm