Sanna Ulvila: Worldwide General Strike

I work with painting, embroidery and textile art, combining these techniques in a collage-like and experimental way. I pick up subjects from the media, advertisements, and pop culture, as well as from my own photographs and surroundings. I work on these in a montage-like manner and create new interpretations where the logic of advertisements, memes, and dreams meet. I am fascinated by banality, pathos, pomposity, kitsch, and the theme of carnival.

I find the relationship between kitsch and art significant because our world often feels saturated with kitsch. In the footsteps of pop art, I utilize the aesthetic properties of kitsch, such as glaring, banal, and a certain kind of monotony. These hide meanings and contents that I want to convey in my works. I examine humanity gently and with a slight absurdity.

In carnival, I am fascinated by the idea of opposites and turning things upside down. The low becomes the sublime and vice versa. Carnival also refers to the celebration before fast, which brings to mind the current world situation, at least from a Western perspective. Is the celebration of consumption finally coming to an end, and what comes after? With my work, I want to question the prevailing values through carnivalesque laughter.

I graduated from the Free Art School in 2021. Recently my works have been exhibited in a solo exhibition at Galleria Uusi Kipinä in Lahti and in group exhibitions in Helsinki. My works have been purchased for the collection of the State Art Commission of the National Gallery, and the Finnish Art Association’s art auctions, as well as for private collections. I am a member of the Helsinki Artists’ Association, the Finnish Painters’ Association, and the Artists’ Association Yö.

Thanks to Kansansivistysrahasto for supporting the exhibition.

Galleria Napa
Kairatie 3
96100 Rovaniemi
Free entrance