© Sami Lukkarinen

Galerie Forsblom in Helsinki holds an artist, Sami Lukkarinen’s exhibition “Timeline” till May 8th. He paints social media profile pictures using a palette knife, translating digital data into oil, pixel by pixel.

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Timeline is a highly personal exhibition for Lukkarinen. Marking a departure from his earlier use of photographs taken by other social media users, this time Lukkarinen posted his own photographs and used these as the raw material for his paintings. For his series Yhden suhde yhteen (Valtti) the artist documented the growth of his son Valtti in photographs, transforming these digital images into life-size oil paintings.

The public’s ravenous interest in profile pictures reflects an interesting shift in the role of portraiture. Social media has expanded our relationship with images, portraits and self- portraits. Profile pictures are usually selfies, or at least self-chosen. Lukkarinen mines his raw material from social media, where he then ultimately also publishes his paintings.

Sami Lukkarinen “Timeline”
Date: April 8th – May 8th, 2016
Open: 11:00 – 18:00 (Saturday till 16:00, Sunday 12:00 – 16:00)
Closed on Monday
Place: Galerie Forsblom
Address: 5 Lönnrotinkatu, 00120 Helsinki
Tel: + 358 9 680 3700
http://www.galerieforsblom.com