Press Release :: ingrid hansen gallery

Finnish photographer, Kari Soinio, returns to the Ingrid Hansen Gallery to exhibit THE BEAUTIFUL CITY, his new series of photographs.

Washington, D.C. (March 19, 2007), Ingrid Hansen Gallery is pleased to announce the opening, April 5, 2007, of the exhibition THE BEAUTIFUL CITY by Finnish photographer, Kari Soinio. A reception takes place on Thursday, April 5, 2007, from 6 – 7:30 p.m. The artist will discuss his photographs at 7 p.m. The exhibit will continue on view through May 11, 2007.

Throughout his career, Kari Soinio has explored themes of identity: corporeality and place, the sense of belonging somewhere, happiness and fear, insecurity and safety. In“A Bourgeois Dream”, his 2003 exhibition at Ingrid Hansen Gallery, Mr. Soinio considered conditions and attainment of the good life, as well as the fear of its’ loss. In “The Beautiful City”, he considers the theme of belonging somewhere by examining the modern urban world and how we see it. These elliptically shaped, out of focus, painterly images explore how urban landscapes appear in our minds and memories. Mr. Soinio contemplates the ability of our memory to accurately remember a landscape once we turn away from it. In “The Bourgeois Dream” Mr. Soinio considered belonging to a bourgeois world. With “The Beautiful City”, he continues to reflect on our place in the modern world. With these urban landscapes, he questions who we are and how do we want to inhabit our bodies and our surroundings.

In his statement for “The Beautiful City” Mr. Soinio states:
"Through these images, I deal with issues of identity and place, of belonging to something and reaching for something else. Is it the city street or the asphalt yard of the housing estate where I belong? Is a highway as important as the cathedral square? The oval shape and bevel edged glass connect the works in the series to 19th century landscape paintings and early photographic portraits, both signs of attachment and ownership."

This exhibition is sponsored in part by FRAME, the Finnish Fund for Art Exchange. For information about FRAME, see www.frame-fund.fi.