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Mouthfuls of Contemporary Art in Lapland and Beyond
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Doig's Painting and Berlin
By Misha del Val
This is a painting by Scottish-born, Trinidad-based artist Peter Doig. My long, scruffy figure quivered as I stood in front of it at CFA gallery, the mid-winter morning I first set foot in Berlin, back in 2009. That day... (read more)
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Aine
By Misha del Val
Eila Aine was a discreet, unassuming, well-travelled mother of four who, for a day job, would look into other silent people’s wide open mouths. She read avidly, was a person awake to the current affairs... (read more)
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Staalo Turns 50
Misha del Val for Kielmukka magazine
​We arrived, as usual, a few minutes late. The room at Käki was poorly illuminated, had a mistreated piano in one corner, theatre props scattered here and there, and the unmistakable smell of self-conscious youth. 
(read more)
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As Above, So Below
By Misha del Val
I try to remain sensitive during our painting sessions, so that the actual handling of paint dictate the direction of the work and the emergence of the characters. In a way, I don't feel qualified... (read more)
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Untitled (Self-portrait)
By Misha del Val
It was during an evening Raisa and I felt particularly buoyant and spirited, despite the snow being stacked outside in colossal piles, far too large for that time of the year, and the world still gnashing its teeth... (read more)
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Musta Kissa ja Galleria Valo
By Misha del Val
Three worthy reasons took me to Rovaniemi last week: a train south to fetch madre from Helsinki; the wicked celebrations in Musta Kissa for the 40th year amongst us of the Pharaoh... (read more)
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Spirit of North vol. 10
By Misha del Val
I had a day off in Rovaniemi and decided to spend it in one of my favourite places in town: the Korundi House of Culture. I prowled for the second time through the ‘Spirit of North’ vol. 10 exhibition... (read more)
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The Story of the 4 Self-portraits
​By Misha del Val
I painted these self-portraits in a couple of hours, covering unfinished paintings, with the aid of a small mirror, listening to punk rock music, at the Old Potato Shed, Robertson, Australia, where I then had my studio...  (read more)
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Tiwi Mob Bus
By Misha del Val
​A bunch of Tiwi-Islanders roam through the desert plains squeezed in a mini-bus. This is ‘Tiwi Mob Bus’, a picture I painted many years ago while living at Pirlangimpi community in Melville Island, about 80 km.... (read more)

Untitled (Self-portrait)

13/4/2021

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Raisa Raekallio & Misha del Val, Untitled (self-portrait), oil on linen, 115 x 135 cm. 2020
It was during an evening Raisa and I felt particularly buoyant and spirited, despite the snow being stacked outside in colossal piles, far too large for that time of the year, and the world still gnashing its teeth with the new virus, that we decided to put some props on us and take pictures of each other. We dressed up with scarves, blankets, fancy hats, pillows, and other paraphernalia we found at hand in the house. Conscious that sometimes fancy dresses may reveal more than what they hide, the next day we created quick sketches on paper of eight uncanny characters using those pictures -four of them based on pics of Raisa and four on pics of me-, that eventually crystallised in the painting above. 

A troubadour in a balaclava; a tall, soft, mushy, silky lady; a shy receding figure; a ghostly face floating about; a distracted, oblivious, rather vulgar, sort of high priest; and some others, each with its own distinctive painterly spirit, density, character and caliber, make up the odd company, who inexplicably sit together around the same table. A figure lying on the table has been concealed by an undergrowth of designy patterns (the ones you find in those chic boutiques all over Finland). The troupe seem enclosed in some kind of kelomökki, where random geometric forms tamper with a reliable, bona fide representation of the space. Behind the eight figures Raisa and I intended to paint a window to a scenery we know well, we feel close to, and is so dear to us; however, as usual our intentions proved to be in vain against the irremediable will of painting: the snowy vista through a window we aimed at, rather wished to become a painting within the painting.
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    Misha del Val is a Lapland-Based visual artist, writer, independent curator and meditation enthusiast.

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