| Tapani Hyypiä |

Tapani Hyypiä in his studio 2016 |  Art & Photo © 2016 Tapani Hyypiä                                 

Tapani Hyypiä [ Hyypia ]

Finnish contemporary visual artist
(1955 Helsinki)
lives and works in Helsinki, Finland
studied in Free Art School Helsinki
1974-1975 and 1996-2000

www.tapanihyypia.wordpress.com










Recent interview :

Tapani Hyypiä:
Ei ollut muuta vaihtoehtoa
kuin alkaa maalata
- Kuvaston haastattelu 25.1.2016

Art & Photo ©Tapani Hyypiä  

Tapani Hyypiä : Pohjoinen, öljy levylle, 35cm x 122cm, 2012 

I have followed Tapani Hyypiä's art practice from far, since his second beginning of being a painter - ever since I saw the first photographes of his apparently first publicly exhibited paintings, in an appraising art critique in a newspaper. A bit later, I saw these same paintings alive in the sales event of Finnish Painters' Union in Cable Factory in Helsinki.

All this happened 2002 - 2004, if I remember right - I still have that newspaper clipping, and my notes about all this that shook me then, shook so severely; and my writings about this are somewhere hiding in my Archives - not to be found too easily ...

Tapani Hyypiä's first solo gallery exhibition was in 2002 in Helsinki, and the said sales event took place after that. I had just graduated from art school.

I remember vividly the moment I was standing in the middle of that big painting sales event hall in Helsinki Cable Factory, and staring at Tapani Hyypiä's paintings, like frozen. Three of his small square paintings were hanging on a narrow concrete pilar, in that huge huge exhibition hall, and I saw nothing else.

I thought I was looking at my own paintings - the size of each of these paintings was exactly the same [ 25 x 25 cm ] what I used, the subject matter seemed exactly the same, the chosen colors were mine, the light was exactly what I had been studying for the past year - and even that hanging of these paintings - each close on top of each other - was exactly the same as how my paintings were hanged 2003 in Kerava Art Museum, in my first official art museum co-exhibition, and I was at the time not happy at all about that hanging so close on top of each other in a concrete pilar - I was thinking my little paintings deserved more space to breathe - so I was thinking that maybe this painter also was annoyed of that too narrow space between his paintings ... - I was stunned. I looked at these paintings as they were mine. It was surreal, absurd.

There was just one difference between that painter and me.

He was brilliant.

His vision of how the light is to be presented blew me away.

And he paints with oil - and I still paint with acrylic, after 19 years ... thinking still about switching to oil at some point ... : D

So I begun to study his paintings where ever I found them. Later I found out - from for example that recent interview, that we had even more in common with Tapani Hyypiä :

Even though he is 5 years older than me, we have the same kind of history as living a full life before going to art school as adults. He studied in Vapaa Taidekoulu - Free Art School for the second time 1996-2000, and I also went finally to study art in Pekka Halosen akatemia 1997-2001, after first a year 1996-1997 taking art courses elsewhere.

I continued my studies 2001-2002 to get the professional degree in painting, and in January 2002 I started to paint my graduation works on these 25 x 25 cm cardboards and fiberboards - just as in that interview Tapani Hyypiä tells he did, and for the exact same reasons. And we both continued, and still do paint on that same size.

With perhaps the same subconscious subject matter, and similar color palette. I use also other color palettes, and bright colors in my works, and some working lines have led me elsewhere, but that same basic primal image still comes to me when ever I start to paint again after a pause.

I don't know what it is.

                                                                                  Art & Photo ©Tapani Hyypiä                       

Tapani Hyypiä : Vihreä, öljy puulle (oil on wood), 25x 25 cm, 2015

I will continue following Tapani Hyypiä's painting practice with high interest, and update this blog post with news about him.

A sidenote ... btw, Tapani Hyypiä has also made a brilliant, funny and a lot telling time lapse video work 2012 from Cable Factory's buzzle during all the happenings between the installation and the dismantling of the sales event of Finnish Painters' Union. He has also been one of the main Union's workers for that huge annual sales event for years.


THE SALES EVENT OF FINNISH PAINTERS' UNION 2016

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written & published in  - i like - Collection -   © 2016 Tiina Hölli 2016-02-08