CANDIDAT 2007

Elina Merenmies

Elina Merenmies (1967) is both a drawer and a painter. Her works are figurative, but the reality that they depict is a mixture of inner visions and multithreaded stories. As an artist Merenmies occupies the broad terrain between personal expression and detailed precision. She is interested in both art history and a lost everyday life. The gallery of characters and the stories in her works tell us how Merenmies finds the beauty of life in unconventional places and phenomena.

She is interested in painting in a broad interpretation: she has worked with both virtual paintings and more traditional animation. Previously, she appeared in contexts where experimental music is played and she has been a practitioner of other performance arts. Merenmies’ current medium is a combination of acrylics and oil paints, along with ink in drawings or washes. She is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, where she now works as a teacher. She is also a member of the international Le Dernier Cri group.

Merenmies’ art is highly diverse: ranging from the amusing to the frightening, and from black-and-white to a rainbow-like wealth of colour. It is characteristically complex and challenges the viewer.

Juha-Heikki Tihinen