Zofia Kulik
*Land-Escape I* (2001)
silver gelatin print, 180 x 150 cm

Persons Projects’ latest group exhibition, Portraiture as Social Commentary, not only highlights the different aspects of the genre but also links together a variety of artistic perspectives. A portrait is a painting, a photograph, a sculpture, or any other representation of a person in which the face and its expressions are predominant. They reveal the presence of the subject viewed from the perspective of the artist – a merger of contrasts between what’s projected by one and perceived by another. These images become mirrors of many faces that reflect both the political and cultural undercurrents relevant to the time period in which they were conceived.

Exhibition view
Portraiture as Social Commentary
Persons Projects, Berlin, 2023.
Courtesy: Persons Projects.

Portraiture as Social Commentary is on view through January 27th, 2024, at Persons Projects, Lindenstr. 34–35, 10969 Berlin.

Anni Leppälä
Garden (2007)
C-print mounted on aluminum
62 x 82 cm
© the artist, courtesy: Persons Projects

Anni Leppälä
Autumn (2007)
C-print mounted on aluminum
62 x 80 cm
© the artist, courtesy: Persons Projects

Anni Leppälä
Untitled (The history of little Fanny) (2009)
C-print mounted on aluminum
47 x 61 cm
© the artist, courtesy: Persons Projects

Ilkka Halso
Theatre II (2008)
From the series Museum of Nature
C-Print, Diasec
125 x 190 cm
© the artist, courtesy: Persons Projects

Ilkka Halso
Garden with a view (2010)
From the series Villa Roosa installation in Orimattila
C-Print, Diasec with dipond plate or whiteglass + po
150 x 300 cm
© the artist, courtesy: Persons Projects

Persons Projects’ summer exhibition, The Helsinki School Perspective, is presented in both gallery spaces Lindenstr. 34 and 35, featuring a selection of artists, all of whom had pivotal roles in the beginning of the Helsinki School. The exhibition is dedicated to the historical aspect, exploring how these artists use the photographic processes as a voice for abstraction and a tool for interpreting their emotional landscapes. The Helsinki School platform was created by Timothy Persons in the 1990s, who became inspired by his experience with the Open Studio Concept that was popular during his graduate studies in the mid-1970s in Southern California. It grew to become the most extended sustainable educational platform of its kind consisting of six generations of selected MA students originating from the University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland. There are now more than 180 monogram books and 6 volumes of the Helsinki School book that have evolved from this program. This exhibition is curated to reintroduce a new perspective on the conceptual roots that built The Helsinki School.

Part 1 features work by Niko Luoma, Ea Vasko, Mikko Sinervo, and Nanna Hänninen. In Part 1, we experience four different approaches to how these selected artists use the photographic process to abstract a moment in time, the passage of a day, a memory of a specific place, or the interpretation of a historical painting.

Part 2 features work by Anni Leppälä, Janne Lehtinen, Miklos Gaál, and Ilkka Halso, artists who form a unique image that transcends how we interpret our personal, social, and ecological landscape seeing through a Nordic approach to nature.