Essi Hurme's exhibition consists of ceramic sculptures and pastel paintings. Exhibition opens on Tuesday March 14h from 5-7 PM. Warm welcome.

The pastel paintings by Essi Hurme are portraits and colour studies of imaginary persons. Her ceramic sculptures or"sitters", as she calls them are a part of a larger series that has been ongoing for years and this exhibition lets some of the sitters take their place on the Book gallery walls.

Hurme describes her work: "The first sitting figure was born during a course on japanese raku ceramics back in 2015. As the figures kept materialising, I started to call them sitters. Until today there have been dozens of them. Latest came about in February 2023. Every sitter is a unique individual. They are neutral, easily relatabe figures which leave space for the viewer to decide what the sitters are thinking about. Some of the figures are holding something, an object like a book, a crown or a stone.

The pastel paintings were done between 2021-2022. During christmas break and on my leave of absence I was in a sort of liminal space where there was freedom to play with colours and lines. I chose the paper colour intuitively and then took one pastel crayon, then another, possibly even a third one. I wanted to explore how to capture light and shade with just few colours and few lines. In just few weeks I had dozens of works done. Later on I've continued on with the experiment but the pace has been somewhat calmer."

Essi Hurme (b.1972) is an artist and actor from Helsinki, who moved back to Uusimaa area after several years in Vaasa. She now lives in Old Porvoo.