“Vesa’s art is amongst the most integrally advanced in the history of Western abstraction – no small claim, but one backed up by the works themselves. Rather than abstraction as a fleeing from life, his works are a diving into the incarnate mystery of human being — direct celebrations of the fullness of Life.”
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“Vesa is credited for inventing an entirely new art form – Artevo is a combination of body painting, photography and image manipulation that allows to create works of incredible vibrancy and depth. I am a big fan of his Share series where extreme close-ups of single brushstrokes create a vortex-like effect with paints and textures melting into each other. His works are a symphony of emotions expressed through colour.”
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“When Finnish artist Vesa Kivinen captures your “portrait,” he doesn’t just hint at the contents of your soul—your deepest fears, desires, triumphs, and avenues of personal expression. Vesa brings them all to the surface, creating collage imagery that reveal more about his subjects than even the subjects themselves thought possible. While he is not the first to do this kind of work, he may very well be the best.”
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“Kivinen’s work had no points of reference. Unlike most local artists, Kivinen wasn’t recycling successful foreign approaches and adapting them within a local context. He wasn’t replicating a preexisting genre or playing out well-known devices. Whether for better or for worse, Kivinen is – as childish as this may sound – an original.”
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“It is a pleasure to recognize and appreciate Vesa’s work before he becomes a global star.”
“These are beautiful images and nobody would dispute it.”
Link to the show recording
“Gorgeous.”
“I would describe Kivinen’s art as first and fore mostly a study of human experience and connection. It is a collaboration of topics; a personal process of working with the experiences of the model, and an appreciation for the raw human form. Who we are when we stand naked. On another level it is a yearning to understand our religious past and find harmony with it in our present. In sum, it searches and appreciates where we have arrived in our development both spiritually and scientifically.”
“Vesa Kivinen is a seriously talented storyteller... his works shed light into the power of human creativity.”
“What occurs is a reinvention of cultural norms as we understand them. It is Postmodern in its very essence, but with an added element of natural rudimentary common in the Renaissance period, which counteracts futuristic notions. Great art usually involves the combination of beauty, imagination, and extraordinary skill, and artist Vesa Kivinen is no exception.”
“Beautiful and haunting.”
“It’s almost a hundred years ago since the economist Lord Keynes said: ‘The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will be occupied or reoccupied, by our real problems — the problems of life and of human relations, of creation and behaviour and religion.’ Those of us, who have personally experienced Vesa’s art, can well believe that the era Keynes was talking about is just around the corner.”
“Your works have the sensitivity of Leonardo’s drawings and the dreamscape of Chagall.””
“Vesa is a unique artist with a high-frequency spiritual touch that is visible in all his creations, whether it’s paintings or videos, etc. There are so many layers and dimensions in his work. His art is absolutely amazing and intelligent in a divine way.”
“Besides the great contemporary visionaries, Vesa is one of the few living artists who manages to sneak in through my visual faculties to stroke the soul I don’t even really believe I have. I was instantly smitten the first time I saw his work.”
“Vesa’s work is deeply inspiring. For many the naked body is taboo, although depicted for thousands of years, but when made into art like this, who can say anything but truly amazing.”