The exhibition of Jyväskylä-based visual artist Reijo Veijalainen titled Musta tuntuu is displayed in Koto Hotel, Pihtipudas from April until June. The exhibition consists of the artist’s oil paintings, which he has painted mainly this year and last year.

 

What is common for the paintings is black colour, which can be found in all the paintings – in small smidgens or as larger surfaces.

– The use of black colour somehow fell between my wings about three years ago. Previously, I was a timid user of colour, but in the past few years, yellow, blue and red in addition to black have started to appear among my earthy colour palette, says Veijalainen.

 

Composition and play with forms

 

What is particularly important in Veijalainen’s abstract and minimalist expression is composition. He plays with nonfigurative and geometric forms of different sizes – and enjoys it. A close look reveals a square or a rectangle in almost every one of his works.

 

Veijalainen graduated from the painting line of the Kankaanpää art school in 1977. His first artistic works were collages and three-dimensional object assemblies, the materials for which he gathered from flea markets and dumps. Later, painting with oil on canvas has, however, completely captured him.
 

Veijalainen has never earned his living from art, and there have been long pauses in his art making. A year ago, he retired from the position of service supervisor of a community centre for the disabled. There, he used his creativity, among other things, to organise art projects implemented by disabled people.


Seventh professional artist at the art hotel

 

Now, Veijalainen has more time for his own painting. After the Koto Hotel exhibition, he will have an exhibition in Galleria Hoppa in Jyväskylä, and in September, he will be Galleria Becker’s Artist of the Month. His paintings are in the collections of City of Jyväskylä, the Central Finland Health Care District Consortium and Jyväskylä Energy (currently, Alva), among others.

 

Since autumn 2020, Koto Hotel Pihtipudas has profiled as an art hotel and received background support in this from the Jyväskylä Artists’ Association. Veijalainen is already the seventh professional artist from Central Finland whose exhibition is seen in the hotel