The starting points of Kari Södö’s artworks can be found both in popular culture and in the difficult issues of the prevailing reality, in the mixing of easy and serious. The exhibition presents larger sculptural installations and smaller wooden sculptures, as well as a dialogue between naturally shaped and carved wood. Colors and shapes. Rhythms.
“I have long wanted to present an exhibition with the focus on rhythm. Rhythm has always been an essential element in my works and in my exhibitions. To take over the space, I rhythmize the entities through the size and placement of the works. I make rhythm according to the shape, size and color. Texts, symbols, numbers and letters, as well as the creation of different levels of meaning, also give rhythm to the artworks and their contents. As a musician and bassist, rhythm is strongly the basis of everything in my doing. I want to marvel at the rhythm, its aesthetics and philosophy, above all as a visual artist, but also as a musician.”
Kari Södö (b. 1963, Borås, Sweden) lives and works in Oulu. He graduated as a visual artist from the Kankaanpää Art School in 1997. Södö has had many solo exhibitions in Finland and group exhibitions abroad e.g. in Berlin, Cannes, Stockholm and St. Petersburg. His artworks are in significant collections and he has produced several public artworks. In 2019 he was chosen as one of the artists to create the art complex of the planned Paasikiventie Wall in Santalahti, Tampere.
Kari Södö has been the chairman of the Oulu Artists’ Association from 2000 to 2002 and is a member of the Finnish Association of Sculptors and the Finnish Graphic Artists. As a musician, Södö has become known e.g. as a bassist for the band Garbo. In addition to Garbo, he plays in several bands and is also a member of the Male Choir Shouters.
Welcome to the opening of the exhibition 28th of August at 6pm.