Ville Löppönen (b. 1980)
Ville Löppönen is a visual artist, who was born in Savonlinna. He graduated with a Master of Arts degree from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2007 and with a Master of Orthodox Theology degree from the University of Eastern Finland in 2018. The basis of Ville Löppönen’s paintings is the ongoing change in our society and the need to react to it, with the pandemic, climate change and the resulting global crises as the triggers. Simultaneously, cultural diversity challenges us to a new dialogue on cultural values and the presumed threats or enriching impacts of diversity.
“Currently, my painting moves from performative to non-performative, from figurative to abstract. I call this moving in from the edges, a metamorphosis in which the content is hermeneutically re-interpreted through deconstruction, experimenting and re-building.
Ville Löppönen’s paintings for the M_itä? Biennale of Contemporary Art encourage us to embrace rather than resist the metamorphosis. A positive future is enabled by not constructing it on a utopian or respectively dystopian scenario.
Photo: Harri Heinonen, © Ville Löppönen, Kuvasto ry, Harri Heinonen ja Mikkelin taidemuseo
Study for Guernica, 2021, acryl and oil on canvas, 270 x 600 cm, Mikkeli Art Museum