SIMO MANTERE

Visual artist, painter

Simo Mantere begins painting in his studio with specific rituals: arranging his workspace, moving objects around, creating compositions. What happens in the studio outside the canvas is a crucial part of the painting process.

Mantere has a sharp visual memory.  He effortlessly remembers small details, especially certain ‘imperfections’ in his environment, such as pieces of tape in unexpected places or discarded chewed gum — both of which have ended up as materials in his paintings. The colours in Mantere's paintings are often memories of observations in his surroundings; the colour of an everyday object might please him and find its way into a painting. Or it might be a colour of a more personal memory, such as the shade of his grandmother's barn.  Mantere doesn't think about colour theory while painting; he aims to discover his own new colour combinations, to brake the rules. His relationship with colour is experimental and impulsive.

Mantere's goal is to express as much as possible with the fewest possible means. Giving space to carefully chosen marks or signs is a particularly strong element in his paintings. Mantere considers this even further: how could he create a painting without actually painting? The compositions of Mantere’s paintings are carefully considered and refined. Sometimes finding the right result requires many washes, new layers, and additions. The paintings extend beyond the canvas onto the studio walls; the viewer can see traces of these events on the edges of the exhibited paintings. Imagination is sparked, prompting viewers to wonder what happened outside the canvas and how the marks continue beyond the edges into something we cannot see. Curiosity opens the viewer's imagination, and all of Mantere's possible paint marks thus find space in the viewer's inner world.

The paintings exhibited have been painted some years ago. Viewing his own work in a different space and time casts them in a new light, like recalling an old memory after years have passed. The unique nature of the Majakka as an exhibition space brings out new aspects of the paintings, allowing even the artist himself to view them from a new perspective.

Simo Mantere’s work will next be seen at the Mänttä Art Festival 2025.