Ville Andersson (b.1986 Loviisa, Finland) is a versatile artist, both in his use of different media and in his variety of styles and themes. His series comprise, among others, photographs, drawings, paintings, installations and texts. Andersson’s projects are informed by a number of keywords that he explores in depth. A framework is thus created in which the artist works out his themes using the power of association. His works are engaged in a conversation with both the history of art and contemporary issues.
Ville Andersson lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. He studied at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. He has exhibited actively, including at: EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art; National Art Center, Tokyo; Vitraria Glass + A Museum, Venice; Museum Weserburg, Bremen; The Centre for photography,Stockholm; FOMU – Fotomuseum, Antwerp. In 2015 he was named the Young Artist of the Year in Finland. Young Artist of the Year is one of the biggest and best known Finnish art awards. He had two solo museum exhibitions the same year.
Recent projects include stamps for the Finnish postal service, tableware for the company Arabia and set-and costume design for a theatre play.
Andersson’s works are in several public collections, including Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection and the Amos Anderson Art Museum.
During his residency, Ville Andersson explores some of the ideas from his latest series I can’t go on, I will go on (first phase: January 2018). He develops new ways of expression, explore completely new ideas and start new areas of research. Such as combining computer generated 3D sculpting with photography.
Andersson explores concepts of emptiness and silence. Emptiness is, for him, a space in which imagination can flow freely. Silence or emptiness do not mean insignificance or that something does not exist. On the contrary, emptiness is highly expressive. The silence between two notes is also a part of a song. In Japanese the word Ma describes this border state between two things. Without nothing there can’t be something.
Image: Passage, 2010. © Ville Andersson
In Process @ The Watermill Center invites the community to engage with our Artists-in-Residence on Saturday afternoons through open rehearsals, workshops, studio visits, lectures or artist talks.
Watermill’s mission is to provide artists and thinkers the opportunity to focus on the development of their work and practice. Artists-in-Residence have gone on to perform at venues and festivals including the New Museum, Roulette, PS122, American Realness, Clocktower Gallery, Performa, Vienna’s Donaufestival, Kampnagel in Hamburg, CPR – Center for Performance Research, and the Baryshnikov Arts Center.
April 7, 2018
photos © Lindsay Morris
