KEIJU (ISH)

Gabriella Presnal: KEIJU (ISH)
7.6.-30.6.2024 | Galleria Ars Libera, Maaherrankatu 3, Kuopio
Avoinna: ke–pe 14–18 + la–su 12–17.
Vapaa pääsy | Tervetuloa!

Tervetuloa näyttelyn avajaisiin 6.6.2024 klo 18-20

KEIJU (ISH) is an exhibition by Gabriella Presnal presenting works inspired by their nomadic childhood, queer identity, spatiality, culture, and land. Keiju meaning fairy, and “fairy” has its own queer context as a derogative term. The “ish” refers to a relationship between Finland as well as being a “fairy” in Finland.

Gabriella Presnalin näyttely KEIJU (ISH) on kokoelma töistä, jotka kuvastavat miten taiteilija on inspiroitunut elämästään eri maista, queer-identiteetistä, tilallisuudesta, eri kulttuureista ja ympäristöistä. Keiju-sanalla englanniksi, “Fairy”, on oma kontekstinsa halventavana terminä queer-väestöstä. “Ish” viittaa Suomen väliseen suhteeseen sekä “fairynä” olemiseen Suomessa.

Works

  • Holey Space

    2023/ 81x100cm / Acrylic Painting

  • Connections

    2023 / 81x100cm / Oil Painting

  • Snufkin

    2023 / 81x100cm / Oil Painting

  • Garden Cracks

    2023 / 81x100cm / Acrylic & Oil Painting

  • Embrace

    2023 / 80x60cm / Oil & Acrylic Painting

  • Queerplatonic

    2022-2023 / 80x60cm / Oil Painting

  • Oddity

    2022-2023 / 50x40cm / Oil Painting

  • Emergence

    2022-2023 / 80x60cm / Oil painting

  • Past, Future, Present

    2022-2023 / 80x60cm / Oil Painting

  • Garden Hoes

    2022 / 80x80cm / Acrylic Painting

    Garden Hoes is a third to compliment Thumb and Lesbos. It is inspired by the same topics many of the other works by this artist draw on, i.e. gardens as heterotopia, spaces of sexual liberation and empowerment, queer time/temporality, reinventing childhood nostalgia, and overall being inspired by queer people. The title Garden Hoes isn’t necessarily as a root to sexualize the small beings’ sexualities within the paintings but is rather to reclaim what it is to be considered a hoe, and/or to be conceived as a sexual oddity, abnormality, or deviant. Garden Hoes exists to represent the sensuality and gentility of queer hoes.

  • Lesbos

    2022 / 36x42cm / Acrylic Painting

    These works are inspired as a loose parody of fairy tales like Thumbelina and fairies outside of a cisheteronormative context and in reclamation over the derogative use of "fairy" towards the queer community. The works reimagine these fairy tales with queer people as their main characters. They are not necessarily about sex, but more about sensuality, imagination, peace, community, and nostalgia.

  • Thumb

    2022 / 40x40cm / Acrylic painting

    The works are also inspired by theories like "queer-time" which describe how queer persons may experience a more non-linear childhood, adolescence, and overall youth as much of those times may have been experienced in the closet and/or suppressed. The inspiration was drawn around the hopes we have for society - i.e. peaceful communities devoid of sexual and gender oppression, as well as the celebration of queer joy.

  • Retrospect

    2022 / 30x30 / Oil, Acrylic, & Crayon painting

    The first in an ongoing series reminiscing on childhood memories. Particularly memories of situations or instances that still feel unclear, the artist questions their own intentions in their memories as well as the intentions of others. Was their response reasonable? The work Retrospect is a story about conflicting memories, and being unsure of what to think or believe about the situation in retrospect.


    The artist aims to show other instances in their adolescence where there are moments of confused tension with the past. The first piece was inspired by the artist's childhood living in Sweden (as a Finnish American moving from the US, who was then fully immersed in the Swedish school system). Soon after arriving, the parents of the artist told them and their siblings if other children teased them to speak Swedish that it could be like bullying. Not that much later, a classmate teased them by asking the artist to translate “strawberry” into Swedish, whereby the artist responded, “Jordgubbe” (Swedish for strawberry). The confusion in retrospect lay in the line between childish flirting in the form of teasing or teasing sourced from resentment.