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6/9/2006

Esko Mannikko

Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York

Cocktails

The Yancey Richardson Gallery is pleased to present Cocktails, an installation of photographs by Finnish artist Esko Mannikko. Exhibited internationally in venues such as the Venice Biennale, the Sao Paolo Biennial, the Yokohama Museum of Art, the Shanghai Museum of Art and the Tate Liverpool, this is Mannikko’s first exhibition in the United States since 1997.

The exhibition is composed of work drawn from three recent series entitled Southern Comfort, Flora and Fauna and Harmony Sisters. The images, most of which were taken in Mannikko’s native Finland, are intermixed in an installation created by the artist to suggest a narrative about life in a rural setting. As he describes it, “My installation is like a village, composed of people, animals, buildings, still lives - all together." Mannikko places his photographs in old found frames carefully selected to complement the details or subjects of his images. He also uses the rough thrift store quality of the frames to serve as an ironic reference to his backwoods origins.

Southern Comfort is comprised of interiors filled with discarded, abandoned objects and nonsensical furniture assembled from odd bits of refuse. These objects and spaces emanate a sense of history undercut with an ironic haphazardness. An avid outdoorsman, Mannikko devotes a portion of each year to hunting and fishing. The small intimate studies of dead birds and fish in Flora and Fauna pay respect to their subjects and the cycle of life in nature. In Harmony Sisters horses and cows are seen up close and in detail. Focusing on the texture of hair, the patterns of markings or tight shots of the muzzle and teeth, the images are nearly abstract.

Recognized as Young Artist of the Year in Finland in 1995, Mannikko first gained international prominence with his portraits of Finnish bachelors in the “Far North" who epitomized a kind of loneliness and self-reliance. In 1996, he was awarded an ArtPace international artist residency in San Antonio, Texas, where he photographed the residents of two small Mexican American communities on the border of South Texas. An ongoing series titled Organized Freedom focuses on abandoned houses discovered on walks throughout remote parts of Finland. With twenty-five percent of the country unemployed, the owners of the houses have, in the words of the artist, “locked the door and walked away" leaving their rural life for the city.

Works by Mannikko have been acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Foundation Cartier, the Moderna Museet and the Malmo Art Museum, among others. In April Mannikko was awarded the first Ordonez-Falcon International Photography Award and he is currently the subject of a 100-piece retrospective at the Kursaal Art Museum, San Sebastian Spain.

The gallery and artist are grateful for the support of the Consulate General of Finland.

Reception for the artist: Thursday September 7, 2006, 6-8 pm

YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY
535 West 22nd Street 3rd floor New York NY 10011
Hours: Monday - Friday, 10-6

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