MIRKA RAITO

UNDER YOUR SKIN II / Concepts of Motherhood / HilbertRaum 2023

UNDER YOUR SKIN

I invite you to dance with Venus. She is filled and her body is open. I crawl under her skin. I am stronger. I drink wine and milk. She eats yeast, chocolate and liquorice and laughs out loud. I mix up cellulite and cellulose. I pass out and she's been asleep for 30,000 years. It's drunken love. To capture all this will be funny and healing. Come, let's dance with Venus!

OLD SALT

...vanha suola, makes you thirsty, like the alluring ex-lover’s pull, in a Finnish saying. In more general terms, there are things and ingredients in life such as salt that never vanish, but morph into another form appearing again as a mark, stain, tears, sweat, from skin… solo exhibition 2022 at Galleria SNOW in Berlin.

NAINEN EI OLLUT YKSIN

The joint exhibition WOMAN WAS NOT ALONE by Niina Lehtonen Braun and Mirka Raito is based on the intensive correspondence that began during the pandemic and became an essential part of both artists’ studio work. A text written by Emma Puikkonen based on letter quotations is also part of the exhibition. Gallery Huuto, Helsinki 2022

ART IN DREAM

Artworks that have been dreamt by the visual artists themselves, either as objects, ideas or sketches. Group exhibition, HilbertRaum, Berlin 2021

FOLDED BODIES oder absence de marquage

ANTONI KNIGGE, MIRKA RAITO & METTE THIESSEN HilbertRaum, Berlin 2021

VESIHIISI SIHISI HISSISSÄ

solo exhibition, tm•gallery, Helsinki 2020

RESERVOIR

How about sip of WONDER LOVE HATRED DESIRE JOY or SADNESS? Hamburg 2020

FEE! FIE! FOE! FUM!

I do smell the flesh of a human! Altona Museum, Hamburg 2019

KLAPPE ZU - AFFE TOT

Gettogether among the cardboard boxes before leaving the longtime space. A wall and a barrier with a hidden entrance and a mini bar. Hinterconti, Hamburg 2019

PALASINA / IN PIECES

a play with the body and contours of a painting. Collages and objects with a temporary and variable look made out of sketches, cardboards, plants, paintings and photos. Things that were found, things that were laying around on the street or in the bush, small treasures. Things that disturb and/or fascinate. HilbertRaum, Berlin 2017

LOOSE THINGS / IRRALLISIA ASIOITA

Life is loose things: loose memories, loose moments, loose thoughts, loose relationships. To-Do lists, odd socks, stray cats, movabels, waste, displaced persons or people who lost themselves. Takeoffs, layoffs, missing pieces...Gallery Huuto, Helsinki 2017

GLÜCKSZUG

Pull the string and participate the game. An interactive mobilé. All the parts are movable but which string belongs to which object? Westwerk, Hamburg 2016

JOKAklubi

since 2009. JOKAklubi combines performance, music, video and paintings in their engaging shows and exhibitions. Inspired by people, JOKAklubi welcomes guest stars to their acts. Local audiences and other artists find space on JOKAklubi´s stage and depending on who, what and where, unique ambience emerges. JOKAklubi´s members, Finnish visual artists Niina Lehtonen Braun, Mirka Raito and Tellervo Kalleinen, have a long history performing together – including the group Voukkoset (1999-2001).

CLOSE YOUR EYES

Many years ago I took a series of photographs of my sleeping friends. Showroom Berliini, Berlin 2015

DAS MEER

collages about the sea and longing, yearning,hankering...since 2016

THEY DON'T TELL IT TO ANYONE

About present and absence. About viewing and observing. About feeling of spying or beeing spyed. Gallery Huuto, Helsinki 2008

AAARGH!

sketches of midsummer night's dream. Gallery Huuto, Helsinki 2012

DOORSTEP // SISTER AND BROTHER

Two installations, Hinterconti, Hamburg 2013

INSEL DIE ES NIE GAB

ISLAND THAT NEVER EXISTED Künstlerhaus im Jenischpark, Hamburg 2010

I DREAM SO I AM

Westwerk, Hamburg 2008

STATION NOX

is painting dreams, missing persons, lost persons, secretly loved persons, Alter Egos and muses. Since 2015

PLANTING KNOTS

Next to the big public park PLANTEN & BLUMEN in Hamburg is a remand prison. The prisoners and their relatives or friends can comminicate with each other by shouting. These dialogues are part of the daily audiovisuals of that certain place. Hinteconti, Hamburg 2008

PALMU KOIVU ARMI

Solo exhibition, Gallery Huuto, Helsinki 2003

KABINETTi 2005-2010

I asked friends and relatives to write down a memory based description. This description should tell about an important or unforgettable person, place or even a situation. I asked the description to be as visual as possible, like a picture. No name should be mensioned.

PÄÄNSÄRKIJÄT

Notices about small disturbing or exhiting things and situations. Something like a flirt or embarrassment or unclear hunch. Or that thing when friend of mine took secretly a photo of a woman he was enamored in. A beautiful photo came out. Based on this photo I made a painting. I gave this painting as a birthday present to this friend. He was kind of embarrassed and hided the painting. Oksasenkatu, Helsinki 2013