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!
work
...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.
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
Artworks that have been dreamt by the visual artists themselves, either as objects, ideas or sketches. Group exhibition, HilbertRaum, Berlin 2021
ANTONI KNIGGE, MIRKA RAITO & METTE THIESSEN HilbertRaum, Berlin 2021
solo exhibition, tm•gallery, Helsinki 2020
How about sip of WONDER LOVE HATRED DESIRE JOY or SADNESS? Hamburg 2020
I do smell the flesh of a human! Altona Museum, Hamburg 2019
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
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
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
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
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).
Many years ago I took a series of photographs of my sleeping friends. Showroom Berliini, Berlin 2015
collages about the sea and longing, yearning,hankering...since 2016
About present and absence. About viewing and observing. About feeling of spying or beeing spyed. Gallery Huuto, Helsinki 2008
sketches of midsummer night's dream. Gallery Huuto, Helsinki 2012
Two installations, Hinterconti, Hamburg 2013
ISLAND THAT NEVER EXISTED Künstlerhaus im Jenischpark, Hamburg 2010
Westwerk, Hamburg 2008