Friday January 1st
Artist of the month
Saara Vaniala
Saara Vaniala (1987, Helsinki) is a local babe and self-taught visual artist, musician, writer and philosopher. Her curiosity towards mysticism translates into figurative, yet deeply symbolic artwork that often deals with transformation and evolution. Her mixed-media pieces and their colour palettes are well-thought-out – despite their kooky, pseudo-random look. Digital platforms inspire her (and you might want to follow Saara’s posts on Facebook).
Saara describes the work done for Post Bar: “I love clubbing. I need it like I need air. It heals me. Glorious dance music, the humble and celestial arte of DJing, and the beautiful, dancing people. All happening in this precariously permissive setting called ‘the club’. In my piece I wanted to show what goes on in Post Bar. To tell a story to those who’ve never been inside and wonder what it’s like, but also to give a cheeky wink to those who frequent the place and know what’s up. A map of Post Bar.”
Artist of the month
Teemu Keisteri
Teemu Keisteri (1985, Espoo) is a visual artist living and working in Helsinki. He has been getting a lot of attention with his Ukkeli character which he uses for paintings, drawings and unique clothing. Keisteri gets his inspiration from cultural phenomena and Finnish lifestyle and uses often himself as the subject of his art. Besides Ukkeli, Keisteri makes video art, art and dance performances, his own music in the band PEU and DJ shows under the name Windows95Man. Keisteri’s videos have won popularity with the internet and social media audiences. Keisteri also has his own art gallery Kalleria in Kallio, Helsinki.
Teemu describes the work done for Post Bar: ”I’m really a big fan of 90s/80s rave/house/italodisco record label logos and I wanted to use this Nervous record label logo as an inspiration to my Post Bar poster.
I wanted to do something that is fun, easygoing and what makes people happy, and I’m really happy how it went.”
Artist of the month
Landys Roimola
Landys Roimola, (born 1992, Bogota) is a sculptor, who is concerned about the growing problem with waste and recycling. Her sculptures are at the same time relatable, strange and beautiful – like misunderstood creatures that have been pulled from another universe. Dominated by the material, and with some unexpected results along the way, the waste gets a new life in Roimola’s hands. The way she used trash as a material grasps the ruthless reality of our time. Reusing and organizing of spurned materials brings out a possibility of hope.
Landys describes the work done for Post Bar: “Working with actual materials is very different from working with 2D surface but I wanted to reach the same feeling of uncomfortableness with this graphic as with my sculptures. The disturbing creature in the artwork got a human kind form and it is watching your back as well as its own.”
Artist of the month
Toni Halonen
Toni Halonen is a visual artist currently based in Helsinki. His works play with the moment when an representational image starts to break up in to an abstract picture plane. He has been exhibited and published in various countries internationally and currently continues his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki.
Toni describes the work done for Post Bar: “Its interesting that at least for me an abstract image tends to feel like an actual portrait when it is in the portrait format. Thats why I guess I tend to work more in the landscape size. For this work I tried to step out of my ways, embrace this and accept the feeling of an abstract portrait. In a way I guess we could call it a post portrait…”
Artist of the month
Risto Kujanpää
In his work, Risto’s sympathies lie somewhere in between language, symbols and abstract shapes. Based mostly in The Hague, Netherlands he studies graphic design at the Royal Academy of Art, KABK. Some day he will finish a typeface.
Risto describes the work done for Post Bar: “I was thinking how it feels like to be in the mix. To witness two tracks merging together one after another.”
Post Bar features monthly artists on the poster and event graphics.
Artist of the Month
Irene Suosalo
Irene Suosalo is a Helsinki based visual artist with a background in photography and moving image. In her work she uses a scanner with various different materials from paper to everyday objects to create images that lie somewhere between figurative and abstract. In addition to still imagery she recently started working as a video jockey for nightclubs and festivals by bringing the scanner works to life. She is also interested in playing with light by creating light installations.
Irene describes the work done for Post Bar: “I chose the colors and hand movement but after that the process was all trial and error. Eventually the images came to be something modern but retro and it felt right.”
Post Bar features monthly artists on the poster and event graphics.
Artist of the Month
Matti Vesanen
Matti Vesanen is an animator and director from Helsinki. He likes to combine 3D rendered imagery with screenprinting in his illustrations. By day he runs a studio called VELI.fx which concentrates on art direction and animation. By night he does visuals and installations in venues spanning from the underground to large festivals. He always tries to find time for personal animation and illustration projects to keep things buzzing.
“My idea was to stop the movement of a sunny dancer for a second to capture it in multiple angles.” -Matti
Artist of the Month
Braulio Amado
Braulio Amado is a portuguese designer and illustrator living in New York City. He previously worked at Pentagram, Bloomberg Businessweek and Wieden Kennedy. He now runs his own studio, BAD Studio, and works for clients such as Nike, Frank Ocean, New York Times, Wired Magazine, Washed Out, Roisin Murphy and more.
“My idea was to draw a long, weird and abstract heat-wave to celebrate the beginning of the warm and sunny days of Summer.” – Braulio
Post Bar features monthly artists on the poster and event graphics.