Juha Pekka Matias Laakkonen

Juha Pekka Matias Laakkonen is a Finnish artist whose practice is a complex game of perception. His works reflect on the human impact on nature and reveal the existential anxiety over life, death and limits of scientific knowledge. Working in sculpture, installation and durational performance, Laakkonen utilises raw, natural materials, such as wood and fibres, and through most simplistic tools, such as needles, knives or axes, reinvents their essence. His practice contemplates the relationship between seeing the work of art as opposed to knowing the meaning of the work of art, as well as the potential utility of such a distinction. Ultimately, Laakkonen’s works resist being placed in a context, contemporary relevance or art historical definitions. However, through such neutral detachment from reality, his works become evermore present, challenging human agency amidst the environmental crisis. ...

Corvi-Mora is a contemporary art gallery based in Kennington, South London. The gallery currently represents over 30 artists, including Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Alvaro Barrington, Jennifer Packer, Brian Calvin, Tomoaki Suzuki and established international artists such as Turner Prize nominees Roger Hiorns and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Corvi-Mora was founded by Tommaso Corvi-Mora in 2000 at premises in London's Warren Street after the closure of the gallery Robert Prime which he founded in partnership with Gregorio Magnani in 1995. Corvi-Mora moved to a space on Kempsford Road in 2004 with the contemporary art gallery greengrassi. Notable exhibitions include Sorrow for A Cipher by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye in 2016, Roger Hiorns in 2004 and 2015, The Commune Itself Becomes a Super State by Liam Gillick in 2007, Rachel Feinstein in 2007, and Richard Hawkins in 2009. ...