Hostler Burrows is pleased to announce Unicorns, Madness and Stardust, an exhibition of new work by Finnish artist Jasmin Anoschkin. This is the artist’s first solo show in the United States and will include wood sculptures, drawings, and video, in addition to Anoschkin's more familiar fantasy hybrid ceramic animals. The exhibition runs October 10 through November 8, 2019 with an opening reception with the artist on Thursday, October 10, from 6 to 8pm.
Anoschkin’s exuberant aesthetic springs from an amalgam of sources, melding the languages of contemporary folk art, pop culture, and the toy industry. The artist creates naïve sculptures of hybrid animals conjured from her own fantasy world and personal experiences. Her animated sculptures are strikingly fresh in their playfulness, yet they belie deeper qualities confronting issues around diversity and the ways in which “different” beings live in the world.
Upon seeing one of Anoschkin’s animal sculptures for the first time, Juliet Burrows noted, “The naive character of the animal was evident, but beneath the cartoon-like appearance there lay an intangible sadness and a soulfulness that struck me with great poignancy.” Burrows continues, “The characters move beyond whimsy - they tug at our heartstrings and can cause even a certain discomfort in their pleading honesty and the way they have seemingly sprung from our innermost imaginings.”
Anoschkin is a member of the Art Department Society of Arabia in Helsinki, and thus continues a tradition of centuries-old ceramic exploration that carries over into other mediums. Her work is intentionally malformed — there is no attempt at “perfection,” which reflects the reality of the diversity in our world as opposed to aspiring to create an ideal.
The Finnish gallerist and curator Veikko Halmetoja observes that Anoschkin’s works, “are not mere wooden or ceramic sculptures but vessels for stories, memories and longing… In her oeuvre so far, Jasmin Anoschkin has created a carnivalistic gesamtkunstwerk.”
Her breakthrough work entitled Bambi, was shown at the Mänttä Art Festival in 2009 and also in 2010 at the 100th Anniversary of the Association of Finnish Sculptors in Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art. It was subsequently acquired by the Finnish State Art Collection. In 2012, she was chosen to be the year’s young artist in the Satakunta region of Finland. Her work is permanently on display in the lobby of the Helsinki City Museum, and was published as a series of postage stamps in Finland in 2017.
