Johanna Kestilä

Finnish artist Johanna Kestilä creates visual works that dynamically combine movement and chance. Based in Helsinki, Kestilä is represented by Galleria G12 and the artist-run studio+gallery RIO11, drawing inspiration from people, raw feelings, and her surroundings.

Kestilä’s artworks are a reorganization of unfiltered emotions and mental automatisms. Her artistic practice pursues a rearrangement of uncontrolled mindsets, working in a slow and often discontinuous manner. The creative process highlights the need to give a visual shape to formless memories and sensations through different media. The artist combines pictures and painted textile elements, rearranging them in powerful compositions. The result is a memory-based and strongly material work, characterized by lively colors and organic forms. Kestilä’s artworks are all about choices, mistakes, continuity, and coincidences. Her art questions process first, rather than achievements.