Lapland-based artist couple Raisa Raekallio (b.1978, Kittilä, Finland) and Misha del Val (b.
1979, Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain) have been working together for over a decade now on
paintings, drawings, performance art pieces, curatorial projects, and podcasts.
All paintings in The Rings of Saturn exhibition have been created from a single image: a picture the artists took while sharing a meal in their home in the village of Sirkka. Despite sharing the same source, each scene radiates its own particular universe. Thus, in Prophet, an enlightened bearded soothsayer offers a vehement monologue in a room filled with works by Hilma af Klint – possibly cheap reproductions. In Black Star, a young lad, proudly wearing a David Bowie t-shirt, remains oblivious to the darkness outside, which is punctuated by snowflakes, or dots of light, or balls from a nearby golf course. In The Rings of Saturn —the work that lends the name to the series— there is a poster on the wall, that any moment might become an open portal to a different solar system. In Tykky, a large spruce tree, dominating the vista from a cabin window, bows down before the landscape it belongs to. The space-time fabric is torn apart in Ancestor from the Future.
In 2023 Raisa Raekallio and Misha del Val were awarded the Artists’ Association of Finland Award for their unique approach to artistic collaboration. Their paintings are part of private and public collections throughout Finland including Wihuri Foundation Collection; the Lars Göran Johnsson Collection at Turku Art Museum; Saastamoinen Foundation Collection at EMMA, Oulu Art Museum, Rovaniemi Art Museum, and Aine Art Museum, amongst others.
