Riiko Sakkinen is known for his drawings and paintings highlighting the world’s economic and social problems. Sakkinen’s ‘turborealism’ challenges the traditional pictorial storytelling and uses characters and products from popular culture, turning the product’s message on its head.
“In a perfect world, I’d be unemployed as an artist,” says Sakkinen, meaning that without the world’s social problems he would have nothing to criticize, and hence nothing to paint. Sakkinen has delved particularly into the stark realities and contradictions of modern economic conflict, drawing inspiration from Warren Buffett’s piercing observation about a raging class war with the rich class making and winning it. Sakkinen’s paintings explore e.g. the battlegrounds of class struggle in the contemporary society.
Through his visual narratives, Sakkinen critiques the mechanics of power, wealth, and the perpetual conflict that underpins the global economy. Sakkinen interrogates the nexus of capitalism, examines the rise of China’s communist millionaires who straddle the divide between ideology and wealth, and depicts the illusionary nature of crypto currency as elaborate coin tricks that veil deeper truths. He presents the inevitable and shockingly ridiculous nature of the consumerism and the ultimate motif which in turn brings the responsibility also to the public. The visual catalogue he uses might be a significant and meaningful reminiscent to the viewer, yet the dystopian world he creates is a shattering reminder of the possible destruction of mind and matter.
Sakkinen has studied in the Academy of Arts in Helsinki and Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Castile-La Mancha, Cuenca. His works have been exhibited at e.g. Vantaa Art Museum, Amos Anderson Art Museum, Kunsthalle, Helsinki, Serlachius Museums, Mänttä, Nationalmuseum of Sweden, Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki, Halosenniemi Museum, Tuusula, Artsi Vantaa Art Museum, Vantaa, Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna, Stockholm, Momentum Kunsthall, Moss, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Museo regionale di scienze naturali, Turin, Bury Art Museum, Cultuurcentrum Mechelen and MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sakkinen’s works are in the collections of Amos Rex, Helsinki, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Kiasma Museum of Modern Art, Serlachius Art Museums and MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, among others.
