International Urban Art Exchange 2020 Exhibition

The Urban Art Foundation, an organisation committed to making art accessible on streets and in public gateways to enrich New Zealander’s experience of their urban environment, has facilitated an exchange of digitalised paintings and video art between Turku, Finland and Wellington, New Zealand.

In Wellington, the International Urban Art Exchange (IUAE) 2020 exhibition will run from Saturday, 18 January until 9 February 2020 at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts Gallery on the Wellington waterfront.

Then later in the year, in Turku, the IUAE exhibition will run from June 29 until July 12 on the Teatteri Theatre’s 50 square meter outdoor digital screen. The Teatteri Theatre and arts venue is near the city centre on the shore of the Aura river. Turku, on the southwest coast of Finland, has a population equivalent to Wellington’s and is regarded as the cultural and culinary capital of the country.

In Wellington, the IUAE exhibition will be displayed on three large digital screens, two portrait and one landscape screen, installed inside the NZ Academy of Fine Arts Gallery.

Andrew Hagen, Urban Art’s founder and creative director said, “In both countries, all the artworks being exchanged will be shown. This means, in Wellington people will see what we’ve sent to Finland and what was sent to us, and the same will happen in Turku.

“An hour of paintings and 30 minutes of digital art will be shown in both venues. Each painting will screen for 15 seconds with 120 painting from each country. Twelve selected artists from Finland and New Zealand will show 10 pieces of artwork. The remaining 30 minutes is devoted to video art, 15 minutes per country.”

The New Zealand artists whose work will be displayed are Karl Maughan, Derek Cowie, Heather Straka, Elizabeth Thompson, Paul Martinson, John Walsh, Liam Barr, Charlotte Handy, John Pule, Graham Fletcher, Sara Hughes and Dick Frizzell.

The Finnish artists will include Annika Dahlsten, Markku Laakso, Minna Sjöholm, Sirpa Särkijärvi, Erika Adamsson, Heikki Marila, Ulla Jokisalo, Wäinö Aaltonen, Susanna Majuri, Jaana Paulus, Ulla-Maija Kallinen, Kati Immonen, Rosa Liksom, Heli Kurunsaari and Manno Kalliomäki.

“For the past two years the Urban Art Foundation has taken art created by New Zealand artists out of the archives and displayed it in contemporary easily accessible, outdoor digital media sites for people to view as a source of enjoyment and education.

“The current “Extinct Birds of New Zealand” is our twentieth exhibition, with approximately 1.5 million digital showings on oOh!Media screens throughout New Zealand.

“The IUAE takes this concept to the next level, showcasing New Zealand art in Finland alongside the best of Finnish artworks and vice versa. This has been made possible with assistance from our Finnish partners: The Museum Centre of Turku and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

“We started work on this last year and believe it opens the door to similar art exchanges with other countries in future. To this end, We are currently working with our Korean contacts towards a 2021 art exchange.

“We’re excited about the upcoming IUAE between Finland and New Zealand and the prospect of facilitating similar exchanges with other countries in future. Understanding and appreciating other countries’ culture is crucial in a connected interdependent world. We trust that the IUAE should strengthen the relationship between our two countries and prove mutually beneficial in a variety of ways, not just artistically,” Andrew Hagen said.

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