Riiko Sakkinen: Turbo Realism

Turbo Realism marks Riiko Sakkinen’s (b. 1976) debut exhibition at Galerie Forsblom. The large-scale drawings and acrylic paintings contain a sense of familiarity due to their surrounding commercial context involving things such as bags of potato chips, Disney animation characters, and various print media publications, particularly celebrity and entertainment news.

The exhibition title refers to the art movement Turbo Realism that Sakkinen founded in order to make global capitalism visible. In his manifesto, the artist expressed the desire to enlighten the viewer to the mechanisms and impact of capitalism while questioning social structure in the process. In addition to paintings and drawings, Sakkinen’s modes of expression include wall hangings, slides, installations and interventions, all of which comment on the consumer culture, from fast food to prostitution and from supermarkets to drug cartels.

Among other projects Sakkinen is known for his installation MuNA, the Museum of No Art at the Gösta Museum in 2014, in which he critically examined the museum as an institution. The politically and socially critical artist works effortlessly across varied media, involving various styles, trends, and materials. In addition to art criticism, Sakkinen is also active in his blog as well as in traditional and social media. 

After graduating from Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2002, Sakkinen moved to Spain, where he still lives and works. His works have been exhibited in galleries, museums, biennales, and locations across the world, and his works can be found in numerous collections, including New York Museum of Modern Art, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art and the Amos Anderson Art Museum.