JIRI GELLER b.1970 Sculptor jiri.geller@gmail.com Like an anarchist who has studied every stitch and fold of the banker's suit, Jiri Geller models and subverts the iconic forms of contemporary culture with vengeful precision. While - not inaccurately - self-defining as "an outsider, a punk rocker", Geller is also the rare Finnish artist who has both managed to stay close to Finnish aesthetic strengths and traditions and also detonate his own unique brand of post-national, mind-fucker nihilism. As a Finn, Geller's work perfectly fits that grey Nordic outpost's proud, tragic tradition. His sculptures are elemental and essential, fascinated with death and violence, critical of the fake and phony, and ever aware of just how dark the world can be. But then, rather than being limited by his roots - or in denial of them, Geller keeps to this impeccable conceptual framework, and takes it global. While never repeating himself, Geller targets the same territory again and again to explore the idea that what in our modern world is deemed solid, permanent and valuable is in fact melting, suspect, and utterly transitory. Geller's objects offer meaning despite their solidity and materiality. A pessimistic yet playful - at times quite profound - energy flows through them: escalators connect one to nowhere; fiberglass tsunamis promise leisure sport and/or death by flood; ice cream cones sit frozen in mid-melt next to exquisite skulls that melt and drip like butterscotch candies in the sun. It's rare to see such playfulness and heaviness seamlessly combined in the same artistic vision: Geller's balloon fabrications radiate all the lighthearted joy of portraits of children...who have recently died. And he has constructed a video game control module possibly intended to burn you alive. But if Geller's all sharp knives, dark jest and nihilist prankster, what's with a name linked to that slightly dated globe trotting charlatan asshole - Uri Geller? Jiri explains: "Uri is friends with Michael Jackson - that is cool. And both Uri and I do tricks for a living. I like the way that people get suspicious when thinking they might be being cheated. Like: ´Could this guy's name really be Jiri Geller´. Well, they should be suspicious. We've all been cheated big time." - Mark Maher, Helsinki Finland, May 2010 EDUCATION 1991-1994 Silversmith Graduated from the Lahti Polytechnic; Institute of Design; Faculty of Goldsmith (MFA) SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2010 MAGIC, Studio, Turku Art Museum, Turku Love & Money, Hasan & Partners, Helsinki 2009 Series of Disappointments, Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary, Helsinki Series of Disappointments, LARM galleri, Copenhagen 2008 Jiri Geller, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki 2007 DUNKELHEIT, galleria Krista Mikkola, Helsinki The Art of the Beast, Norrtälje Konsthall, Norrtälje The Art of the Beast, Galleri 21, Malmö The Art of the Beast, Örebro Konsthall, Örebro 2006 Jiri Geller 1:1, the Korjaamo Culture Factory Gallery, Helsinki GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2008 ROR, Fennofolk - New Nordic Oddity , Design Museum, Helsinki 2007 ROR: POWERTRIP, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow ROR: Revolutions On Request, Brändström + Stene gallery, Stockholm 2006 The State of Things, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo 2005 ROCK`N ROR, "FAITES VOS JEUX", Shedhalle, Zurich ROR Forever! MAM project 003, Mori Art Museum, Tokio 2004 ROR: ultima thule, DaDaDa, Temporary Contemporary Gallery, London ROR: ultima thule, Together Forever, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver 2003 ROR: ultima thule, Tirana Biennale 2, Tirana ROR : Contemporary Plastic, ctrl_alt_del, Marres, Maastricht ROR: Contemporary Plastic, ROR galleria, Helsinki Utopia Station, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice ROR: piece by piece, The Straight or Crooked Way, Royal College of Art, London 2002 ror: piece by piece, Fundamentalisms of the New Order, Charlottenborg, Copenhagen ror: piece by piece, Manifesta 4, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main 2001 ROR: UTOPIA, Skulpturens Hus, Stockholm ROR: UTOPIA, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel ROR: UTOPIA, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki 2000 ROR: TERROR 2.0, Finnish Institute Gallery, Stockholm ROR: TERROR 2000, Nordic House, Reykjavik ROR: TERROR 2000, Into gallery, Helsinki JOINT EXHIBITIONS (selected) 2011 Jani Leinonen & Jiri Geller, Showroom Helsinki, Helsinki Spatial Places, Fiskars 2010 Vom Dunkeln Geschluckt, Ars Auttoinen, Auttoinen Tähtihetkiä, the Association of Finnish Sculptors, 100-year anniversary, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku 2009 Koti Taiteen Näyttämönä- Nykytaide kohtaa Loviisan historialliset talot, Loviisa Lume, Purnun kesänäyttely, Orivesi Trickle-down Theory, the Korjaamo Culture Factory Gallery, Helsinki Tracking Traces, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki Smart, the Korjaamo Culture Factory Gallery, Helsinki 2008 Every Body Counts, Vestfossens Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen Night On Earth - Connecting Urban Art Scenes, Suvilahden voimala, Helsinki Night On Earth - Connecting Urban Art Scenes, Moca - Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai Night On Earth - Connecting Urban Art Scenes, Gallery Zero, Berlin Headhunters, Showroom, Helsinki Behind the Mustache, Cable Factory, Helsinki Dark, Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamon galleria, Helsinki 2007 Evil Eye, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki The 25 Best Artists in Finland, Mänttä Art Festival, Mänttä Caught in a Moment, Kuopio Art Museum, Kuopio 2006 Taidesupermarket Pikasso, Helsinki HUUMA, Skövde Konsthall, Skövde HUUMA, Linköping Konsthall Passagen, Linköping 2005 HUUMA, Örebro Konsthall, Örebro Joia Finlandesa, FAD, Barcelona 2004 Love Me or Leave Me, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki 2003 Sculpting, the 8th Mänttä Art Festival, Mänttä Tomorrows News, Gallery 101, Ottawa 1999 The Nordic Postmodernism, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki Olohuoneviikot, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki 1996 Myrsky ja Mylväys, Museum of Applied Art, Helsinki 1995 Class of `95, Goldsmiths Hall, London Talente `95, Internationalen Handwerksmesse, Mynchen 1994 Sanoitta, (Nonverbal), Museum of Applied Art, Helsinki Kaikuja, Tampere Hall, Tampere 1993 Suvi Pinx, Sysmä COLLECTIONS - Design museum, Helsinki - Fondation Francés - Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki - The State Art Collection, Finland - Åbergsmuseum, Karlstad, Sweden PUBLICATIONS Jiri Geller Selected works 1998-2008 A Museum of Contemporary Art Publication 112/2008 ISBN: 978-951-53-3065-9 ISSN: 0789-0338