Jiri Geller

1970 - B. Works and lives in Helsinki
jiri@jirigeller.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 (MA)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021 JIRI GELLER AT THE STUDIO II, Makasiini Contemporary, Turku, Finland

2019 JIRI GELLER AT THE STUDIO, Makasiini Contemporary, Turku, Finland

2018 BACK IN BLACK, Zetterberg Gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2017-2018 FUCK THE WORLD!, Serlachius Museum Gösta, Mänttä, Finland

2017 SMILE!, Zetterberg Gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2014 JIRI GELLER, ARCO Madrid, Madrid, Spain

2012 SUGARED, Zetterberg Gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2010 MAGIC, Studio, Turku Art Museum, Turku, Finland

2009 SERIES OF DISAPPOINTMENTS, Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary, Helsinki, Finland

SERIES OF DISAPPOINTMENTS, LARM galleri, Copenhagen, Denmark

JIRI GELLER, Art Bryssels, Brussels

2008 JIRI GELLER, Studio K, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

2007 DUNKELHEIT, gallery Krista Mikkola, Helsinki

THE ART OF THE BEAST, Norrtälje Konsthall, Norrtälje, Sweden

THE ART OF THE BEAST, Galleri 21, Malmö, Sweden

THE ART OF THE BEAST, Örebro Konsthall, Örebro, Sweden

2006 JIRI GELLER 1:1, The Korjaamo Culture Factory Gallery, Helsinki, Finland

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022-2023 MORNING COFFEE ON THE ROOF OF A TOWN – Works from the Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation’s contemporary art collection, Serlachius Museum Gösta, Mänttä, Finland

2021 ON THE AIR, Art and Museum Centre Sinkka, Kerava, Finland

SUMMERTIME 21’, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark

COCKTAIL, Zetterberg gallery, Helsinki, Finland

STREETS & PATHS - From Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation Collection, Rovaniemi Art Museum, Rovaniemi, Finland

2020 Autumn Collection, Makasiini Contemporary, Turku, Finland

XMAS '20, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen

UNTITLED, ART Miami Beach OVR, Miami Beach, FL, USA

MERRY THINGS - From Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation Collection, Rovaniemi Art Museum, Rovaniemi, Finland

EXPLORATIONS - Lars Göran Johnsson Collection, Turku Art Museum, Turku, Finland

UNTITLED, ART San Francisco, San Francisco, USA

2019 UNTITLED, ART Miami Beach, Miami Beach, USA

SUMMER 2019, Zetterberg gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2017 SHU SHU SHU SHOW, Spiral take art collection, Spiral Garden, Tokyo, Japan

DREAMAHOLIC - Art from Finland. Miettinen Collection - Weserburg Museum Für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany

2016 STILL LIFE - WORLD ON DISPLAY, Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland

COVER ART, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, Germany

ENSLAVED OR FREE, Zetterberg gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2015 NORDIC CONTEMPORARY ART part3 FINLAND, Galleri 21, Malmö, Sweden

ART IN MUSIC, Werke Aus Der Act Art Collection - Weserburg Museum Für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany

BANG! Jiri Geller & Kaos, Zetterberg gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2014 SUPERPOP! Serlachius Museum Gösta, Mänttä, Finland

THE SKULL SHOW, Bedford gallery, Walnut Creek, USA

THIS IS THE WAY, Zetterberg gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2013 TEASER, Salon Dahlman, Berlin, Germany

2012 CAMOUFLAGE, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

WHAT A PARTY! Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku, Finland

2011 SPATIAL PLACES, Fiskars Village, Fiskars, Finland

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HOSTILITY, Zetterberg gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2010 TÄHTIHETKIÄ, The Association of Finnish Sculptors, 100-year anniversary, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku, Finland

VOM DUNKEL GESCHLUCKT, Ars Auttoinen, Auttoinen, Finland

TRANSCENDING, LARM gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

2009 TRACKING TRACES, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

LUME - PURNU, Orivesi, Finland

SMART, The Korjaamo Culture Factory Gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2008 NIGHT ON EARTH - Connecting Urban Art Scenes, Suvilahti, Helsinki, Finland

NIGHT ON EARTH - Connecting Urban Art Scenes, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China

NIGHT ON EARTH - Connecting Urban Art Scenes, Gallery Zero, Berlin, Germany

EVERY BODY COUNTS, Vestfossens Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway

DARK, The Korjaamo Culture Factory Gallery, Helsinki, Finland

HEADHUNTERS, Zetterberg gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2007 THE 25 BEST ARTIST IN FINLAND, Mänttä Art Festival, Mänttä, Finland

EVIL EYE, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

CAUGHT IN A MOMENT, Kuopio Art Museum, Kuopio, Finland

2006 ART SUPERMARKET PIKASSO, Helsinki, Finland

HUUMA, Skövde Konsthall, Skövde, Sweden

HUUMA, Linköping Konsthall Passagen, Linköping, Sweden

2005 HUUMA, Örebro Konsthall, Örebro, Sweden

JOIA FINLANDESA, FAD, Barcelona, Spain

2004 LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

2003 TOMORROW’S NEWS, Gallery 101, Ottawa, Canada

SCULPTING, the 8th Mänttä Art Festival, Mänttä, Finland

1999 THE NORDIC POSTMODERNISM, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

OLOHUONEVIIKOT, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

ROR GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2008 ROR, Fennofolk - New Nordic Oddity, Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland

2007 ROR: POWERTRIP, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland

ROR: REVOLUTIONS ON REQUEST, Brändström+Stene gallery, Stockholm, Sweden

2006 ROR: The State of Things, National Museum for art, architecture and design, Oslo, Norway

2005 ROCK`N ROR, “FAITES VOS JEUX”, Shedhalle, Zürich, Switzerland

ROR FOREVER! MAM project 003, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

2004 ROR: ULTIMA THULE, DaDaDa, Temporary Contemporary Gallery, London, UK

ROR: ULTIMA THULE, Together Forever, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2003 ROR: ULTIMA THULE, Tirana Biennale 2, Tirana, Albania

ROR:CONTEMPORARY PLASTIC, ctrl_alt_del, Marres, Maastricht, Holland

ROR: CONTEMPORARY PLASTIC, ROR gallery, Helsinki, Finland

UTOPIA STATION, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

ROR: PIECE BY PIECE, The Straight or Crooked Way, Royal College of Art, London, UK

2002 ROR: PIECE BY PIECE, Fundamentalisms of the New Order, Kunsthall Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark

ROR: PIECE BY PIECE, Manifesta 4, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2001 ROR: UTOPIA, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

ROR: UTOPIA, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany

ROR: UTOPIA, Skulpturens Hus, Stockholm, Sweden

2000 ROR: TERROR 2.0, Finnish Institute Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden

ROR: TERROR 2000, Nordic House, Reykjavik, Island

ROR: TERROR 2000, Into-Galleria, Helsinki, Finland

Behind the scenes: Jiri Geller collaboration with the 69 Eyes

PUBLICATIONS

Jiri Geller
Fuck the World!
[Museum Gösta, Serlachius Museums, 28.10.2017-22.4.2018; curator Maaretta Jaukkuri]
195 x 230, hard cover
104 pages
Writers: Maaretta Jaukkuri,
Juho Juntunen, Timo Valjakka
Foreword: Pauli Sivonen
Layout: Riikka Kuukka & Parvs
Parvs 2017
Serlachius Museums' Publication No. 46
Finnish | English
ISBN 978-952-7226-09-4
ISSN 1799-7720

Jiri Geller
Selected works 1998-2008
[Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Studio K, 9.5. - 17.8.2008; curator Maaretta Jaukkuri]
170 x 245, hard cover
94 pages
Writers: Max Ryynänen, Jyrki Siukonen
Edited by Leevi Haapala
Layout: Jessica Leino & Jiri Geller
Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki 2008
Museum of Contemporary Art publication; 112/2008
Finnish | English
ISBN 978-951-53-3065-9
ISSN 0789-0338