Pekka Lampinen
Aura (1931–2011)
Pekka Lampinen was an ITE artist from Aura, whose productivity and imagination still delight. His warm-hearted art shines with pro-life and humor. The now-deceased ITE artist made versatile oil paintings and graphics, and carved wooden reliefs. It was the wood sculptures that were most characteristic of Lampinen.
Art taught Pekka Lampinen to look at nature in a new way and to find things worthy of a work of art in his everyday environment. In Lampinen’s works, the specific atmosphere and inner voice of the object just described makes the works so personal. You can see that some works the forms found in nature may have remained in the final work.
Pekka Lampinen’s interest in visual arts began in 1983, when he joined the art circle of the civic college. The idea of painting had been sprouting in his mind for a long time. Childhood as a war orphan did not include free time, and the years in working life were too busy for hobbies. Lampinen always secretly admired paintings and sculptures, but never thought doing anything similar himself.
He found time for the hobby after his working life ended. Retirement began Lampinen’s third life, which included the freedom to realize oneself as the most important element. This stage of life bursting with creativity, fun and craziness was the most beloved and the best for him.
Lampinen always had some art art work in progress. If he wasn’t tinkering in his workshop or painting a board, he was looking for ideas and material for his next work in nature.
Like a typical ITE artist, Pekka Lampinen made art for himself as a hobby. The idea for a work of art could even born in the middle of the night.
Lampinen carved reliefs and sculptures from wood and painted versatile oil paintings and graphics. The themes of Lampinen’s pictures were the milieu of the Aurajokilaakso, the courtyards of different regions and significant natural sites from different parts of Finland. Some of the paintings are abstract, and colors and shapes play in them. In later works, typical subjects are human and animal wood sculptures and totems.
Pekka Lampinen’s outdoor works had fallen into disrepair over the years, when the artist himself was no longer taking care of them. Pekka Lampinen’s estate ended up donating the majority of the art collection to Design Spot Oy. Now the rescued works are on display in the Middle of Nowhere art park in Hyvinkää, and open to the public in the summer.
Text and images: Teijo Monni ja Pertti Riikonen, Design Spot.
