Ville Löppönen:
The Encountering Gaze

Löppönen’s paintings and drawings represent a continuum in his artistic career in which he has struggled to depict sanctity: to paint people who are suffering, are enraptured or are living ascetic lives in the course of encountering something that is greater than themselves. In the oil paintings the limits of humanity merge with the surrounding world and any explanation of the psychology of such works will immediately entice one to consider whether any solution really exists. The charcoal drawings, on the other hand, present us with impressive and closely detailed faces in a manner that is familiar from the masters of Renaissance and Baroque art.

Ville Löppönen was born in Savonlinna in 1980 and lives and works there now. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2007 and gained a master’s degree in Orthodox Theology in 2018.

The artist’s reimbursement was supported in part by the Finnish Heritage Agency