Kari Cavén (b. 1954 in Savonlinna) is a curious and open-minded artist. He has never lost his ability to play. The world provides him with endless stimuli and materials to work on. He does not need to look far for ideas. The concept of Cavén’s art is simple yet far from easy: it arises from a deep reflection of the properties and potential of an object or material and its new life as a work of art.
The recognition of the objects or materials and their past life affects to the meaning of the artwork. Most of the ingredients in Cavén’s art have had a previous life: they can be things found in a dumpster, building materials, donations from collectors or mass-produced items from a store.
Cavén’s practice consists of building, assembling, and modifying. It combines sculpture with design. Each work is an experiment that tests the definition or qualities of art: will this become art? In some cases, the work may be a readymade, an object found by the artist. Sometimes it is a sculpture composed of prefabricated modular elements. The key is the artist’s ability to see beyond the more obvious qualities or meanings of the material or object, to unfold the creative potential of the work.
As a sculptor, Cavén is a loyal materialist: he is dedicated to manufacturing works of art. The idea or insight generated by the work is closely linked to the materials or objects used in its making. Perhaps aesthetic beauty, a quality shunned by conceptual art, finds a more practical interpretation in Cavén’s art: a good sculpture is a purposeful union of idea and execution.
Cavén’s works operate with language in many ways. In sculpture, it manifests as serial works consisting of recognisable units, like a text does. The combination produces meaningful statements or logical structures. On the other hand, the puns in the titles of his works give rise to insights. Perhaps a work of art is ultimately created only in the viewer’s mind. Many works also have their origin in language, for example Cavén’s way of taking phrases literally has given rise to many works.
Kari Cavén started out as a painter but soon shifted to sculpture. He graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 1982 and held his first solo exhibition at Kuopio Art Museum in 1983. He has been awarded the Pro Finlandia medal (2014), the Finnish Art Society’s Recognition Award (2018) and an artist pension (from 2019).
Cavén has held dozens of solo and group exhibitions in Finland and internationally. His most recent solo exhibitions are: Ilo pitkästä itkusta (Savonlinna Art Museum, 2020), Työmiehen päiväkirjasta (Galerie Anhava and Gallery Himmelblau, 2019) and Like Thinkings (Galeria Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro, 2018). Cavén has represented Finnish art internationally on several occasions, for example at the Venice Biennale (1988 and 1995). He has work in a couple of dozen private and public art collections, and he has created several public works of art in Finland and Sweden.
Syteen / Cavén at Aboa Vetus Ars Nova features works by Cavén from different periods. The main focus is on works made in the recent years and some of the works are being shown for the first time. The works are mixed media or readymade sculptures.
The title of the exhibition is a pun in Finnish, based on a mispronunciation of Cavén’s name as saveen and the phrase syteen tai saveen – come what may. Syteen comes from sysi, which means charcoal, and savi is ceramic clay: both are sculpting materials. The phrase points to the two aspects of fate, although it is difficult to tell which one denotes success and which failure. What is essential in the phrase is the attitude that involves fatal risk-taking and dedication to art.
More information
Curator
Niina Tanskanen
niina.tanskanen@avan.fi
040 585 4499
