Gallery Elverket’s joint exhibition, In Dialogue: Catharina Kajander and Haliz Yosef, creates new perspectives on the work of both artists. This visual-art dialogue juxtaposes realities. It shows sculptures, installations, paintings and drawings from the 1970s up to 2026. 

Both Yosef and Kajander have recently worked on themes related to their own lives and families, such as immigration, the legacy of civil war, feminism, the body, and the marks left by traumatic experiences. Exploration of the tension between past and present, and the meanings that arise out of this, are a unifying feature of their art.   

Catharina Kajander has, for instance, dealt with her family background in a joint exhibition with her visual-artist daughter, Aurora Reinhard. Kajander’s hand-made, large-scale sculptures often use the traditional coiling technique, and have been a major part of her oeuvre since the 1960s. Clay is her primary material, but her other output is also on display.  

In her works, Haliz Yosef has dealt with her relationship with her mother and the experience of different realities. Her art mixes different elements, such as time levels, languages, and cultural references. The photo-based approach of Yosef’s earlier production has given way to multiple materials, with works here made out of handmade paper, ceramics, and glass.  

The exhibition is based on the dialogue that arises when two artists’ works meet. As curator I was fascinated by the way that these artists from different backgrounds – and generations – deal with their relationship with their families and the past, differently, yet evoking similar experiences. The exhibition constructs continuums of references that speak of art’s ability to create connections that allow fragile, allusive ideas to be processed.  

In Dialogue is about how artistic work creates a profound understanding of the state of things, and helps us ponder questions that have no right answers. Instead of solutions, it is more important to ask questions and make suggestions. In Dialogue opens up diverse perspectives on families and their internal dynamics, on the fragility of human life, and tells us how art can be used to understand the past and present in ways that neither simplify nor explain. Art is a space where the fragility and precariousness of our time emerge in the widest variety of ways.  

Juha-Heikki Tihinen, PhD 

Catharina Kajander (b. 1945) is a long-time visual and ceramic artist who graduated from the Industrial Art Institute in 1966. She has particularly used red clay in her art. Kajander received the Finnish State Prize for Art and Design in 1969 and was awarded an artist’s pension in 2007.  
ckajander.com

Haliz Yosef (b. 1990) is a multidisciplinary artist who works with installations, videos and photography, and, nowadays, also ceramics and glass. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2022. In 2024, Yosef received a Stina Krook Foundation Portfolio stipend for a residency in Copenhagen.
halizyosef.org

Programme during the exhibition

In the fall, Gallery Elverket will participate in Bokkalaset in Ekenäs on Saturday, 7.11 at 12:00, with artist Catharina Kajander’s guided tour and talk among the works in the exhibition. The main language of the event is Swedish, but questions can be asked in Finnish and English.

5.12, 2.1, 6.2, 6.3 and 3.4. Guided tours of the exhibition on the first Saturday of each month at 12:00.

Admission to all events is free.

The spring public programme will be published during the fall.

Pro Artibus has received support for the exhibition
Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, The Finnish Heritage Agency

Support
Haliz Yosef has received support from The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Kone Foundation and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland