December 2 - January 8, 2005

M.Y. ART PROSPECTS is pleased to announce the two-person exhibition of Jussi Heikkilä and Jyrki Siukonen, distinguished mid-career sculptors who live and work in Finland.

When they first saw each other's work in a group show in Helsinki in 1989, Jussi Heikkilä and Jyrki Siukonen began planning an exhibition together. They had no idea that it would take fifteen years to realize this dream. Meanwhile, their individual careers have flourished, and both have become central figures in Nordic art.

Jussi Heikkilä (b.1952) explores the fragile balance between culture and nature. His art has an ecological foundation, often connected to his experiences as an ornithologist. This perspective leads Heikkilä's works to adhere closely to the rules of scientific accuracy, yet it is almost always their poetic and aesthetic qualities that speak to the viewer. Heikkilä's silent pieces become nature studies that carry their secrets within.

Jyrki Siukonen (b.1959) works with the fragments of Western culture, reinterpreting them through personal memories, such as childhood dreams about flying. Siukonen's works create a visual language with an intricate and amusing syntax. The result is often simultaneously poetic and fragile, playful and melancholic.

For this exhibition, the two artists have worked without a central theme or concept. The works deal with flying, migration, and crossing borders and has undoubtedly been shaped by the prospect of their shared experience travelling and installing their work. Their three-dimensional works are often portable and yet never quite settled until their final interaction with an actual exhibition space. This exhibition may be seen as their conversations in a totally new environment in which their work is finally seen together.

Jussi Heikkilä, based in Jyväskylä, has exhibited internationally in UK, Italy, The Netherlands, Russia, USA, and Japan. In New York, he participated in "Animal. Anima. Animus," at P.S.1 Centre for Contemporary Art (2000), "Fresh Kills," at Snug Harbour, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art (2001). His work has been exhibited and collected by KIASMA, the Finnish National Gallery / Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, as well as numerous Finnish art institutions.

Jyrki Siukonen, based in Tampere and Helsinki, has exhibited widely in Europe including Norway, Germany, UK, Ireland, Brazil, and Turkey. He was a Henry Moore Foundation Gregory Fellow at the University of Leeds in the UK (1994-96), and received a doctorate in Fine Art in 2001. His work has been exhibited and collected by leading Finnish art institutions including KIASMA, the Finnish National Gallery/Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki. He has received numerous important public commissions including the Myllykangas Health Centre in Oulu, the Salo Public Library in Salo, and the new Kamppi cultural complex in Helsinki. Siukonen's first New York solo exhibition "A Man Who Carries Implements" (2002) at M.Y. ART PROSPECTS was reviewed by D. Dominick Lombardi for the Sculpture magazine.

"Jussi Heikkila and Jyrki Siukonen: Silent Partners" is supported in part by FRAME, Helsinki and The Arts Council of Finland. For further information and/or photographic materials, please contact: tel. 212 268 7132 / MYartpro@aol.com.