KARI SOINIOPhotographs 26.5.2012 – 17.6.2012

Athletic Hero

The hero endeavours to maintain control over his body and mind, he wants to be beautiful and admired. In admiring art and in looking at himself through the eyes of others, the hero strives to strike a balance between desires and fears and tries to attain something impossible. He is confused by the claim a sound mind in a sound body.

The hero is enjoying the sun on warm rocks, and is thinking about the image he makes and his predecessors. He faces the rising sun and watches the changing light. Standing in the evening sun, he feels sadness.

Kari Soinio


In his art Kari Soinio (b. 1962) has dealt with male image and identity, and issues of physicality, landscape and location. The Hero Working Out links the history of art to Soinio´s subjects too and continues the series of his previous exhibitions: Return of the Hero (2004), Scent of a Man (2006) and Domesticated Hero (2009).