PRESS: Artforum

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QUEENS presents:

Veli-Matti Hoikka
Recent Works on Paper

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All day I hear the noise of waters
Making moan,
Sad as the sea-bird is, when going
Forth alone,
He bears the winds cry to the waters’
Monotone.
The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing
Where I go.
I hear the noise of many waters
Far below.
All day, all night, I hear them flowing
To and fro.
-James Joyce

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I work in all mediums, analog and digital, human and mechanic, rich and poor, shit and
Scheiße, sound and picture; not too slow, a bit too fast. I am interested in analog works
that read very quickly and equally quickly create the position of being able to think about
the thought that the work just raised; a sense of peace, agency and ownership of one’s
own point of view. -Veli-Matti Hoikka

Veli-Matti Hoikka was born in Rovaniemi, Finland in 1986. He received an MFA from the
University of Southern California (2015); a Bachelors of Art in Photography from the
Lahti Institute of Design, Finland (2012); and studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld
Academie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2011). Exhibitions include Very Soft, Gayle
and Ed Roski Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2015); MFA Group Show, Gayle and Ed Roski
Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2015); Suits, Antinsali, Lahti, Finland (2012); Picture Texas,
Galleria OyOy, Lahti, Finland (2010); Albania, Museum of Cultures, Helsinki, Finland
(2010); Private Space, AKTO Art & Design College, Athens, Greece (2009). In 2013 he
self-published a photo journal titled: Request for Evidence Response, Review and Other
Stories on Whatever is Between Us. Veli-Matti Hoikka was active with Reserve Ames
from 2015-2019 where he produced photographs and managed all archival matters for
the curatorial, exhibition and publication program. The artist moved to Los Angeles in
2012 where he lived and worked until his death in 2019.

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Recent Works on Paper was curated by Reserve Ames with support from the Veli-Matti
Hoikka Foundation.

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Image: Veli-Matti Hoikka, Untitled, 2018, Acrylic on Paper, 22 x 30 inches