Heavenly Light
The Petri Ala-Maunus & Angels in Icons exhibition has been updated with new paintings. On display until the end of 2025 at Valamo Monastery Cultural Center, the collection presents, among other things, Ala-Maunus' commissioned works. Among the landscape paintings is a large-scale painting commissioned by composer and producer virtuoso Kalervo "Kassu" Halonen for his own Free Waters symphony.
Petri Ala-Maunus has also painted album cover art. The exhibition features the cover artwork Mind Control Experiments ("Mielenhallintakokeet") commissioned by the Jyväskylä-based rock band Diamond Jam.
Petri Ala-Maunus (b. 1970 Kuortane) is one of the most significant domestic contemporary artists today. He was awarded the William Thuring Prize in 2010 and was an Ars Fennica Award nominee in 2019. At the Mänttä Art Festival in 2007, the Turku Biennial in 2013, and the Ars Fennica nominee exhibition in 2019, Ala-Maunus won the audience vote for the exhibitions. His works are held in numerous public and private art collections in Finland and abroad.
Valamo Monastery provides a new context for Ala-Maunus' paintings, which draw their inspiration from, for example, 19th-century German and North American landscape painting traditions. At that time, nature was sought to be expressed both meticulously realistically and romantically. The depiction of light and its phenomena was central, which is also strongly visible in Petri Ala-Maunus' paintings. In his works, however, the time of day is difficult to define, as light appears timeless.
Ala-Maunus' art has not been seen in such a context before. His art is usually seen in galleries and museum exhibitions. In the Heavenly Light exhibition opened in Valamo, Petri Ala-Maunus' paintings open up new perspectives for the viewer, as the works are juxtaposed with old and new angel-themed icons.
“In my paintings, I do not depict people - my landscapes lack human presence and its traces. It is relieving to look at a landscape without the burden of man,” says Ala-Maunus. Nature is central; it is vast and powerful. He is interested in icon painting, the imagery of icons, and especially the landscapes depicted within them. “In addition to my earlier paintings, Valamo also exhibits entirely new works that I have created on new icon bases. ”
Angels in Icons
The most well-known angel motif for Finns is likely the image, found in many homes, of a guardian angel dressed in white, protecting two children crossing a dangerous-looking bridge. Although the descriptions of angels in the Bible are sparse, their significance and role have inspired artists throughout the ages. Angels play an important part in salvation history; they brought the good news to Mary, the Theotokos, announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds, and met the myrrh-bearing women on Easter morning.
Church tradition names seven archangels, the most famous of whom are Michael, the leader of the heavenly hosts, Gabriel, who brought the good news to Mary, and Raphael, who appears in the Book of Tobit. The exhibition features old angel-themed icons from the collections of the Church Museum Riisa and Valamo Monastery, as well as folk icons from the collection of Katri and Harri Willamo. In addition, angel icons by contemporary Finnish icon painters are on display.
In addition to the Heavenly Light exhibition, the significance of angels in icon art is explored more deeply in the Angel Moments exhibition, on display in Valamo Monastery's library. In it, different angel classes and hierarchies come to life through icons, artworks, texts, and literature. The exhibition can be viewed during library opening hours until the end of 2025.
