Onni Nordman is a painter from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, on the east coast of Canada. His home and studio are on the cliffs of South Bar, overlooking the mouth of Sydney Harbour, the watery highway to the Cabot Strait and Newfoundland.
Onni is the only child of Finnish immigrants Aulis and Toini Nordman. Aulis was born in Nuoramoinen, Sysma, Toini in Sortavala, Rauta-Lahti. They came to Canada in 1951 and were located to Cape Breton, the only Finnish speakers on the island. Onni was born in Canada. Onni’s first language was Finnish and says all three learned English together. The Nordmans adapted to their new country while maintaining strong ties to family in Finland, proud of their heritage.
Onni Nordman’s work is unique, innovative and decidedly contemporary. It is linked to the great traditions of paintings while skillfully moving forward. Formally trained at Nova Scotia School of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax, he returned to Sydney in 1995 for what he thought would be a short time. Circumstances required that he stay on. He continued to work, painting and creating other projects and has been a driving force in the visual art scene in the community for years.
Onni has continued to work with great seriousness and perseverance. One is supposed to get better and he has. He nurtures an aura of seriousness and significance with an emphasis on painting as progressive, developmental, evolutionary. His expertise is a focused, logical mastery of form and structure. The work is not dour or dark. A show of Onni’s work leaves viewers with a memory of glorious colour. It invites viewers to create meaning from their own perceptions of the parallel worlds of pure imagination he creates.
After several years of concentrated studio work Onni Nordman has emerged with a collection of work that can be viewed as a whole or in separate series. He just finished a show in München, “10 Bulls” at Pasinger Fabrik and a two month residency there in Ebenböck-Haus. The work at Galleria Artika was created specifically for this show in Helsinki. This is his first time exhibiting in Finland, his parents’ homeland. It serves as an introduction to the Finnish audience.
June 17 kesäkuu at Galleria Artika, Uudenmaankatu 19 - 21 Helsinki:
Näyttelynsä päätteeksi kanadan-suomalainen taidemaalari Onni Nordman on kehittänyt omaperäisen, kiinostavan ja inspiroivan maalaustekniikan. Nordman kertoo työstään ja monipuolisesta tekniikastaan lisää tässä taiteilijatapaamisessa, johon hän toivottaa tervetulleeksi kaikki nykytaiteesta ja sen mahdollisuuksista kiinnostuneet.
Mari Blomroos-Heininen, Galleria Artika
