NELLI PALOMÄKI – SONS OF NAKHIMOV
9 November – 21 December 2012
Private view: Thursday 8 November, 18.30 – 20.30
Vladimir and Eduard, 2011
Nelli Palomäki, who was published inside our magazine in the issue 9 with an interview about his works is going to have her first show at The Wapping Project Bankside, an important gallery inside the heart of London, not far from the Tate Modern. Her new book will be published next month by Hatje Cantz.
Sons of Nakhimov is a series of large scale, black & white portraits of young pupils from the Nakhimov Naval Academy, a Russian military school in St Petersburg. In this body of work, which addresses the tradition of classic, black and white photographic portraiture, Palomäki depicts a group of teenage boys, whose appearance and demeanour hardly belong to this century. The timeless atmosphere of the boarding school, its rigorous discipline, the comradeship between pupils and the loneliness of some are captured in this quietly eloquent series, which raises questions about identity and coming of age.
Sergey, 2011
Nelli Palomaki was born in 1981 in in Forssa, Finland. She studied in London at London College of Communication (Victor Fellowship Grant) and at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki. Recent solo exhibitions include As time Consumes us, Les Rencontres d’Arles (Discovery Award) and Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden (2012), Elsa and Viola, Next Level Projects, London, UK and Guernsey Photography Festival, Guernsey (2011). Recent group exhibitions include Helsinki School, The National Museum of Photography, 2011, Copenhagen, Denmark and reGeneration2 – Tomorrow’s Photographers Today, Aperture Gallery, New York, USA and Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland (2011/2010) and Platform 09, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, 2010. Her work is in numerous collections including Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland, Hasselblad Foundation, Sweden; Musée de l’Elysée, Switzerland; StatoilHydro Art Collection, Norway. Recent award nominations include Les Rencontres d’Arles, Discovery Award (2012), Paul Huf award (2011), reGeneration2–Tomorrow’s photographers today (2010), Sony World Photography Awards, (Fine Art / Portraiture category, 2010). In 2010, she was awarded the Victor Fellowship of the Hasselblad Foundation. Forthcoming projects include a solo exhibition at Ordrupgaard Art Museum, Denmark and a book published by Hatje Kantz this autumn. Nelli Palomäki currently lives and works in Finland.
