Linen Skin
Jósefina Alanko
20.2.–29.3.2026
Porvoo Art Hall
Linen Skin is a solo exhibition by visual artist Jósefina Alanko, presenting a large-scale textile installation. Working at the intersection of textile, sculpture, and installation, Alanko approaches material as a site of embodied knowledge rather than representation.
Sewn protrusions embedded in the textile surface—so-called pockets or cocoons—create a rhythm between negative and positive space. They operate through bodily logic: weight, tension, endurance, and repetition. These forms refer to interiority, protection, and carrying, as well as to the body’s capacity to retain experiential knowledge. Memory does not emerge as narrative, but as material persistence and structural presence.
Alanko’s practice is rooted in Eastern Finnish and Karelian cultural heritage, where knowledge has traditionally been transmitted through oral, ritual, and material practices. In Linen Skin, material functions not only as a medium but as a carrier of memory, positioning the body as a site where vulnerability, resilience, and resistance coexist. The work proposes corporeality as an alternative way of knowing—one that unfolds through duration, physical presence, and sensory engagement rather than explanation.
About the Artist
Jósefina Alanko is a visual artist whose practice spans textile art, painting, ceramics, and installation. Rooted in Karelian and ancient Karelian cultural heritage, the work explores themes of femininity, spirituality, and transformation through material-based processes. The artist’s series are characterized by an engagement with inherited knowledge, the body’s capacity to remember, and ritual practices that have been carried out in Eastern Finland for centuries.
Alanko’s artistic language is strongly shaped by nature, both as material and as a conceptual framework. Organic forms function as carriers of emotional and symbolic meaning. The working process is multilayered: raw linen serves as a base onto which sewn fabric elements are added before the application of paint. This method produces textured, sculptural surfaces that blur the boundaries between painting and object, surface and body. Natural materials and handcraft techniques play a central role, reinforcing a dialogue between contemporary artistic expression and traditional practices.
Recent solo exhibitions include Spirit Anatomy at BWA Ostrowiec in Poland and Roots of Invisible Entities at the STRABAG Art in Vienna. In 2023, Alanko was awarded the main prize of the STRABAG Artaward International. Jósefina Alanko works between Finland and Austria.