2021, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
Like many peers of her generation, Nio collected stickers and Victorian die-cuts in her childhood. These “stickers” have now found their way into her paintings. The glossy, lacquered pictorial elements hovering on the surface of the canvas are – despite being hand-painted – deceptively reminiscent of stickers or die-cuts. They are like emojis added to a text message. Or Instagram posts with added stickers and filters. The paintings in the exhibition achieve the same effect: using 21st-century tools, they take the message to the next level. With her add-on flourishes, Nio also self-reflexively comments on her process. Often finding it difficult to know when to finish a painting, she adds the final sticker as if dotting an “i” or crossing a “t.”