Nomad

Jukka Vänttinen (Swedish, born 1954) trained extensively as an artist in Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city, where he still lives and works.  Influence early in his educations by artists practicing mezzotint, such as Sir Frank Short, Vänttinen created his own first mezzotint in 1982.  He has practiced the technique consistently since.  Particularly drawn to quiet scenery, both interiors and nature have become major themes in his work.  In the places depicted by the artist, light, its absence and its contrasts are main actors, while “man” is nowhere to be found.  People do inhabit the places visited in Vänttinen’s prints; but they never seem to be present when the artist decides to show the world.  Quiet, peace, and lingering sense of longing are ever-present.  The artist’s sense of detail, both in the preparation of his plates and in their printing, makes his prints deeply contrasted, with unusually rich black ink.  The work of Jukka Vänttinen has won critical acclaim from Japan to the United States, and it has found its way into some of the most prestigious museum print collections, such as the British Museum.