Artists featuring in the exhibition include Stig Baumgartner, Carolus Enckell, Irmeli Hulkko, IC-98, Pertti Kekarainen, Heikki Marila, Silja Rantanen, Anna Retulainen, Päivi Sirén, Pekka Vesterinen.

I had no idea then how firmly art would lead me, time and again, to new areas, to the limits of seeing and understanding, even somewhere I would never have otherwise dared to go.

(Arto Jurttila)

The fifth exhibition in the Collector’s Gaze series invites viewers to open up with, to empathise with, even submit to art and be bewitched by it. The exhibition and the featured works challenge the audience’s perceptions and understanding, leading them on an endless journey of interpretations and experiences, accompanied by the art collector.

Pori Art Museum launched the exhibition series COLLECTOR’S GAZE that showcases private and donated collections in 2006. Arto Jurttila’s collection featured in the very first exhibition in the series, and has since grown to comprise some 500 works of art. The museum produced another, narrower but deeper look into the collection in 2012 under the title REVELATIONS.

The exhibition in spring 2019 at Pori Art Museum does not seek to give an overview of Jurttila’s collection. Instead, it is built around individual works and the viewers’ subjective encounters with them – focusing exclusively on the dialogue between viewers and the artworks and the interaction between the individual works and the exhibition as a whole. The collector’s gaze and his collection are reflected by artist Liisa ­Pesonen and art expert Jukka Valkonen, who have also curated the show.