Raili Tang: It All Began with Yellow

Raili Tang’s new paintings reveal the artist’s subtle sensitivity to colour. Her palette is at once delicate and inviting, yet also intense and unexpected, drawing the viewer in and encouraging them to pause and immerse themselves in its nuances. Through successive layers of paint, Tang evokes the full spectrum of human emotion, allowing colour alone to become a language for expressing the human condition. Her paintings create self-contained worlds, conveying impressions of everything from the gentle light of a summer dawn to the enveloping darkness of the winter landscape.

Tang’s paintings open windows onto different worlds, sometimes turning the gaze inwards, at other times inviting the viewer on an adventure. Curtains now frame her flower arrangements, at once concealing and sheltering them while hinting at new realms of possibility just beyond. Whereas vases played a supporting role in Tang’s earlier flower paintings, they have now assumed greater significance. Often depicted in a contrapposto stance, their curving forms evoke the human figure. At times, their shapes also draw inspiration from iconic Finnish design. 

The flowers in Tang’s vases often droop downwards, a detail that carries particular art-historical significance. At the age of eight, Tang encountered Helene Schjerfbeck’s 1888 painting The Convalescent at the Ateneum Art Museum. The work left an indelible impression on her, and she describes the forms in her new paintings as echoing the sprig held in the child’s hand in Schjerfbeck’s celebrated composition. 

Raili Tang (b. 1950) has exhibited widely in Finland and internationally. Her works are represented in several of Finland’s most prominent art collections, including those of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Sara Hildén Art Museum, the Wihuri and Saastamoinen Foundations, and HAM Helsinki Art Museum. Tang was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal in 2015. Galerie Forsblom has represented the artist since 2005.