Sami Havia: Sekvenssi
Massey Klein Gallery is pleased to present Sekvenssi, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Sami Havia. The exhibition will be on view from February 28th through April 18th, with an opening reception on Saturday, February 28th, from 6-8pm. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. For press inquiries or questions regarding works available, please email info@masseyklein.com.
Sekvenssi presents a new series of paintings built on the foundation of repetition and rhythm, with a focus on ambient, ethereal, and spatial moods.
Havia uses line as both a subject and as a visual element. As the core visual motif in this new series of works, line carries the artist forward, allowing his thoughts to move freely and, through its variations, generate meaning. Music and movement, neurotic behavioral patterns, everyday routines, the artist’s running practice, and ultimately, beneath it all, existential questions and concerns about the world, inform each work.
The artist’s process is organic yet deliberate, with each work part of a sekvenssi, or sequence. Havia starts with one canvas, and as he senses the composition needs more space and expansion, he creates another canvas next to it, and then another, and another, until each piece reaches its final form. The series presented in Sekvenssi assembled itself through this process of sequential growth, with repetition at its center while capturing the layered and evolving nature of each work.
The carefully selected colors arise from memory, mostly from Åland, where Havia has spent much of the past two summers. Running trips, pauses at the ferry, an electronic music festival in the middle of nowhere, nights spent on the shore sitting on cliffs, watching the shifting colors as the sun sets—these moments have deeply shaped the series’ palette.
Havia’s new series at first appears minimalistic and calm. However, a closer inspection reveals fast, chaotic lines swirling beneath each surface, offering an alternative perspective on the ongoing, restless motion of the world.
Sami Havia graduated with an MA from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2011. He was selected for a Cité des Arts artist residency in Paris in 2017 and was awarded the William Thuring Prize from the Finnish Art Society in 2022.
Sekvenssi is Havia’s second solo exhibition with Massey Klein Gallery. His first solo exhibition, Estranged, was on view September 2 through October 8, 2022. In 2020, the artist’s work was featured in the group exhibition Fluid Structure, his first exhibition in North America. In 2024, the Gallery presented works by the artist on David Zwirner’s PLATFORM.
Havia has presented multiple solo exhibitions in Helsinki, including those at Gallery Halmetoja, ARTag Gallery, tm•gallery, Korjaamo Gallery, Gallery FAFA, and Myymälä2 Gallery, and his work has been featured in recent notable group exhibitions in Finland at EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, A Playful Space, and the Runo Biannual Exhibition VI.
His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions at cultural institutions across Scandinavia, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Helsinki, 2020), the Exhibition Laboratory at Uniarts Helsinki (2018), the Jyväskylä Art Museum (Jyväskylä, Finland, 2017), Fullersta Gård Art Gallery (Huddinge, Sweden, 2016), Lapinlahti Lähde (Helsinki, 2016), the Hämeenlinna Art Museum (Hämeenlinna, Finland, 2016), the Salo Art Museum (Salo, Finland, 2015), The Aine Art Museum (Tornio, Finland, 2015) and Pyhäniemi Manor (Hollola, Finland, 2015).
The artist has been featured in numerous print and online publications, such as Creative Boom, Around Journal, EDIT, Chicago Reader, AS|MAG, and VICE. His works have been placed in prestigious private and public collections internationally, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Finnish State Art Deposit Collection, the Saastamoinen Foundation, the Galerie Anhava collection, the Hämeenlinna Art Museum, the Vantaa Art Museum, the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts collection, the Keva collection, and the Seppo Fränti collection, to name a few. The artist lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.
The new paintings featured in Sekvenssi were created with the generous support of a three-year artist grant, awarded to Sami Havia by The National Council for the Visual Arts in 2024. The Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike) is a funding agency providing expertise and services for the promotion of the arts.
Massey Klein Gallery is located at 124 Forsyth St. New York, NY 10002. Gallery hours are Wednesday - Saturday, 12pm-5pm. To schedule a private viewing, email info@masseyklein.com.