Niina Räty
Fish
13 November–7 December 2025
For the past five years, fish have been my subject matter. Pike-perch, perch, and herrings – sometimes lying on wax paper, sometimes on a plate. What is it about these shiny creatures that fascinates me?
Still-life painting fascinates me. It is about learning to look at things. The history of painting is full of still lifes of fish – silver-sided fish on silver platters, coarse fish scales depicted together with translucent onions, or moist seafood gleaming on the dirty counter of a market stall. As a motif, a fish is loaded with meanings, often Christian ones. Above all, it often seems to reflect the pure joy of painting – the pleasure that comes from seeking light and shine.
Of course, fish themselves are intriguing too. Smelly, even repulsive, oblong creatures, strange and mute. Fish are valuable yet unfamiliar, lifted up from beneath the surface for food. The boundary between two worlds is broken just like that.
Most of all, however, I am interested in the similarity. The fish is matter, just like the painting, the viewer, and the painter. The same clammy, speechless substance. By painting fish, I paint all of us – chunks of flesh dragged into this unfamiliar environment without asking.
Thank you
Arts Promotion Centre Finland and Alfred Kordelin Foundation
Contact information
raty.niina (a) gmail.com
