Name: SÍM Gallery - Kristoffer Ala-Ketola: The Nightspell
Start: 2025-09-18T18:00:00+00:00
End: 2025-09-18T20:00:00+00:00
Location: Hafnarstræti 16, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland

$S\u00cdM Gallery - Kristoffer Ala-Ketola: The Nightspell$

The Nightspell
Exhibition by Kristoffer Ala-Ketola
18.9.2025–27.9.2025
Opening reception:
Thursday 18.9.2025 at 18:00
SÍM Gallery
Hafnarstræti 16
101 Reykjavík
Iceland
Open:
Mon-Fri 12–16
Sat 14–18 (artist present)
Curator: Ástríður Jónsdóttir
Residency granted by The Finnish Cultural Foundation @SuomenKulttuurirahasto

SÍM Residency, in collaboration with The Finnish Cultural Foundation, presents The Nightspell, a solo exhibition by artist-in-residence Kristoffer Ala-Ketola. You are warmly invited to join the opening reception at SÍM Gallery, September 18, at 6 pm.

The Nightspell conjures the night in all its mysterious, witchy glory. From the rituals of rave culture, to folkloric sacraments, a shared nocturnal language tells tales of connection and contradiction. Anonymity invites community, fragility resurfaces as strength and the hidden merges with the exposed - as outcasts are reeled in. Well wishes and spells of protection are freely given to those who dare partake.
Kristoffer Ala-Ketola is a multidisciplinary artist based in Helsinki, Finland. He graduated from Yale School of Art with a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture in 2019 and received his Bachelor’s degree at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2016. His work has been exhibited in 4th Ward Project Space in Chicago, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Kunsthalle Turku, Exhibition Centre WeeGee in Espoo and he has also participated in video screenings at the Helsinki International Film Festival and Video Art Festival Turku.

Ala-Ketola’s work engages in character building, symbolism, semiotics, various psychological phenomena, speculative futures, and queer theory with recurring themes of emotion, longing, and dreaming. Using moving image, photography, sculpture, installation, painting, and text he anchors his practice in the uncertain forms of existence. Merging fiction, autobiography, and theory into visual language – its signs reflecting and contradicting each other – He creates a vortex of associations through themes of desire, solitude, change, healing, and coping.

IS:
The Nightspell
eftir Kristoffer Ala-Ketola
18.9.2025–27.9.2025
Sýningaropnun:
fimmtudaginn 18.9.2025 at 18:00
SÍM Gallery
Hafnarstræti 16
101 Reykjavík
Opnunartímar:
mán-fös 12–16
lau 14–18 (listamaður viðstaddur)
Sýningarstjórn: Ástríður Jónsdóttir
Listamannadvölin er fjármögnuð af Finnska Menningarsjóðnum @SuomenKulttuurirahasto
SÍM Residency, í samvinnu við Finnska Menningarsjóðinn, kynnir The Nightspell, einkasýningu eftir Kristoffer Ala-Ketola, gestalistamann, í SÍM salnum. Verið hjartanlega velkomin á sýningaropnun þann 18. september næstkomandi kl. 18.
The Nightspell kallar fram næturlíf í allri sinni dularfullu, seiðandi dýrð. Þegar næturhúmið sveipar hulu yfir helgisiði og skuggaathafnir eru öll velkomin og heimurinn snýst upp í andhverfu sína. Nánd verður til í skjóli nafnleysis, viðkvæmni umbreytist í styrk og mörkin milli hins hulda og hins berskjaldaða mást út - meðan útlögum er boðið til samsætis. Þau, sem stíga inn í næturgaldurinn, eru leyst út með verndarseiðum og heillaóskum.
The Nightspell conjures the night in all its mysterious, witchy glory. From the rituals of rave culture, to folkloric sacraments, a shared nocturnal language tells tales of connection and contradiction. Anonymity invites community, fragility resurfaces as strength and the hidden merges with the exposed - as outcasts are reeled in. Well wishes and spells of protection are freely given to those who dare partake.

Kristoffer Ala-Ketola er þverfaglegur listamaður með aðsetur í Helsinki, Finnlandi. Hann útskrifaðist frá Yale School of Art með meistaragráðu í skúlptúr árið 2019 og lauk bakkalárgráðu frá Finnsku Listaakademíunni árið 2016. Verk hans hafa verið sýnd í 4th Ward Project Space í Chicago, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Kunsthalle Turku, Exhibition Centre WeeGee í Espoo, auk þess sem hann hefur sýnt myndbönd á Helsinki International Film Festival og Video Art Festival Turku.
Verk Ala-Ketola taka fyrir persónusköpun, táknfræði, merkingarfræði, ýmis sálfræðifyrirbæri, mögulegar framtíðarsýnir og hinsegin fræði, með áherslu á tilfinningalíf, löngun og drauma. Hann byggir listsköpun sína á ótryggum tilveruformum og notar til þess hreyfimyndir, ljósmyndun, skúlptúr, innsetningar, málun og skrif. Hann sameinar skáldskap, sjálfsævisögu og fræði í sjónrænt mál þar sem umfjöllunarefnin bæði endurspegla og ganga í berhögg hvort við annað. Úr verður víxlverkun merkinga sem snertir þemu eins og löngun, einsemd, umbreytingu, heilun og bjargræði.