Bonsai trees are a recurrent feature of Mika Hytti’s (b. 1961) exhibition, which opens at the Cable Gallery on April 19, 2011. Trees and forests have been part of his paintings before. The stillness and power associated with them are present in his latest works. Out of this meditative silence a more powerful story emerges, a story of human emotions, one that touches us personally.

Hytti’s paintings take place on a (colour) surface, or rather they take place in a space. The surfaces of the paintings alternate between almost-black and a light, calming quietness. In one of the paintings a branch traces out the boundary between heaven and earth. In Under White, meanwhile, a conifer has been carved out of the white paint.