NÁRKISSOS
SOLO SHOW
Galleria Huuto, Helsinki
6-30 March 2025
NÁRKISSOS is Lowe’s first solo exhibition in Helsinki since graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts just over a year ago. Presented at Galleria Huuto in Kalasatama, Lowe’s latest series was made with sea salt and coal collected from the closure of Helsinki’s last coal power plant Salmisaari. The work is a continuation of Lowe’s previous work made with coal from Hanasaari.
Welcome to the opening Wednesday 5th March 6–8pm.
I LOVED NARCISSUS BECAUSE, AS HE LAY ON MY BANKS AND LOOKED DOWN AT ME, IN THE MIRROR OF HIS EYES I SAW EVER MY OWN BEAUTY MIRRORED
— The Disciple, Oscar Wilde
IN THE NARCISSUS MYTH a youth falls fatally in love with their reflection on the surface of a pool. A tale of vanity, self-centeredness, and insatiable desire, it contains an unsettling amount we can relate to.
THESE LATEST WORKS HAVE BEEN CREATED using sea salt and the last coal from the Salmisaari power plant. The dark, glassy layers of paint resemble a rapidly melting ice landscape. The reflective surfaces of the works draw us dangerously close and awaken in us a similar desire to look and touch. In Lowe’s paintings, coal transforms into a black mirror where the viewer must confront themselves. The viewer’s shadow falls onto the image, disrupting the reflection like ripples on the surface of water.
THE COLOURS OF LOWE’S PAINTINGS emerge from the interplay of light and surface — the merging of the immaterial with the material. The paintings respond to their environment, shifting with the light and weather conditions, and with the viewer's movements.
IN OSCAR WILDE’S REINTERPRETATION of the myth, Narcissus’s death inevitably leads to the destruction of nature. The pool sheds tears until its fresh water eventually turns salty. It too has encountered its own reflection, mirrored in the youth’s eyes, and has fallen captive to its own beauty.
