Tor Arne | Paul Osipow

The Galerie Anhava spring 2026 exhibition program will conclude with a bright effortless joint exhibition by two maestros, **Tor Arne** (1934–2025) and **Paul Osipow** (b. 1939), with a focus on color, light and line. The idea for the exhibition came about when Arne suggested a joint exhibition to Osipow in the summer of 2024. Longstanding colleagues and friends, both artists were founding members and residents of the artist’s terraced house established in Riihitie in Järvenpää in 1967. In 1984, Arne and Osipow exhibited together in the exhibition _Arne–Osipow–Enckell_ organized at the Helsinki Kunsthalle. Tor Arne, who passed away in August 2025, had already been working extensively for the upcoming exhibition. The small-scale works now to be presented were assembled on a large table in the artist’s studio in Oulunkylä. The final mounting for the works has been completed with the help of the artist’s trusted colleagues and family. The familiar horizontal rectangular shape of Arne’s works is repeated in most of the works, but also a few curved, round and polygonal works are included in the exhibition. Despite their compact size, Arne’s paper-based strips filled with layers of oil pastels are full of things to see. The narrow form of the paintings, which draw on the collage technique, has everything essential condensed in glowing colors. The living surface beckons one closer, as if breathing in daylight. Paul Osipow presents new works on paper and paintings that the artist has made in the spring of 2026 while working in Grassina, Italy. Raisin buns, onions, croissants and sausages from the market and bakery have been recorded on thick paper with a bamboo stick dipped in ink. The main actor is the confidently forward flowing free line. The placement of the motif on the sheet tenses the pictorial space. In the paintings, classic motifs from dining tables shine in bright clear colours. The everyday settings evoked in the paintings are characterized by rough simplicity, strong colors and delicious, thick brushstrokes. _“The main thing is how the colors and lines bicker with each other in the paintings.”_ – Paul Osipow, 1984