TONI R. TOIVONEN (born in Helsinki, Finland, 1987) examines the ideas of presence / last presence, duality of life, conceptual painting, painting today.
Toni R makes the aesthetics of disappearance visible. He is best known for his pioneering technique, in which the body of a dead animal (not killed for art), as an result of a fermentation process, transfers its energy to metal plates. The resulting artwork is a kind of conceptual painting that does not represent an animal (/is not an image of the animal) – but IS the animal, its last presence. With his art Toni R is able to stretch the moment between life and death, to speak of the presence in the absence.
Process is physical and even grotesque, but the trace seared into the brass plate creates an aesthetic image that is peaceful and dignified.
Toivonen has graduated (MFA) from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2016. He started off as a painter but has since worked with different techniques, experimenting towards a more conceptual outcome.
Toivonen’s work has been exhibited widely in Finland and internationally in e.g. Frankfurt, London, New York, Kraców, Stockholm, Copenhagen. His work can be found in public collections such as the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraców (PL), Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (FIN), the Saastamoinen Foundation (FIN), The Sara Hildén Art Museum (FIN), Wihuri Foundation (Rovaniemi Art Museum) and Vantaa Art Museum. Toivonen has won The Art of Basware 2014 global competition, held for artists under 30 years old.
Lately
From late 2024 to early 2025 Toivonen was exhibited as part of the exhibition “The Presence of Absence: Matter and Traces – Imprints of Life in Time” in Frankfurter Kunstverein (DE). Toivonen was exhibited (a significant solo presentation within group exhibition – in each floor one artist with a scientific intervention) in the institution’s main exhibition space including in retropective a selection of his most significant pieces over the past ten years and several large scale artworks created specifically for the exhibition. In dialogue with his artworks, two casts of real human (figures whom were buried under the vulcanic material after the tragedy in Pompeii nearly 2000 years ago). The exhibition was the institution’s most popular exhibition to date and was widely talked about in the media (e.g. Kunstforum).
A tv-documentary episode (Meeri Koutaniemi – Irti Kuvasta s2e5) about Toni R. Toivonen is currently running in Finnish and Swedish television (Yle Teema (FIN), Yle Areena (FIN), SVT (SE) + Frankfurter Kunstverein within the exhibition context).
Toni R lives and works in the middle of a forest somewhere in Finland.
TONI R. TOIVONEN 