GABRIELLE PARÉ

In cycles of life and death, how do we know when the time has come? When birth or death is imminent, what miracle triggers the first contraction or the fateful arrest of a heart? Taru Kallio paints a world governed not only by the laws of nature but also by spirits and heavenly bodies from mythology. 

Years ago, Kallio’s grandmother recounted many mystical visions that came to her. In one vivid vision of a forest edge, the treeline came alive with spirited and dancing trees. Her grandmother, battling a brain tumour at the time, understood this to be an oracle of healing from the spirit realm, and indeed, she lived on despite her illness. In telling and re-telling the story of these visions, they have become a personal mythology for Kallio and form the basis of her solo exhibition, Pluto. 

Pluto is a new body of oil paintings on canvas and framed drawings on paper. In the works, we meet the characters from this world of visions: moons and suns with enigmatic faces, figures shrouded in tree leaves and vines, and bright flames with eyes to gaze back. 

Like a dream is to reality, the world depicted here is uncanny, its vivid and atmospheric colour creating a sense of the supernatural. Kallio’s gestures are expressive and unapologetic. For her, the smaller framed works function almost as a diary, drawn over a single day in oil stick, pigment and coloured pencil. They contrast the larger canvases, which are the work of years in some cases. Where the canvases are more open, the immediacy of the smaller drawings lends itself to more narrative storytelling. 

Like any form of spiritualism, this personal mythology serves a profound purpose. Painting these myths is inherently hopeful—a hope for healing and resolution. For Kallio, the act of painting creates a transformative space, a space for the miraculous.