Jyrki Parantainen

This selection of Jyrki Parantainen's photography from 2003 to 2006 is full of surreal work firmly rooted in everyday realities. Pieces combining image and text collage in layers of information that examine the balance between dreams and disappointments, fear and strength. Though these are not portraits, Parantainen places human subjects firmly at the center of his work, both visually and theoretically--even an image of a dark, hulking skyscraper, cris-crossed with lines and type, points to one floor (and the implied humans on it) as "happy." Parantainen, whose work appeared in the 2005 collection, The Helsinki School and in several exhibits linked to it, lives and works in Finland.