CV/Ambar

My book, All meaning of time in Ambaria can be seen or downloaded here: AMBARIA 

Inquiries: timo.ryhanen.art(a)gmail.com

Book contains history of Ambar, it’s characters, Cities and other information about my world. 

Silver fox with texts small.jpg

My work is about creating a parallel world called Ambaria. It’s development deals with ecological issues, class struggles and the effects of technology. Mythologies, folklore tales, futuristic ideas and trash aesthetics are taking a more present-day form in painting with the help of digital technology. Figures in my paintings are depicting a personification of matter that is being formulated with light and imagination.

The citizens of Ambaria have their inner light made visible by the personification of oil painting technique as well as with the digital light. Light is being placed inside the figures as well as to the surrounding environment.

It shines through cubistic and contemporary war time conception of art as a more crystallised form, through symbolic artefacts while reflecting and forming the movement of personality in humankind. 

It demonstrates an idea about Light Force.

Light evokes abstract themes about will, soul, growth and movement that shapes the world and our interactions. Light Force can be made into anything or any form because it is the basis of every molecular function including imaginary ideas.

Light Force is something that changes through our lives and is not visible for the human perception unless being sensed by the physical appearance or the movement of the subject. Still, humans too are bioluminescent and radiate light that is invisible for our senses. By connecting the idea about inner light with the oil painting tradition, as well as with the personality of the figures:

I am trying to make Ambaria look as lifelike as possible. 

Light Force around the figures is an atomic reaction that happens when molecules are rubbed together through the handmade creative process. Light is the product of art much like cavemen created fire by heating, much like humans can feel the warmth in the touch of their hands. Technological pixelated form develops into a more flexible medium that generates warmth and lightness when it is in connection with the organic atomic structures or develops into a visuality based consciousness. 

Paintings of Ambaria have been constructed with the idea about the movement of the pictorial plane outwards from the mind and the canvas. Layers of painterly ideas and figures of Ambar want to become concrete parts of our world, where they would inspire people and the creative side of life. My painting technique is a modern reinterpretation of expressionism, where the wave-like structure of brush strokes merges with light, water, breathing, wind, electromagnetism, sound, movement, states of consciousness, and the essence of life. My paintings are like drops of water that merge into an endless prism, appearing into the present and becoming part of our times.

“The purpose of my work is to show the development of an imaginary world in the form of paintings.”

Ambaria expresses it’s idea about Imagenous Being. It classifies itself as Imagenus. The idea can take it’s form as art, an imaginary space, entity, a way of being or an imaginary being.


Blue feather is the symbol for connecting technology with trancendental aspects of inner expression.
Ghost Emblem is the symbol of Ambar. It expresses the nature of personal evolution in Ambar.
Snowflake is a symbol of transformation. It expresses personality.


Veil Emblem is a symbol for interconnectedness in Ambar.
IKIKI is a word in Ambar for everything that exists there. It is an expression of friendliness towards the world.

“Thing” is a word for something or anything in the language of art. Three things inside themselves is similar to the idea of a Tesseract

Silver Fox is the inventor of the machines in Ambar. He builds all the necessary equipment for the future of art.
Scale module is a form that grows new branches each year. It connects the ancient natural forms with technology and the human form.
Convex form connects Life Force and it’s growth with light or water based systems in nature.
CAN is a symbol of energy. It depicts change and the ability of overcoming inner limitations throughout the histories of different working environments.
Hand is a symbol for Determination. It encourages an individual to make something very personal by choosing a life’s purpose on which to work towards to.
Whale is a symbol of the cultural evolution. It represents the meaning of life to be found for humans, which is to take care of others, animals and the ecosystem. Caring evokes a sense of meaning in all crafts that allow that to happen. At first, the evolution of whales went onto the land and formed into a creature with four legs. Then that consciousness decided to go back to the oceans. Now whales adapt to the changing ecosystem affected by humans. By having a larger brain and more fluid consciousness, whales are considered to have developed a matriarchal cultural system with a basis on social interaction. Whales could be understood as being differently intellect as humans and expressing themselves with singing and daily dialogue. They have a very sophisticated and philosophical culture which has no physical evidence because whales don’t have hands.
Symbol of Appreciation (Development based form)
Symbol of New (A language based form)
Cultural Mirror is a symbol about the idea of an overall identity that countries create on the basis of how other countries might perceive them to be like. Cultural mirrors are often a source of inspiration for the people because they reflect shared enjoyment as valuable.
Feather form
is a central line form with divisions growing from it.
Bird feathers have barbs growing out from the rachis. 
And barbs are divided into similar but smaller barbules. 
Feather form often modifies the shape of the convex form,
and is the structure that distributes life force inside the multiplying
ecosystems. Form connects rivers, trees, hands, blood circulation, animals 
and cultural development.
Hand and Head gesture expresses eternal connectivity of Ambiens. It is often used as a sign of introduction and likemindedness. The Gesture implies that psychological exchange of ideas is about to happen.
Symbol of Diversity is about life that can’t fit anymore into cultural stereotypes. Progress within the society produces more freedom for choices and identities. Coloured forms depict the formation of nuances inside humanity and our scheme of things.
Drop symbol is a liquid form that connects human evolutionary consciousness into the underwater life. Life in the oceans has developed into a more colourful, abstracted and light carrying forms. Life Force that is distributed by the liquids inside organic forms has the ability to overcome gravity of the material existence.
Symbol of Symbols. The earth the sun and the moon. The movement and it’s style moving much like paint. Directional movements of humans and animals changing into curvature lines. The transformation of movement changes the feeling of being in the world. The erosion and development sculpting life into it’s multiple essence.
Symbol of Gravity

Gravity and Ethereality are directional ways for forms to develop in.
Central mass of life force gathers around those polarities and
guides the visual appearance and function of life forms. While animals and culture tend
to develop in a more spreadable and horizontal way, humans and nature grow more vertically until they reach a certain age.
Verticality of the symbol expresses the speciality and the difference of growth from other beings while connecting humans into the growth of the whole natural ecosystem.
Symbol of the same. Mirrored dualities in repeated patterns. Life forms into an individualistic need for comfort while attempting to break it at the same time. Time makes our behaviour the same while we want to find something personal and lasting at the same time. Symbol of the same expresses an equilibrium after the collision of cultural models and our natural gravitation towards change.

Atomic Heart is a symbol for manifesting, making and enforcing the natural pathway that all life has inside. The movement of atomic energy can be transformed through the act of free will into a more enjoyable existence that moves away from the simulated outcome.

Symbol of Origin, otherwise called the Big O is a character in Ambar that has eternal qualities of art like mirroring, reproduction, playfulness, weirdness and statue/souvenir likeness. It symbolises the future of art by having an O body shape as well as unapologetic appearance.

Map of Ambaria

Representation of a new idea is about realisation of the natural continuum of ideas and perceiving it from a distance while generating a more personal idea as another type of continuum. Idea can be placed into the structure of already existing forms of representations.

The Movement of Humanity is an idea about musicality shaped formation of a container that releases harmonity into the oxygen molecules when opened.

Cabbage symbol constitutes of layers around the world. It represents the world’s axis as a movement that creates layers of overlapping histories much like hands are being placed on top of each other as a sign of communal power.

Symbol for imperfection is about acceptance turning into personalised expression.

Cryolia is changing it’s colours according to how it wants to appear in the city of Cryol. It’s main purpose is to publicly offer company for the citizens if they need it.

Symbol of Supersymbolis is a city in the dreamworld. It appears as a button form that changes the vision of the dreamworld into a more realistic perception of the outside world and slowly forms the view back into the present.

Symbol of Si is a sign of melodic understanding of time. It symbolises the movement of the ocean waves that all animal forms can relate and find an expression from.

Symbol of Endogenicity is the basic idea of inhaling mind enchangeing M.2047 type of substrates in Ambar. Octopuff is often used in meetings that demand more structural mindset for executing outerior ideas.

Symbol of Compatibility mirrors natural world and it’s neural functions so those can be studied and developed inside a continuum of eternity. It reflects it’s user and personalises natural connectivity of it’s future with the subject’s.

Symbol of Autonomy expresses an orbital future where planetary balance has been achieved. Smaller entities are functioning in correlation with bigger forms and are able to do changes inside their own development.

Symbol of Time is a representation of time-based civilization’s consciousness developing and enveloping history into a form that can be transmitted as well as enlarged by the carbon dioxide and sugar coated surface into the future. By the reversal of time it offers molecules an opportunity to be released from the pressure of the two opposites into a more wider central space.

Symbol of Self expresses the development of identity throughout the whole lifespan spent in different environments that ultimately form into an alignment within the whole conception of reality.

Symbol of Social Flowering is an idea about human life where leaves and the amount of flowers within the environment are in connection within the connectivity of different disciplines within a society.

Symbol for the worlds represents the unity of of spiritual progress where similarities of growth form together from the opposing directions. It connects the natural flowerings through the act of making into a possible reality.

Symbol for objective society builds a perspective and an outlook for surroundings to be perceived in variety of imaginary ways that correlate together.

Symbol for peace takes it’s form from pangea and it represents the unification of earth through a shared purpose that a creative civilization is becoming into.

Arian and Variant are elements that move around the cities of Ambar. They can be communicated with and offer an exchange of information. They appear in different shades according to the time of the day. Their appearance offers them a connection to all other convex forms in order for transforming them into a specific cultural usage. They can often be found in places where limitations need a new personalised direction. Personality + Variant = interest + Arian = Solution

Ambarian Flag that represents Ambaria around the world.

Cognitive Imagery

Heart and Hand symbol. It shows the connections between inner feeling and the hand.

Cognitive Images are a form of imaginary artworks. They use text or images as triggers for creating a separate mental image inside the mind. The artwork mainly takes it’s form inside you.

  1. THE WORLD IS MY FOUNTAIN is a photograph where someone pees on the pavement. Idea of the photograph is that the classical Fountain of Duchamp has been removed, and the idea of a globe as a watery and beautiful fountain emerges. It is a common symbol seen in Climate change demonstrations.

2. The Room is a text that creates a mental image and an idea about western civilization living and exhibiting art inside whitely painted minimalistic architecture. The idea is that the white paint is a self~expression of the working class and that museums, galleries, our houses, White House and Soviet Union architecture are reflecting an inner experience that western civilization and the workers have. The current state where walls are being painted with white color represents an economical change in the world. Museums have started already to select different tones for their walls. Also natural materials are being used for creating an atmosphere inside different spaces. Thankfully the future will be more colorful and enjoyable.

3. Perhaps the meaning of the image lays in the quality of it’s composition. It’s relationship with other images that humans have produced and the global connectivity that abstracts the mental image. It has to have a certain coherence that keeps it globally relatable, I thought about adding some light inside the figure in order to make it look more alive.

Cognitive image no.4

Humankind as a figure with a face and a body made out of art.
Art forming and creating personality for mankind.

Cognitive image no. 5.
Relativity of Einstein’s theory of relativity.
-Imagine a place where the laws of physics don’t exist or are completely formable.

Cognitive Image no. 6

If you look at the world on the basis of texture, colour and painted surface, everything has already a layer of paint on it. Computer softwares use those three aspects to define the attributes of painting. Surrounding world already expresses it’s painterliness and humanity through the surface of culturally produced objects. I think of digital painting as something that is more flexible medium around the social sculpture of our times.

Cognitive Image no. 7

A beach, the sun, the ocean and zero gravity.

CV

Timo Ryhänen

B.1986

Lives and works in Vantaa, Finland

e-mail: timo.ryhanen.art(a)gmail.com

CURRICULUM VITAE 4.9.2025

Education:

2013-2014               Universität der Künste, Berlin

2008-2013               BFA University of the Arts Helsinki

2007-2008               University of Sunderland, UK

Solo exhibitions:

2025 Maalauksia Kaikkeudesta – Paintings about everything, Huuto Gallery, Helsinki

2025 Worlds from Future, Drawing gallery D5, Helsinki

2024 Frankie’s Imaginarium, Galerie Pleiku, Berlin

2023 Visions, Feelings, Beings, Gallery Katariina, Helsinki

2022 Alpaca Art, HAA-Gallery, Helsinki

2022 Ambiens, Ambions and Ambas, Galeria Nueva, Madrid

2020 Paintings about Life Force, A2 Gallery, Helsinki

2019 0K 2000, Painter’s Union Gallery, Helsinki

2019 Siberia Tech. Drawing Gallery D5, Helsinki 

2018 Junkyard, Gallery Katariina, Helsinki

2017 Suburbian Forestry, Gallery G12, Helsinki 

2013 Life Stimulation, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts gallery, Helsinki

2013 Paintings, The library of Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki

Group exhibitions:

2023 Syksyn syleily, LovArt, Helsinki

2019 #KeithHaringTate, Tate Liverpool, UK

2014 Our accursed share, d.h.u.a, Berlin

2014 Space: Identity filtering, Universität der Künste, Berlin

2013 Kammer Flimmern, Kammermusiksaal Friedenau, Berlin

2013 Leikkipaikka, New student house, Helsinki

2013 Kuvan kevät- the Degree show of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki

2013 Huutokauppa, Sorbus gallery, Helsinki

2013 Kuusi x yksi, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts gallery, Helsinki

2012 Finnish Academy of Fine Arts group exhibition, Fondia gallery, Helsinki

2012 Express 13, Fluid Gallery, Helsinki

2012 Suomalainen aamiainen, The International 3, Manchester, UK

2010 Sanctioned Array, White Box, New York

2008 So what is art anyway?, University of Sunderland, UK

2008 Young drunk and willing, University of Sunderland, UK

2007 There’s a beach beneath the paving stone, MAA-Tila, Helsinki

Residencies:

2022 Madrid, The Hug Residency

2012 Berlin, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts

Collections:

Private collections

Paavo and Päivi Lipponen foundation, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art

Hotel Kämp, Helsinki

Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

Grants:

2023 City of Vantaa, artist grant

2022 Arts promotion centre Finland, project grant

2022 Finnish Cultural Foundation, residency grant

2022 Alfred Kordelin Foundation, 1 year working grant

2021 Arts promotion centre Finland, corona grant

2020 Arts promotion centre Finland, residency grant

2020 Arts promotion centre Finland, corona grant

2019 Arts promotion centre Finland, 6 months working grant

2018 Paulo Foundation

2018 Finnish Art Society, young artist grant

2015 Finnish Cultural Foundation

Memberships:

Finnish Painters Union

Kuvasto ry