Maria Pääkkönen is a visual artist based in Espoo, Finland, working with drawing, installation and drawing performance. The concentrated drawing process and the space in which it takes place play an important part in that work. In the often memory-based drawings Pääkkönen constructs spaces and atmospheres that hover over the imaginary line between material and immaterial worlds. Repeating themes and topics in the artists’ work are change, impermanence, body, vulnerability, memory and nature. Pääkkönen also collaborates with Malmö based visual artist Ingeborg Blom Andersskog. As a duo they explore different ways of communication and possibilities of improvisation in their durational drawing performances.
“The art of Maria Pääkkönen concerns itself with a reciprocal relationship between drawing and place. On the one hand is the drawing of the place – that which is observed, recorded, remembered, evoked. On the other is the place of the drawing – its physical presence within the confines of the gallery. Somewhere in between the two is the human body.” – Tom Jeffreys, writer and editor
CV
Maria Pääkkönen
b. 1988 in Riihimäki, Finland
Art studies
2010 – 2016 Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, The University of the Arts, Helsinki (Master of Fine Arts, MFA)
2007 – 2010 Free Art School, Helsinki
Solo exhibitions
2022 Olio, Galerie Pleiku, Berlin
2021 Epävarmuuden varjo valaisee mahdollisuudet / The Shadow of Uncertainty Sheds Light on Possibilities, Helsinki Artists’ Association Gallery, Suomenlinna
2020 Sumun maa, Galleria Uusi Kipinä, Lahti
2019 Distant And Vivid, Porvoo Kunsthalle
2018 Sea Dreams, Studio Kura, Itoshima, Japan
2018 Mountains Collapsing, B-galleria, Turku
2016 Entering Another Unknown Place, Ti-la2016, Jyväskylä
2016 Revisiting Unknown Places, Galleria Ratamo, Jyväskylä
2016 Revisiting Unknown Places, Galleria Huuto Jätkäsaari, Helsinki
Group exhibitions
2022 20th anniversary exhibition of Galleria Huuto, Helsinki
2022 Muuttujat, exhibition with Sanna Horvath, Poriginal Galleria, Pori, Finland
2022 Drawing Down the Moon, durational drawing performance and exhibition with Ingeborg Blom Andersskog, Visningsrommet USF, Bergen, Norway
2020 Kosminen Salonki – summer sales exhibition, Kosminen, Helsinki
2017 Seeing Whales, curated by Chiara Ianeselli, Galleria Mazzoli, Modena, Italy
2017 Van Eyck Open Studios, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, The Netherlands
2016 SYYT, Union of Finnish Art Associations, Art Center Haihatus, Joutsa
2016 Kuvitella / kokea / kerääntyä, Vanhan Raatihuoneen galleria, Turku
2015 Kuvan Kevät – MFA degree show of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki
2014 Sitting Quietly, Doing Nothing, Kuva/Tila (Exhibition Laboratory), Helsinki
2013 Drawing in the Flesh, Vantaa Art Museum
2013 Rum, Galleri Kakelhallen, Mariehamn, Åland
2013 Bachelors of the Universe, Galleria FAFA, Helsinki
2012 Size Matters, Kaiku gallery, Helsinki
2012 Kaamos, Arktikum, Rovaniemi
2012 Kaamos, Kaiku gallery, Helsinki
2008 Opiskelijat muuttuvassa tilassa, Pori Art Museum
Performances and collaborations
2022 Drawing Down the Moon, durational drawing performance and exhibition with Ingeborg Blom Andersskog, Visningsrommet USF, Bergen, Norway
2019 You Are I Am You, durational drawing performance with Ingeborg Blom Andersskog, Superb! -contemporary art festival, Turku
2017 Just Drawing This Line, solo drawing performance, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
2016 Entering Another Unknown Place, durational drawing performance, Ti-la2016, Jyväskylä
2014 The Builder (Sitting Quietly, Doing Nothing), durational drawing performance, Kuva/Tila, Helsinki
2014 Dancing On Ice, w/ Eetu Huhtala, Angakoq performance event, SIC Galleria, Helsinki
Residencies and workshops
2019 Residency in Utö, Kuvan residenssi ry, Finland
2018 Mustarinda, Hyrynsalmi, Finland
2018 Studio Kura, Itoshima, Japan
2016-17 Jan Van Eyck Academie, 15 months residency, Maastricht, Netherlands
2016 Nordic Studio: Clearcut, Rejmyre Art Lab, Kalbo, Sweden
2016, 2015, 2014 Residency in Utö, Kuvan residenssi ry
2014 Finnish Academy of Fine Arts residency in Berlin
Memberships
MUU Artists’ Association
The Finnish Painters’ Union (candidate member)
Galleria Huuto /Mehiläispesä ry
Rajataide ry
Grants and stipends
2023 Alfred Kordelin Foundation, 1-year working grant
2022 City of Espoo art grant
2022 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, 1-year working grant
2021 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, corona grant IV
2021 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, project grant II
2020 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, corona grant I
2020 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, corona grant
2020 The Paulo Foundation, working grant
2019 Finnish Cultural Foundation, mobility grant
2019 Finnish Art Society, Young artist grant
2019 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, project grant
2019 The Paulo Foundation, working grant
2018 Finnish Cultural Foundation, 1-year working grant
2018 The Paulo Foundation, working grant
2017 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, working grant
2016-17 Van Eyck Academie, residency grant
2016 Saastamoinen Foundation Finland, residency stipend
2016 Nordic Culture Point, mobility grant
2016 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, project grant
Publications
2017 Exhibition catalogue: Seeing Whales, Galleria Mazzoli Editore, Modena
2015 Drawings and column in ÄÄRI magazine, No#1
Articles
https://uumen.art/2023/04/17/kaksoisroolissa-maria-paakkonen-taiteesta-ja-aktivismista/
https://www.ostnyland.fi/artikel/rumsliga-dikter-i-bildformat-fyller-konsthallen/
http://www.flashartonline.it/2018/02/seeing-whales-mazzoli-modena/
http://www.lost-painters.nl/van-eyck-open-studios-4/
http://www.metropolism.com/nl/reviews/30883_open_studios_van_eyck_2017
http://www.thelearnedpig.org/maria-paakkonen-revisiting-unknown-places/3306
http://www.leenakuumola.fi/arkiv-pa-svenska/stillhetens-rorliga-natur/