ABOUT

Maria Pääkkönen is a visual artist based in Espoo/Helsinki, Finland. The focused, memory-based drawing process plays an important part in Pääkkönen’s work that ranges from small-scale pencil drawings to monumental drawing installations and durational drawing performances, which they create in collaboration with Oslo-based visual artist Ingeborg Blom Andersskog. Recurring themes in Pääkkönen’s work include time, change and memory, the viewing experience, the body, and the relationships between people and the environment. The drawings built with repetitive pencil marks can be seen as recordings of temporality and the bodily presence at the moment of drawing.

UPCOMING:

May-September 2027 group exhibition, Hyvinkää Art Museum

November 2027 artist in residence, Mazzano Romano, The Väinö Tanner Foundation

CV

Maria Mio Pääkkönen
b. 1988 Riihimäki, Finland

Education

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 

2025 Aikaikkuna / Time Frame, Galleria G, Helsinki

2024 Vuotokohtia, Galleria Ratamo, Jyväskylä

2022 Olio, Galerie Pleiku, Berlin

2021 The Shadow of Uncertainty Sheds Light on Possibilities, Helsinki Artists’ Association Gallery, Suomenlinna, Helsinki

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

Selected group and collaborative exhibitions

2025 Muta, Kuumuus & Paine, duo exhibition with Henna Jula, Center of Contemporary Art Pispala, Hirvitalo, Tampere

2024 XXVIII Mänttä Art Festival

2022 20th anniversary exhibition of Galleria Huuto, Helsinki

2022 Muuttujat, exhibition with Sanna Horvath, Poriginal Galleria, Pori, Finland

2022 Drawing Down the Moon, 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

Performances

2026 UNDRAW, duo with Ingeborg Blom Andersskog, Riga Performance Festival STARPTELPA, Riga, Latvia

2024 UNREADY, duo with Ingeborg Blom Andersskog, XXVII Mänttä Art Festival

2022 Drawing Down the Moon, duo with Ingeborg Blom Andersskog, Visningsrommet USF, Bergen

2019 You Are I Am You, duo 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

Residencies

2024 Mustarinda, Hyrynsalmi, Finland

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

The Finnish Painters’ Union

Galleria Huuto / Mehiläispesä ry

Works in collections

The State Art Deposit Collection, Finnish National Gallery

Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation

Jyväskylä art museum

private collections

Grants and stipends

2027 The Finnish Arts and Culture Agency, 1-year working grant

2026 The Nordic Culture Point, mobility fund

2026 The Finnish Arts and Culture Agency, Public display grant

2025 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, project grant

2024 Greta and William Lehtinen foundation, working grant

2024 City of Espoo, art grant

2024 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, project grant

2023 Alfred Kordelin foundation, 1-year working 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 Jan van Eyck Academie, residency grant

2016 Saastamoinen Foundation Finland, residency stipend

2016 Nordic Culture Point, mobility grant

2016 Arts Promotion Centre Finland, project grant

Articles

https://taidelehti.fi/nahtyja-4-25/

https://www.ksml.fi/paikalliset/7335012

https://uumen.art/2023/04/17/kaksoisroolissa-maria-paakkonen-taiteesta-ja-aktivismista/