bio & CV

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, University of 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

Selected group exhibitions

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