Anita Naukkarinen

Born in 1986 | Lives and works in Helsinki

Anita Naukkarinen’s oil paintings combine playfully darting lines with expansive color planes resembling the translucent fluidity of watercolors, although her abstract compositions actually take their cue from real, concrete forms. Once she finds an inspiring form, she teases out a narrative and idiosyncratic rhythm. Rather than revealing her real-world sources, Naukkarinen underlines the importance of each viewer’s individual encounter and dialogue with her paintings. The artist’s personal story is embedded in her paintings on multiple levels, and this intimate element unfolds to each viewer slightly differently. Naukkarinen enjoys painting on a large scale, enabling her to immerse herself in the corporeality at the heart of painting. Body memory and physical experience acquire more proper dimensions when painted on a truly enormous canvas, with the rhythm of movement being visualized as an integral part of the composition. The painting process is, after all, inherently corporeal by nature. Naukkarinen’s immediate, intuitive painting style is like a journey into a subconscious world or an alternative plane of thought. 

Naukkarinen studied at the Fine Arts Academy of Finland and her works are found in numerous private collections.