“Using existing forms gives me the freedom to explore the essence of a painting.”
Heikki Marila (1966, FI) ranks among Finland’s leading contemporary artists. Marila is known for his massive oil paintings and intense themes including biblical motifs, self-portraits and floral still-life compositions. His paintings possess a powerfully physical materiality, which is heightened by an ongoing dialogue between figurative and non-figurative elements and by his thickly applied layers of oil paint. Marila captures the intensity of 17th century painting traditions, which he reinterprets through the lens of contemporary social and visual themes.