Miikka Vaskola

Photo: Veikko Kähkönen

Miikka Vaskola's oeuvre consists of abstract landscapes and figurative imagery, that play between distance and proximity. Vaskola is best known for his large-scale paintings on unprimed canvas incorporating layers of ink, iron oxide, charcoal and chalk, that build up a very recogniseable aesthetic. He works persistently, investigating how different materials react with the canvas.

Recently, Vaskola has also worked with sculpture. He uses wood, epoxy and plaster to create forms that contain elements of abstract and figurative, the contemporary and the archaic. The imagery in Vaskola’s works is simultaneously familiar and foreign. The figurative elements in his paintings and the visual language of his sculptures often take us back to times past, just as the abstractions can be seen as excavations into the mind. The combination leads us to a timeless space, simultaneously near and far.

Before and after graduating from the Finnish Academy of Fine Art in 2008, Miikka Vaskola (b. 1975, Helsinki) has been exhibiting actively with solo shows in Finland, as well as in group exhibitions in Finland and abroad, eg. Berg Contemporary, Iceland, the Hydra School Projects, Greece, and EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art. Vaskola's extensive retrospective exhibition was seen at Turku Art Museum, Finland in 2016. His works are represented in the major Finnish private and public collections including Helsinki Art Museum, Turku Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Heino Collection and The Wihuri Foundation Art Collection.