Rauha Mäkilä
Photo: Juliana Harkki
Rauha Mäkilä is known for her brightly coloured paintings depicting everyday occurrences, drawing from both popular culture and the artist’s own life and family. Her works, often featuring children, reveal the profound sincerity of their subjects, and an unreserved glorification of the joy of being young. In recent years, Mäkilä has also reflected on her own position and work as an artist. Although a whole range of new types of spatial compositions have opened up in the paintings, Mäkilä’s main concern is still colour. In describing the progress of painting and her world of colour, she says: “My starting point is colour and how certain colours can support each other and build tension on the canvas. I test how I can build an interesting whole out of colours and what happens when I introduce new colours into my familiar and safe palette.”
Rauha Mäkilä (b. 1980) is a Helsinki-based artist who graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2007. Mäkilä’s works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Finland and internationally, including the Chart Art Fair, Copenhagen, Denmark; Gallery Susanne Pettersson, Stockholm, Sweden; the Munch Gallery, New York, US; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, US; EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland; Landskrona Museum, Landskrona, Sweden and Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg, Sweden. Her works are included in several major collections, including those of the City of Gothenburg, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Saastamoinen Foundation, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and the Niemistö Collection. Mäkilä’s latest solo exhibition at Helsinki Contemporary, DEAR, was in 2020. In 2015, Mäkilä was head of the jury for the Young Artists exhibition at Kunsthalle Helsinki.
Exhibitions
18.5.-2.7.2023
9.9.-9.10.2022
7.7.-31.7.2021
28.8.-30.8.2020
7.8.-30.8.2020
9.3.-31.3.2018
9.12.-17.12.2017
3.6.-3.7.2016
4.9.-27.9.2015
20
Apr 2023
Rauha Mäkilä’s solo show MOMO opens to the public at Aboa Vetus Ars Nova Museum on April 21
Rauha Mäkilä’s solo show MOMO opens to the public at Aboa Vetus Ars Nova Museum tomorrow, on April 21. The exhibition presents a broad selection of the artist’s oeuvre from 2013–2023. The paintings on view at the...
19
Aug 2021
07
Jun 2020
18
Nov 2019
14
Sep 2017
Hannaleena Heiska & Rauha Mäkilä at Galleri Thomassen in Gothenburg
Hannaleena Heiska: Untitled, 2017, oil on mdf, 130 x 120 cmRauha Mäkilä: April, 2017, acrylic, oil and spray paint on canvas, 160 x 120 cmHannaleena Heiska and Rauha Mäkilä participate in a joint exhibition with Camilla Vuorenmaa...
20
Jun 2017
24
May 2017
Heiska, Korkeila, Mäkilä, Rekula, Räisänen and Wuorila-Stenberg in Kunsthalle Helsinki's summer exhibition
Rauha Mäkilä: Gerli (2013). Photo credit: Ville LöppönenThe summer exhibition Me: Self-Portraits Through Time at Kunsthalle Helsinki opens shows more than 160 self-portraits from the end of the 19th century until present day....
16
Mar 2017
Group exhibition with six Finnish artists in Landskrona museum
Heidi Lampenius, Supernatural, 2016, acrylic and ink on canvas, 190 x 170 cm. Photo: Jussi Tiainen.Landskrona Museum in Sweden presents the first exhibition that showcases six Finnish contemporary art. Sensual Knowledge exhibits works by Hannaleena...
04
Jan 2017
18
Jun 2016
Rauha Mäkilä, Miikka Vaskola and Henry Wuorila-Stenberg invited to design new covers for Finnish literary classics
In 2017 WSOY will be publishing a limited edition series of 12 Finnish literary classics with new covers. Each book cover will be recreated by a Finnish contemporary artist, and an exhibition displaying the original artworks will be held at Helsinki...
19
Feb 2016
13
Jan 2016
23
Nov 2015
21
Oct 2015
27
Sep 2015
Rauha Mäkilä in group exhibition at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri presents recent paintings by artists who were born in or who currently live and work in Finland in the group exhibition Dark Days, Bright Nights: Contemporary Paintings from Finland. This...
29
May 2015
Andersson, Korkeila, Mäkilä, Retulainen and Räisänen in Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection Exhibition
The second phase of the new Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection Exhibition Touch opens today at EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art. This phase called Humanity, Identity and body, presents different tools visual artists use for dealing with...
19
Mar 2015
02
Sep 2012
17
Oct 2012
22
Mar 2013
10
Jun 2013
02
Sep 2013
25
Mar 2014
30
Apr 2014
08
Dec 2014
Hannaleena Heiska and Rauha Mäkilä in publication Taiteilijan elämänkulku
Hannaleena Heiska and Rauha Mäkilä are included in the publication Taiteilijan elämänkulku (The artist’s life course) by researchers Mikko Piispa and Mikko Salasuo. The publication is based on interviews with 29 artists from...
10
Jun 2023
17
May 2023
06
Aug 2020
24
Mar 2018
08
Mar 2018
12
Sep 2017
02
Jun 2016
20
Sep 2015
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