Rauha Mäkilä

Rauha Mäkilä is known for her colourful paintings depicting everyday events that are inspired by her own life and family. In recent years, Mäkilä has also reflected on her own status and identity as an artist. Her works are about being human, being an artist and being together. Mäkilä draws the themes of her works from her own experiences and life, showing how the immediate and the everyday are valuable things, worthy of painting.

In her works, family members, loved ones, pets, art objects and household objects form surprising spatial compositions with each other. The moments, or situations, in the works resemble compositions captured on camera that are later depicted on canvas in the artist's studio. Mäkilä carefully plans her paintings in advance but also leaves room for surprises and chance - the painting has room to become an event in its own way, through the means of painting. Mäkilä mainly uses colour-saturated oil colours with occasional use of more earthy oil tones.

Rauha Mäkilä (b. 1980) is a Helsinki-based visual artist who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2007. Mäkilä has also studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. Mäkilä's works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Finland and internationally, including the Munch Gallery in New York, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art in Espoo, Finland, the Landskrona Museum in Sweden, Galleri Thomassen in Gothenburg, Sweden, CHART art fair in Copenhagen, Galleria Susanne Pettersson in Stockholm and Aboa Vetus Ars Nova Museum in Turku, Finland. Her works are included in several important art 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 Art Collection. In 2023, Mäkilä had solo exhibitions at TARA Helsinki Contemporaries and MOMO Aboa Vetus Ars Nova Museum in Turku. In 2015, Mäkilä was the chair of the jury for the Young Artists exhibition at Helsinki Art Hall.