Heikki Marila
Throughout his oeuvre, Heikki Marila has elaborated on a set of motifs and themes that are linked by an interest in bringing into view and monumentalizing phenomena that have gone unnoticed or been deemed unremarkable. He gives new life to age-old painterly motifs, accentuating aspects that invite viewers to challenge their ways of perceiving things.
Marila has always primarily been a painter, even when using other mediums. For him, colour serves as the central element of expression, both in the dimension of hue and as paint, a malleable material mixed from pigments. What is crucial is that art makes a statement. Colours and materials must serve this purpose. According to Marila, ‘Working in synergy with the theme, the ways of applying paint and the palette of colours should ideally both attract the viewer and, at times, cause disgust. An intense contrast between pleasure and repulsiveness can be experienced as something wonderfully brutal’.
As a form of visual art, there is a long tradition that painters cannot pretend to separate themselves or escape from. In Marila’s eyes, the alleged weight of the medium’s history is, in fact, something immensely liberating. ‘As everything has been painted already anyway, over and over again’, he emphasizes, ‘there is no pressure to invent something from the beginning’. Exploring new colour combinations and transpositions of mood, genre and format and varying his personal touch presents Marila with endless possibilities for affective contrasts and unpredictable visual articulations, based on pre-existing elements that may appear fixed in their meanings.
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Heikki Marila, Flowers LXXXIOil on canvas, 250 cm x 200 cm, 2020. Photo: Angel Gil
Heikki Marila, Flowers LXXXIIOil on canvas, 250 cm ×200 cm, 2020. Photo: Angel Gil
Heikki Marila, Flowers XCIVOil on canvas, 250 cm × 200 cm, 2021. Photo: Angel Gil.
Heikki Marila, Flowers CXIIIOil on canvas, 2021. Photo: Vesa Aaltonen.
Heikki Marila, Galerie Forsblom 2021Photo: Angel Gil
Heikki Marila, Galerie Forsblom 2021Photo: Angel Gil
Heikki Marila, studio 1, 2021Photo: Heikki Marila
Heikki Marila, studio 2, 2021Photo: Heikki Marila
Heikki Marila works in Laukko Manor 2021Photo: Tutta Palin
Curriculum Vitae
Download CV (.pdf)Events
8.2. – 18.5.2025
Heikki Marila – HEIKKI MARILA
Sara Hildén Art Museum presents an exhibition by renowned Finnish artist Heikki Marila. He is a featured artist in the Sara Hildén Foundation’s collection, and this exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to explore Marila’s distinctive style, which blends emotional contrasts with unpredictable visual expressions.
Marila is renowned for his monumental oil paintings and powerful themes, including his famous floral compositions. The retrospective at the Sara Hildén Art Museum will showcase Marila’s iconic series, alongside pieces that have never been publicly displayed before.
Sara Hildén Art Museum is owned by the city of Tampere. The museum holds the Sara Hildén Foundation’s art collection, which was established in 1962 when Sara Hildén donated her personal artworks to the foundation, named after her.
Picture: Heikki Marila, Flowers LXXXII, oil on canvas, 250 cm ×200 cm, 2020. Photo: Angel Gil
Laiturikatu 13, 33230 Tampere