Päivi Takala b. 1970

Päivi Takala’s painting practice investigates the intricate dynamics between image and perception – the subtle moment when an image begins to affect us before we fully understand what we see. Her subtle colour palette, precise brushwork, and balanced compositions create a quiet tension between clarity and ambiguity.

The artist’s engagement with art history is deliberate and reflective. Echoes of Early Renaissance frescoes, surrealism, and eighteenth-century British animal painting inflect her work without defining it. Through these references, Takala situates her practice within Western pictorial history while maintaining a distinct painterly sensibility that is entirely her own.

Päivi Takala (b. 1970 in Finland) lives and works in Helsinki. She studied at Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, and at University of Art and Design, Helsinki. Takala is a Lecturer in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki since 2014.

Takala’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group shows, including Galeri Anhava, Helsinki (FI), EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art (FI), Art Museum Riga Bourse, Riga (LV), Rovaniemi Art Museum, Rovaniemi (FI), Aboa Vetus Ars Novaa, Turku (FI), Malmö Art Museum (SE), and Galleri Thomas Wallner, Simris (SE). In a Swedish context, her work was also featured at MARKET Art Fair, Stockholm, in spring 2025.

Päivi Takala is represented in prominent Nordic collections, such as the HAM Helsinki Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Saastamoinen Foundation, the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere (all in Finland) and the Malmö Art Museum.