Memo: Eeva-Leena Eklund, Rauha Mäkilä, Maiju Salmenkivi

The group exhibition Memo at Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art presents three leading figures in contemporary Finnish painting: Eeva-Leena Eklund, Rauha Mäkilä, and Maiju Salmenkivi. While their artistic expressions differ, they are united by their innovative approaches to painting and their interest in everyday human experiences, imagination, and emotions. In their works, reality, memory, and daily life intertwine to create distinctive visual worlds. 

The exhibition title derives from the root word memorandum, meaning ‘to be remembered’. The Latin memorare refers not only to the act of recording something in memory but also to reminding, leading to imitation and representation, which are central traditions in the history of painting. The word memo itself means a memorandum or brief message. Contemporary artists record their experiences and observations through painting, drawing inspiration from the visual world in its broadest sense. 

Eeva-Leena Eklund (b. 1972) graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2003. In her works, everyday subjects, animal figures, and ornamental elements playfully interact, often accumulating into large-scale painting installations. The circular form of a pizza, complete with peppers and slices of salami, becomes the starting point for a painting, while painted stones support spatial structures. Eklund has a remarkable ability to gently challenge the seriousness traditionally associated with painting through her exploration of everyday life. Her works often acquire symbolic and humorous meanings. Her works are included in the collections of, among others, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, and the Finnish State Art Collection. 

Rauha Mäkilä (b. 1980) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki from 2000 to 2007 and at Städelschule in Frankfurt from 2003 to 2004. Her richly coloured paintings explore family, childhood, growth, and human relationships, combining personal experiences with universal themes. For Mäkilä, painting is a means of examining and interpreting the present moment; she is, above all, a painter of contemporary life. Distinct colour fields and interior scenes are characteristic of her imagery, often enhanced by striking and unexpected colour accents. Her works are represented in the collections of Kiasma, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, the City of Gothenburg, the Saastamoinen Foundation, the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, and the Niemistö Foundation, among others. 

Maiju Salmenkivi (b. 1972) studied in the Painting Department of the Academy of Fine Arts and at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts in 2003. Her paintings create richly coloured, dreamlike, and multilayered landscapes in which abstract forms and recognizable subjects merge. Her distinctive visual language is characterized by dynamic, organic brushstrokes and a radiant colour palette of green, yellow, turquoise, and pink. Her works have been acquired by institutions including Kiasma, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Amos Rex, EMMA / Saastamoinen Foundation, Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art /Swanljung Collection, the Kuntsi Foundation, Turku Art Museum, Vantaa Art Museum, and the Wihuri Foundation. 

Maiju Salmenkivi also has a familial connection to the Kuntsi collection: her grandmother was Anna Kaarina ‘Kaisa’ Kuntsi (1916–1995). During her childhood, the future artist was exposed to the art collection assembled by Simo and Kaisa Kuntsi in their home on Mechelininkatu in Helsinki. 

Together, the works of Eklund, Mäkilä, and Salmenkivi form a multifaceted whole that offers fresh perspectives on contemporary painting. The act of recording life through painting is one of the exhibition’s central themes. It invites visitors to explore layers of memory, identity, imagination, and human relationships through the perspectives of these three artists. The artists share a study background at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, and after decades of artistic practice, they have become recognized painters both nationally and internationally. 

The exhibition has been produced by Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art and curated by Head of Exhibitions Maaria Salo in collaboration with the artists.