Opposite the Temple Painting

Hilja Roivainen, born and raised in Finland, holds a Master of Arts in Fine Art (2011) from University of East London. In Hilja’s oil paintings, the visual image of landscape has many dimensions: it becomes a meditative space filled with imagination and encounters of memories, some more recent, some from the past - time spent in nature. The experience of a natural place is recreated from and coloured by memory, loosely basing on photographic documentation. The paintings are constructed by a layering of glazes and oil washes, applying fluid marks in contrast with gestural impasto, or through pouring paint. From September 2012 to December 2023, Hilja was working on a PhD Art History thesis at the University of Turku. Her recent group exhibitions feature, e.g. Spring Salon at HAA Gallery (Helsinki, 2024), Auki at Manilla Culture Factory (Turku, FI, 2023), Jaatsi Culture House (Sastamala, FI, 2016) and Turku Artists’ Society’s Summer Exhibition at Haihara Art Centre (curated show at Tampere, FI 2015), and solo in Jade Gallery (Helsinki, FI, 2016). Hilja’s painting Tarvaspää II has been selected for final at the following competitions: Saatchi Online: Places and Spaces Showdown (2012) and The Art of Basware (2014, Helsinki, FI). Roivainen’s paintings are found in several private collections and in public collection at Helia-säätiö sr foundation and Saatchi Winter Wonderland Online Collection.