Katja Tukiainen

Katja Maarit Tukiainen (born 1969) is a Finnish visual artist and painter. She was the regional artist of Uusimaa from 1999 to 2001 and the 2003 winner of the Finnish Comic Society's annual Puupää Award. She received the Finnish State Prize for Design in 2007, and the William Thuring Prize of the Finnish Art Society in 2011.
Tukiainen works with site-specific narration. She changes her medium according to what best suits the content of her artwork: paintings, comics, drawings, animation and sculptures. Her works are recognizable by their joyful colours (especially pink and magenta), sympathetic figures, and expressive style, and can deal with themes of daily politics, sorrow, or longing as well as dreams, love, and peace.
Tukiainen holds a Master's of Art degree from the University of Art and Design Helsinki and a Master's of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts (Finland), and has studied painting in the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, Italy. After graduating, she worked for six months in Mazzano Romano, Italy, and has travelled to India on nine occasions to work for Dalit human rights.
Katja Tukiainen’s paintings have been purchased into various prestigious collections in Finland and her comics have been published in several international anthologies. She is married to her colleague, Matti Hagelberg, and they have one child.
Katja Tukiainen's ART WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Amos Anderson’s Art Museum, Helsinki
Finland State Art Collection, Helsinki
Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä, Finland
Halland County Art Collection, Sweden
Halmstad Municipality Art Collection, Sweden
HAM, Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki
Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Hämeenlinna, Finland
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki
Kouvola Art Museum, Kouvola, Finland
Lönnström Art Museum, Rauma, Finland
Museolaboratorio Ex Manifattura Tabacchi, Citta Sant'Angelo, Italy
Nelimarkka Foundation, Alajärvi, Finland
Nordic Watercolour Museum, Skärhamn, Sweden
Saastamoinen Foundation, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art
Salo Art Museum, Salo, Finland
Seppo Fränti Art Collection
The City of Oulu Art Collection, Oulu, Finland
The City of Pori Art Collection, Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland
The Museum of Drawings, Laholm, Sweden
Wihuri Foundation, Art Museum of Rovaniemi, Rovaniemi, Finland