Jane Hughes & Mari Mäkiö
Crossing paths
11.12.2025-8.1.2026
The exhibition interlaces the practices of Mari Mäkiö and Jane Hughes into a constellation of journeys that move from the close-up to the vast—drawing on the hidden bark beetles of Finnish forests and fossil traces preserved in Irish Carboniferous limestone.
Both artists are drawn to what sits just beyond ordinary sight. Mäkiö studies and translates the pathways carved by bark beetles into precise works on paper, clay and textile, turning their trackwork into a kind of concrete poetry. Hughes, by contrast, follows the vestiges of deep time and the quiet shifts of light as night falls; in her paintings, fossil forms and imprints of decay become fictional figures roaming through layered colour-scapes.
Together their works offer paired vantage points: the intimate and the expansive. While Mäkiö maps the beetles’ intricate routes with clarity, Hughes assembles mirage-like collages and paintings where time, colour, and reference accumulate. Seen side by side, these approaches open a conversation about attention—how looking closely and thinking broadly can reveal structures of life and history that are usually overlooked.
Jane Hughes works explore the aesthetics of decay and displacement through ruins and disintegrating memories. Ghosts, bones, and fossils permeate the work. A recurring arch motif, drawn from fossils, threads across the paintings as a quiet link. In her work the painted landscape functions as an entry point for a shared perspective—like a filmic pause when the camera pans away, giving a moment to absorb and let things settle. Like Mäkiö, her interest is in what lies beneath the surface, and in our complex histories—personal, social, and of place, especially in seemingly peripheral locations.
Mari Mäkiö’s installation combines traces and imprints from materials collected in the forest. Her process consists of multiple steps. She extracts colour from the bark of different trees to dye recycled textiles and uses plant printing technique, using pieces of beetle-carved bark onto cloth. The textile elements are then assembled into a patchwork design. On Japanese paper, her intricate ink-rubbing prints reproduce tree trunks and branches carved by bark beetles, using the traditional Japanese Takuhon printing method. The ceramic pieces echo the beetles’ printed patterns. At the end of the process, Mäkiö returns the gathered wood to the forest to continue its cycle of decay.
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The mind at three miles an hour, Urban Walk
Meeting point Oodi Library, 11am Sa 13.12.2025
In conjunction with the exhibition on Saturday 13th of December the artists invite you to join them on an urban walk. We will meet at the side entrance of Oodi Library at 11 am. We stroll by the water over the new bridge to Galleria Huuto. Followed by an informal tea and reading event with some excerpts from Wanderlust: A history of walking by Rebecca Solnit (2001).
Please RSVP by 12.12 to info (a) janehughes.ie or alternatively just come along.
The language of the event is english.
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Jane Hughes (b. 1984, Dublin) lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. She works with painting, drawing and installation. Her work moves between figuration and abstraction, with colour at its core, exploring themes of landscape, social psychology, and cultural history. Her most recent solo exhibition, Everything Soft Slowly Turned to Bone, took place in The North Atlantic Lighthouse in Denmark, (2025). She has exhibited internationally in galleries and museums such as the VISUAL Carlow, Ireland; Galway Arts Centre, Ireland; State Gallery of Kallingrad, Russia; Kunsthalle am Hamburgerplatz, Berlin and Grimmuseum, Berlin. Hughes received her MA in Environmental Art at Aalto University, Helsinki (2012), including one year at MA in Art in Context at UDK, Berlin (2010-2011), and her BA in Fine Art Painting at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin (2006). Her work is part of the public collections of the Irish State Collection: Department of Foreign Affairs, The Finnish State Deposit collection, HUS collection and the National Irish Visual Arts Library (nival).
More info: https://janehughes.ie
Mari Mäkiö (b. 1982) is an artist living and working in Helsinki, Finland. She works with installation, combining different media, such as sound, video, text and ceramics. Her works are often site-specific and interactive. Many of her projects have included working with different groups in participatory ways. She also works together with other artists in different collaborations and collectives. Mäkiö’s work focuses on multi-species encounters, and the experiences of separateness, togetherness and empathy entwined within these encounters. She’s interested in how our human existence is intertwined with our environment and others around us. She is currently working in the forests of Helsinki, following the traces of spruce bark beetles and studying the connections between bark beetles, climate change and changing forests. Mäkiö’s works have been shown in museums and galleries as well public art commissions in Finland and abroad. She has also participated in several artist in residence programs in Europe and Japan. She graduated as Master of Arts in Photography at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland (2015).
More info: www.marimakio.com
The artists would like to thank their funders and sponsors; Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Embassy of Ireland, Finland, and Cover Story Paint Shop.
Contact details
info (a) janehughes.ie
mari (a) marimakio.com
