Tuuli Kerätär
Songs for the river my mother loved
10 April–3 May 2026
Kerätär’s new exhibition Songs for the river my mother loved opens up views into the places and spaces that shape us. The exhibition brings together works in which personally experienced landscapes, memories and loss intertwine. Kerätär’s works explore the places and environments that form us and to which we return again and again. In her paintings, landscapes experienced in dreams and in waking life overlap: journeys and scenes that leave a lasting imprint and transform the viewer, becoming a kind of split present moment.
The spatial foundations of the new works stem particularly from the Matkakoski area along the Tornio River — a landscape the artist has learned to love through her mother. In the works, this personal connection to place becomes intertwined with the experience of losing someone irreplaceable. In Kerätär’s practice, grief appears as both a fragile and fertile space, opening new perspectives and forms. Kerätär engages in an intuitive dialogue with various visual influences. The river landscape merges with spaces and rooms that surface during the act of painting, as well as with memories from travels in California and France. The tension in the works arises from the juxtaposition of the organic flow of water and the clear structures of the built environment.
Tuuli Kerätär Bio
Exploring painting as a form of physical thinking lies at the core of my artistic practice. In my paintings, embodied and linguistic knowledge merge and reorganize themselves. In my working process, I nurture openness and free association, allowing influences such as emotions and memories to surface from different directions naturally and lead the process.
I graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2019. Most recently, my works have been exhibited in 2025 at Poikilo Gallery in Kouvola, in the Finnish Painters’ Union X Skanno V group exhibition in 2025, in a solo exhibition at Galleria Uusi Kipinä in 2022, and in a group exhibition at Helsinki Contemporary in 2021.
My works are included in the collections of, among others, the Finnish National Gallery, the Finnish Art Society, the Rovaniemi Art Museum, the Kouvola Art Museum, and the Academy of Fine Arts.
Thank you
Oulun kaupungin kulttuuripalvelut
Contact details
https://tuulikeratar.com
