Tarja Poikonen creates layered abstract paintings that explore longing, memory and the deep connections between people and place.

Working through atmospheric abstraction and richly textured surfaces, she is interested in what persists across generations: memories, stories and emotional landscapes that continue to resonate long after their origins have faded from view.

Rather than depicting specific locations, Poikonen explores the emotional and psychological experience of place. The landscapes that emerge in her paintings often arise intuitively, from fragments of memory, observation and the subconscious. Alongside natural forms, traces of human presence frequently appear: distant structures, fragments of architecture or hints of places once inhabited. While these elements may feel recognizable, they remain open and unresolved, inviting viewers to form their own associations.

Through layering, repetition and the gradual accumulation of paint, her paintings reflect the way memories and histories are built over time. While the paintings do not represent identifiable places, viewers frequently find them strangely familiar, recognizing different landscapes, memories and associations of their own.

For Poikonen, painting is a way of exploring what remains beneath the surface—both in landscapes and in ourselves.