Anu Hakola

Anu Hakola (b. 1995) is a Helsinki-based visual artist and landscape architect whose paintings explore the relationship between people and the surrounding landscape. The landscape becomes a metaphorical form of storytelling, in which the boundaries between our inner and outer landscapes dissolve, becoming porous extensions of one another and raising questions about the meanings of existence. Soft watercolours and pointillist brushwork bring together the infinite diversity of nature—a diversity whose delicate balance is under threat.

“I am particularly fascinated by intimate places in the landscape that evoke personal emotions and are connected to a wide range of feelings of attachment. In my artistic practice, I also explore temporal transitions within the landscape, such as the changing seasons, the cycle of day and night, and the rhythms of wakefulness and sleep, all of which form part of the stories told through my paintings.”