Heidi Ukkonen

Heidi Ukkonen (born in 1980) is originally from Swe- den and is based in Antwerp, Belgium. She graduate a Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the Royal Acade- my of Fine Art of Antwerp, in 2015.

The paintings by Heidi Ukkonen explores themes of the mundane such as relationships, anguish, and suffering. These depictions are represented through playfully deformed animations within the life of modern society. Drawing knowledge and inspiration of the works of Philip Guston, David Hockney, Ma- tisse, Bosch, Ingres, or from her own experience, past and present, she aims to bring her audience into a world where the usual becomes unusual , where the ugly becomes beautiful and where pain becomes humour. The combination of different me- diums (acrylic, aerosol, tempera) associated with a multiplicity of colors and textures, contribute to the strong graphic identity of her paintings, making them alive, like a painted collage.
Daily life is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Heidi Ukkonen. She paints the sadness, pain, loneliness and monotony of daily life with rich colours, dynamic drawings and details that put a smile on your face. In this respect, she comes across as a storyteller who deals with human nature, without compromising on joy and optimism. Indecisive, defensive, in need of love, scared, daydreaming, idle...
Her characters express a myriad of moods, in the middle of what seems to be an ongoing story; leading the viewer towards other emotions, dialogues and scenes. Boredom, our unique quirks, the desire to hold on to something (perhaps someone, perhaps life itself) are all expressed in a light-hearted tone, but make no mistake, the pain within is obvious.

Ukkonen prefers to do her research at night. She takes an experimental and haphazard ap- proach to paint the remains of the day. Her subtle explorations in colour, form and emotion bring out vitality, mischief and dark details from the routine that we often associate with stasis and insipidness. Her work bears some distinctive elements: the great abundance of colour, wild expressions, traits of caricature, surreal touches to the ordinary (and mundane). On one side there is a state of alertness, as if something might go wrong at any moment, on the other there is optimism, a ‘no worries, life is sweet’ state-of-mind and numerous mischievous smiles.

Heidi Ukkonen says she focuses on human nature and likes to use bright colours to ease the depressive and dark moods that surface in her characters. Ukkonen’s work is a mish-mash of disconnected scenes, facial expressions and images reminiscent of ‘still life’ shots. With colour and texture, these paintings project us into our own emotional world, in a spiral of compassion and chaos.