Katja Maarit Tukiainen is a Finnish visual artist and painter. She was the regional artist of Uusimaa from 1999 to 2001 and the 2003 winner of the Finnish Comic Society's annual Puupää Award. She received the Finnish State Prize for Design in 2007, and the in 2011. Tukiainen works with site-specific narration. She changes her medium according to what best suits the content of her artwork: paintings, comics, drawings, animation and sculptures. Her works are recognizable by their joyful colours, sympathetic figures, and expressive style, and can deal with themes of daily politics, sorrow,or longing as well as dreams, love, and peace. Tukiainen holds a Master's of Art degree from the University of Art and Design Helsinki and a Master's of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts, and has studied painting in the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, Italy. After graduating, she worked for six months in Mazzano Romano, Italy, and has travelled to India on nine occasions to work for Dalithuman rights. Katja Tukiainen’s paintings have been purchased into various prestigious collections in Finland and her comics have been published in several international anthologies. She is married to her colleague, Matti Hagelberg, and they have one child. Katja Tukiainen's ART WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS: Amos Anderson’s Art Museum, Helsinki Finland State Art Collection, Helsinki Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä, Finland Halland County Art Collection, Sweden Halmstad Municipality Art Collection, Sweden HAM, Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Hämeenlinna, Finland Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki Kouvola Art Museum, Kouvola, Finland Lönnström Art Museum, Rauma, Finland Museolaboratorio Ex Manifattura Tabacchi, Citta Sant'Angelo, Italy Nelimarkka Foundation, Alajärvi, Finland Nordic Watercolour Museum, Skärhamn, Sweden Saastamoinen Foundation, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art Salo Art Museum, Salo, Finland Seppo Fränti Art Collection The City of Oulu Art Collection, Oulu, Finland The City of Pori Art Collection, Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland The Museum of Drawings, Laholm, Sweden Wihuri Foundation, Art Museum of Rovaniemi, Rovaniemi, Finland
