Markku Pääkkönen (b. 21 June 1955 in Kuhmo) is a Helsinki-based visual artist whose tool – and whose art itself – is colour. Everything else – the starting point, the subject, the story – is props, which he picks from mythologies and from what people have invented. Stories matter to him, for we are nothing without one another and without our stories.
Pääkkönen studied at the Free Art School (Vapaa taidekoulu) from 1977 to 1981 and has lived and worked in Helsinki ever since. He has been a member of the Lallukka artists' club since 1995, and of the Finnish Painters' Union (Taidemaalariliitto) and the Helsinki Artists' Association since 1981.
Pääkkönen's oeuvre spans painting, light works, glass works and public art. He has created more than twenty public artworks and environmental art integrated with architecture across Finland. Many of these works are based on local statistics: in the series realised in Leinelä, Vantaa, the city's statistics were transformed into colour schemes for buildings – works he himself calls "modern ridicule". The same thinking is represented by the works Muutos (Change, 2015), Värkätty (Fiddled With, 2015), Vedet (Waters, 2013), Kentät (Fields, 2012) and Suhteet (Relations, 2011). Also significant are his church art and light works, such as Tiamo, kotilot and Tiamo, perhosen laulu in Leinelä (2018), 8 minuuttia Helsingissä (8 Minutes in Helsinki, 2009), Memearabia in Arabianranta (2006), the altar works Siemenet (Seeds) in the Olari Chapel in Espoo (2003) and Gabrielin siipi (Gabriel's Wing) in Pakila Church in Helsinki (2002), as well as the wall painting Valo, Armo, Lohdutus (Light, Grace, Consolation) in Männistö Church in Kuopio (1992).
Pääkkönen has held solo exhibitions in Finland and Estonia since the late 1970s, among others at Gallery G12, Gallery tärinä, Gallery Duetto, Gallery Sculptor and Gallery Johan S. in Helsinki, at Deco Gallery and Rüütli Gallery in Estonia, and at the Alvar Aalto Museum studio in Jyväskylä (2004). His most recent exhibitions are makemake (Gallery tärinä, Riihimäki) and pintojen alta – pääkkönen ja suntio (beneath the surfaces – pääkkönen and the sexton, Gallery Duetto, Helsinki), both in 2025. He has taken part in the Artists' Exhibitions of Finland, the Young Artists' Exhibitions, and numerous group exhibitions in Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Russia, including at the Ateneum and in the anniversary exhibitions of the Helsinki Artists' Association and the Free Art School.
He has been awarded, among others, the First Prize in the art competition for the Tapiola bus terminal in Espoo (2007) and the First Prize in the painting competition of the Helsinki Court of Appeal (1985), as well as the Ducat Prize of the Young Artists' Exhibition (1986). In addition, he has received purchases and placings in competitions in, among others, Vaasa, Turku, Hakaniemi and Arabianranta.
Pääkkönen has had a significant influence on Finnish art education, particularly in the field of colour theory. He was a founding member of the MAA Art School and taught there from 1986 to 1999, serving as the school's rector in 1998–99. He has taught colour theory at the University of Art and Design Helsinki (Taideteollinen korkeakoulu, 1987–1998), at the Nordic Art School (1995–2002) and at the Department of Architecture of the University of Oulu (2000–2002), and served as Lecturer in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts (1989–90). He has also served as a member of the State Art Acquisition Committee (1993–95) and as Chairman of the Board of the MAA Art School's support association.
His works are included, among others, in the collections of the Finnish State, the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Mikkeli and Järvenpää, Kiasma, the Finnish Parliament, the Pori Art Museum, the Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation, and numerous businesses and parishes. He has twice been awarded the State's five-year artist grant (1999–2003, 2006–2010), as well as the State's three-year grant (1990–92), and has received grants from, among others, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the City of Helsinki and the Alfred Kordelin Foundation. Pääkkönen is on an artist's pension.