Sari Moilala

Basic information

b. 1965, Kuusamo
Visual Artist
Residence: Kankaanpää

Contact information

Phone number: 0449287522

Artist’s Statement

I see the painting process as a pathway to another consciousness where I have access to all past memories, experiences, or unresolved emotions. My starting point is a presence and being in the moment. The experience of succession and different sensory perceptions, as well as the awareness of the constant movement around them, are key elements in the painting process, where I try to describe the feelings caused by experiencing nature and the environment throughout the body instead of depicting it. Time is an integral part of the experience.
My painting style is lyrical abstract, but there are also figurative works. The paintings are built in layers using energetic and warm color compositions. Colors express emotional states and come before shape. I try to create a movement that is almost concrete for the viewer. Nature, landscape, and the environment are the inspiration.


“In Sari Moilala's (b. 1965) paintings, the color hits the canvas naturally, to quote Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) the paint “stays there”. Moilala's works rule time. They are completed at the right time, remaining suitably open, almost complete, before repairs, wiping, or over-analysis. Breathable transparency is achieved regardless of whether there is a multimetric fabric on the front or the page of a small book.
The Last Supper looks like a landscape with its own pedagogical will. The stones poke and lean against each other. Biblically and art-historically, the great Work Title becomes a symbol of the fate of the Earth.
There are also full-length paintings in which the trees are felt at their roots, from the shadows.
The branches glow pink or fade blue, but even the heavy compositions of the tops of the canvas are not too stable. ”

Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo, Satakunnan Kansa, 1.10.2021

"Sari Moilala's works deal in an interesting way with the basic elements of painting - colors, movement, the artist's presence and depiction of the inner world of experience, and the relationship between contemporary painting and the tradition of art history."

Anni Venäläinen, Acting President of the Pori Art Museum museum director and collection acquisition working group


“Sari Moilala is already one of the strongest painters at this early stage in her career. Moilala's works have intuition and focused automatism. In colorful paintings, the author realizes the shades of the sun and flower spokes, in a black-and-white charcoal work he bows most in the direction of Twombly.”

Katri Kovasiipi, Cultural Editorial 2021
Show biography

Current information

Views in Between – virtual exhibition, Digimuseo.fi from 31 March


2023The Views in Between virtual exhibition brings 50 works from the Pori Art Museum collection to your screens at home and school. The Views in Between virtual exhibition invites the viewer to consider the different aspects of making, viewing and experiencing art through five themes: Something in me, Secret world, Memory of a life lived, Beneath the surface, and Experiences of a space. The exhibition features works by Finnish artists included in the Pori Art Museum collection, dating from the 1800s to the present. Also featured are some of the more recent acquisitions alongside rarely-seen works and highlights of the older works in the collection.


Upcoming solo exhibition: 2024  Gallery A2, Helsinki

Bio

Sari Moilala (1965) was born in Kuusamo. Moilala's spiritual roots are firmly in Lapland, but physically there is a strong longing for seaside life and the sun. Moilala's first contact with studying art was at the Kuusamo civic college, where he studied graphics for one semester.


After completing various courses and the University of Lapland's 'Fundamentals of Visual Arts', Moilala made a bold move and studied as a visual artist at Kankaanpää art school at the age of 52. Sari Moilala started to learn as a portrait and landscape painter, but as her studies progressed, she evolved from a traditional painter into an abstract painter. Moilala feels more present when working with abstract painting. A new and liberating painting style culminated in the final work exhibition at the Mältinranta Art Center in Tampere. Moilala exhibited a collection of four paintings, Momentum, a large-scale series about experiential moments in nature.


Momentum was also selected for the Kutaiteene valtakuna summer exhibition in Mänttä. The Kingdom of Fine Arts 2021 exhibition brought together the best newly graduated visual artists from all Finnish universities of applied sciences. The curators of the exhibition are visual artists Riikka Lenkkeri and Krister Gråhn. The attractiveness of the effortless and breathable expression is also indicated by the fact that Moilala's works have also been exhibited in New York during the corona spring. In her Momentum paintings, Sari Moilala has taken presence and being in the moment in the middle of nature as a starting point. Experience and different sensory perceptions, as well as awareness of the constant movement around, are key elements in the painting process, which aims to describe the feelings caused by experiencing nature in the whole body, instead of portraying nature. Time is an essential part of the experience.


Moilala graduated as a visual artist in 2021 and has participated in joint and group exhibitions and held solo exhibitions. Sari Moilala has received the Pori Saskiat ry exhibition scholarship and the Kauko and Liisa Juhantalo celebration fund scholarship. Works can be found in the collections of the Pori Art Museum and in private collections. Upcoming exhibition 2024 in Helsinki Gallery A2.


Currently, Sari Moilala lives and works in Kankaanpää.