Alumni Story: Silja Uuttula

— “Right now I’m in that restless, nervous mood before an exhibition.”

How have things been for you since graduation, Silja Uuttula?

Right now I’m in that restless, nervous mood before an exhibition. Next week, Maria Sorjonen and I are opening our joint exhibition Through the Dim Window at Galleria 5 in Oulu. Maria and I met at the Free Art School, and I recall that already during our studies we were tossing around the idea of a joint show. Now it’s finally happening — featuring painting, some sculpture, and a zine compiled from our correspondence, which also includes a few drawings and paintings. The exhibition is based on speculative memories — places, houses, and deserted yards that fuelled our imagination as children; places we weren’t supposed to go near, but did anyway. Such places invite you to create your own stories and reshape memories so that, as an adult, you’re no longer quite sure what really happened and what didn’t.

The stress of organizing an exhibition often comes surprisingly little from the actual painting, and much more from everything else around it. Driving vans across Finland — sometimes with the engine light on, sometimes through sleet in total darkness — has become familiar to me. Luckily, I have a bit of road-trip spirit and an adventurer’s temperament. Exhibitions, and especially joint ones, also bring a healthy dose of social life into my days. I enjoy spending most of my time alone, so the work of a visual artist suits me perfectly, but it’s good to see people and collaborate every now and then. Alongside painting, I’ve also become increasingly excited about drawing again — especially with charcoal. We’ll see where that path leads me.

What did you learn at the Free Art School?

In addition to developing my technical skills as a painter, the first thing that comes to mind is that I learned to look at artworks analytically. My critical eye developed enormously, and I learned what it means to study a work’s rhythm and tension. I learned to observe and analyze the gestures and choices in other people’s works — and through that, in my own as well. Finding the right balance between intuitive and conscious work is still challenging for me, but my studies at the Free Art School helped me become sensitive to that feeling that tells you you’re on the right track.

I also learned to deal with the sense of shame connected to my own work. Before attending the Free Art School, I didn’t know any painters, nor did I have any idea what working as a visual artist actually involved. I learned practically everything about that profession during my studies — and, of course, a good deal afterwards, the hard way.

Silja Uuttula 

• Born: 1988, Joensuu
• Graduated: 2022
• Solo exhibitions after graduation: Merkintöjä unohdetusta talosta (Notes from a Forgotten House), 2022, Café Bar No.9, Helsinki. Jotain outoa siinä kesässä oli (There Was Something Strange About That Summer), 2023, Galleria Uusi Kipinä, Lahti. Jäljet kylästä (Traces from the Village), 2024, Taidekeskus Itä, Lappeenranta. Fruits of Foreign Fields, 2024, Galleria Huuto, Helsinki. Hooves and Notes, 2025, Taidekeskus Ahjo, Joensuu
• Current artistic interests: Poetry, charcoal, and rural landscapes