Iisa Maaranen

Iisa Maaranen (b. 1987) lives and works in Helsinki.

Maaranen’s practice explores the collision between digitalisation and human experience, reflecting on the theme of connection and the relationship between humans and nature. While grounded in observed reality, her paintings adopt an abstracted style that infuses them with an experiential dimension.

Maaranen’s recent works give visual form to the ever-accelerating influx of stimuli that bombard the human mind in the digital age. She explains that the satellites and masts in her paintings symbolise the mind’s sensitive antennae, perpetually receiving and filtering messages – sometimes with curiosity, sometimes feeling overwhelmed. For Maaranen, painting is a way of rediscovering the connection between body and mind: “Painting can ideally bring the serenity to cope with the clamour of the world and unrest of the mind,” she says.

Maaranen works primarily in tempera, a medium suited to her delicate brushwork and softly muted palette. Traditionally used in fresco-secco murals, tempera lends her paintings a timeless quality, while engaging in dialogue with her exploration of the theme of connection.

Exhibition Freshly Painted 14.5.–30.8.2026