Maiju Salmenkivi: Trust

Organic, whirling brushstrokes infuse Maiju Salmenkivi’s paintings with a fairy-tale atmosphere. Interweaving fantasy and reality, her canvases pulse with an abundance of dreamlike detail. Although their underlying tone is one of quiet melancholy, fleeting bursts of joy surface throughout. Her distinctive palette is immediately recognizable: luminous greens and yellows entwine with myriad shades of pink. While her compositions evoke landscapes, they do not depict specific places. Instead, Salmenkivi turns inward, painting landscapes of the mind.

Themes of growth and trust run through her work. Hidden figures often inhabit the paintings – camouflaged within the terrain or concealed among the branches of trees. Her trees stretch both upward and downward: branches spiral skyward while roots snake deep into the earth. The small figures climbing among them allude to childhood and youthful courage – a time when trust in life feels unshakeable. Hand-like forms are another recurring motif. These hands hold, nurture, and tend gardens, symbolizing care and faith. Through them, Salmenkivi expresses trust not only in her own artistic process but, more broadly, in humanity itself.

For Salmenkivi, painting is a dialogue. The canvas proposes a direction, and the artist responds, trusting the process in each unfolding moment. The exhibition brings together a series of works that approach shared themes from multiple perspectives. Motifs migrate from one painting to the next, with each work emerging as a response to the one before it. These themes also extend into her works on paper, which are equally central to her practice, yet freer in gesture and more experimental in expression.

Maiju Salmenkivi (b. 1972) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2003. Her work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Finland and internationally, including at HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Turku Art Museum, and Landskrona Museum in Sweden. Her works are held in major public and private collections, including EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Saastamoinen Foundation, Amos Rex, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Turku Art Museum, and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation.

For inquiries and previews of Maiju Salmenkivi's works, please reach out to Sales Director Marjatta Latvanen at marjatta@galerieforsblom.com.