Laura Laurila: Green City

The exhibition Green City at Malmitalo explores urban nature and construction. Laurila is interested in how the built environment communicates with green spaces. The exhibition's title work depicts a landscape from Tölö Park, where wildflower meadows bloom in summer. Laurila finds beauty in everyday views, dilapidated buildings, and weeds too - urban nature is not merely an aesthetic addition between buildings but a vital part of the ecosystem. Through her works, she raises questions about how biodiversity and valuable recreational areas could be better considered in building processes.

Laurila paints with acrylic inks and acrylic paints on canvas, working in the landscape painting tradition. The colour saturation and transparency of acrylic inks enable watercolour-like techniques and the creation of varied surfaces. Her works often depict a place at a particular season or time of day, and she is especially interested in colourism and colour expression.

Laura Laurila (born 1980) lives and works in Tampere. She graduated from Turku University of Applied Sciences as a visual artist (AMK) in 2022 and is a member of the Finnish Association of Painters and the Tampere Artists' Association. She has exhibited in Tampere at Rajatila, in Berlin at Galleria Pleikus, in Porvoo at Galleria Kulma in the Art Centre, and in Lahti at Galleria Uusi Kipinä. In addition to her artistic work, she teaches part-time at Tampere University in architectural art and leads youth art courses for the city of Tampere.