Jukka Virkkunen

Jukka Virkkunen (b. 1986) is a Finnish painter working between London, Helsinki and Brazil. He studied Graphic Design in Brazil and completed an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in London.

Virkkunen works with oil on raw canvas, using a restrained palette grounded in art historical pigments. His compositions are built from a limited number of geometric forms. Areas of exposed canvas remain active within the surface, holding equal weight to what is painted.

Rather than depicting specific places, the paintings condense experiences of northern light, architecture, cemeteries, forests and quiet sacred spaces into reduced structures. They resist overt symbolism. Meaning emerges slowly through proportion, surface and subtle shifts in colour.

The works aim to create a sense of recognition — like encountering something long known but rarely seen. They are not images of places, but spaces held in tension between volume and void.

The studio practice is slow and deliberate. Virkkunen works in silence. Forms are painted by hand without mechanical guides; slight irregularities remain visible. Each painting is reduced until no element can be added or removed without disturbing its balance.

CV

Jukka Virkkunen

Born in Jyväskylä, Finland, 1986

Lives & works in London, Helsinki, and Brazil

jukka.virkkunen @ gmail.com

Education

2018-2020

Master of Art, Royal College of Art, London - UK

2011-2014

Bachelor of Art, Universidade Norte do Paraná, Londrina - Brazil

Solo Shows

2021

From the Seven Eggs of Pochard, Annka Kultys Gallery, London, UK

2017

LÄMPÖ (WARMTH), Gallery Pirkko-Liisa Topelius, Helsinki, Finland

2015

Sieluni Trooppisessa Vaelluksessa (My Soul in Tropical Transmigration), Gallery Rupla, Helsinki, Finland

Selected Group Shows

2023

Spring Again, Spring Ahead, No 20 Gallery, London, UK

Orange River, Sixty-Six Gallery, London, UK

2022

Hari Art Prize Exhibition, Hari Hotel, London, UK

2021

UK New Artist Prize, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

Dreamland PT2, OHSH Projects, London, UK

Wasteland (The Factory Project), Thorp Stavri x Delphian Gallery, London, UK

Sequences, The Who? Gallery, London, UK

After All, Fitzrovia Gallery, London, UK

Unauthorised Outdoor Installation in Shoreditch during London Gallery Weekend

2020

Antisocial Isolation, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

Wintergreen Boxwood, No 20 Arts, London, UK

Beacon, Josh Lilley Gallery, London, UK

50/50, Fold Gallery, London, UK

Outdoor Monochromes, RCA Situationists, Hyde Park, London, UK

RCA2020, Royal College of Art, Online Degree Show

Final, Not Over: Open Fields, Unit1 Gallery, London, UK

SnapShot, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, UK

Entrotopia, Synagóga Centre of Contemporary Art, Trnava, Slovakia

2019

XXX, Gas Contemporary, Northfields, UK

Open Call, Delphian Gallery, London, UK

Work in Progress, Royal College of Art, London, UK

2018

Third Anniversary, Gallery Rupla, Helsinki Finland