2020

Oil pastel on paper

Marika Maijala (born 1974) works across writing, illustration, visual arts and animation. She currently works in the Artists’ House on Harakka Island, Helsinki, and studies painting at Free Art School Helsinki. Her artistic practice draws from play, experiment, trial and error in the spirit of DIY. Marika’s main creative sources are the realm of narration, that she used to love already as a child, as well as her relationships with other living and non-living creatures. Her versatile body of work includes picture books, art books, paintings, drawings, texts, animations, videos, installations and illustrations for public spaces.

Marika has received several awards and nominations for her work as children’s book illustrator, for example Finnish State Award for Illustration Art in 2020 and Rudolf Koivu award for the best children’s book illustration twice (2009 and 2019) . Her debut book as an children’s book author, Ruusun matka (2018), was a nominee for Nordic Council Children’s and Young People’s Literature Prize as well as presented in Bologna Illustrators’ Exhibition. Her stories and illustrations have been published worldwide. Marika’s Rosie Runs, translated from Finnish by Mia Spangenberg and published by Elsewhere Editions in 2023, was a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, Outstanding International Book, and was featured in the New York Times. You can view more of her glorious art on her website: https://marikamaijala.squarespace.com/.