maalatuissa

Maalatuissa is a term used in Finnish-language art discourse to describe a mode of painting that foregrounds the materiality and process of the painted surface. Works labeled as Maalatuissa typically combine traditional brushwork with substantial build-up of paint, layered textures, and often mixed media, aiming to reveal painting as a physical, temporal act rather than a purely pictorial representation. The label is metaphorical, drawing on the Finnish word maalaus (painting) and the inessive form -ssa, and it signals a particular painterly approach rather than a single school or movement.

Origins and usage have been modestly documented in the 2010s as critics sought language to describe a renewed interest in tactile surfaces in an increasingly digitally mediated art environment. Maalatuissa is not a formal manifesto; rather, it groups artists whose practice emphasizes material presence, gesture, and the sensorial experience of paint.

Key characteristics often associated with Maalatuissa include thick impasto, visible underpainting, glazing, and the incorporation of non-traditional materials such as fabric, cardboard, or found textures into the painted surface. Works are frequently large in scale and presented with minimal digital or photoreal elements, so that the physicality of the paint remains central to perception.

Reception to Maalatuissa has been mixed and ongoing. Proponents argue that the label highlights a necessary re-centering of craft and perceptual engagement in an era of rapid image production. Critics caution that the term can be elastic or context-dependent, serving more as a descriptive lens than a definitive movement.

See also: painting, Finnish art, contemporary art, impasto.