From July 31 to August 29, Meri-Pauliina Sundén's paintings are on display in Seppä’s Hall and Kulmahuone in the exhibition Parables from Nature – Vertauskuvia luonnosta. Parables from Nature is a reminder of the essential connection between humans and the plant kingdom that sustains life: Plants are the breath of all living things. Parables from Nature – Vertauskuvia luonnosta.
Parables from Nature on muistutus ihmisen ja kasvikunnan välttämättömästä yhteydestä, joka pitää yllä elämää: Kasvit ovat kaikkien elävien olentojen hengitystä.

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Through the medium of landscape painting, these works explore a transformed way of being in a world shaped by the blending of human activity and natural processes. They also function as barometers for a kind of ecological phantom pain, seeking to interpret experiences of nature that involve personal and collective grief, longing, and empathy in the face of ecological loss.

“Through my paintings, I process environmental grief, where facing loss is the price of caring and love. The underlying emotion is deep gratitude for everything nature gifts us, even in the midst of an environmental crisis. I focus particularly on depicting the plant world, because life on this planet is possible only thanks to plants. Plants are not just part of the world; they are the origin of the world.”

In her works, painted with oil and alkyd paints, Sundén employs a range of image-making techniques, including printing with materials found in nature, rubbing, dipping, and scraping. The layers form metaphors in which organic and inorganic processes serve as material starting points, but simultaneously also as visual elements.

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Meri-Pauliina Sundén is a visual artist originally from Rauma, currently living and working in Turku. She graduated with a degree in fine arts from Italy and holds a Master of Arts degree from Aalto University.