Eemil Karila: I See the Places of the Sagas – Näen tarinoita maisemissa
Eemil Karila invites viewers to attune themselves to the quiet significance and beauty of nature. His paintings encourage us to slow down, contemplate and move beyond an anthropocentric worldview. When the human presence recedes, nature asserts itself: urban wastelands transform into expanses of wildflowers and grasses.
Karila’s earlier work examined the human condition from multiple perspectives. With the arrival of fatherhood, his artistic focus shifted: wild meadows, boglands and self-sustaining plant life moved to the foreground, while flower fields and brushwood piles on fallow land emerged as recurring motifs. This personal transformation coincided with a growing urgency to address the ecological crisis and the impacts of consumer society.
After thirteen years in Germany, Karila returned to northern Finland where his artistic journey began. His new book, I See the Places of the Sagas – Näen tarinoita maisemissa (Artbear Books 2026; edited by Mika Minetti) brings together paintings from the past six years, created in Berlin and Rovaniemi. The publication features 65 images across 104 pages, alongside several texts, including an interview with the artist and an art-historical analysis of Karila’s practice by Heike Fuhlbrügge. Poems by Walt Whitman weave through the book, guiding the reader from one landscape and atmosphere to the next.