Mikko-Pekka Hyvärinen ^{Emerging artist}

Artist is based in: Finland

Mikko-Pekka Hyvärinen is a Finnish artist whose practice moves in the field of expanded painting, combining painterly and sculptural approaches. Having studied painting for over a decade, his recent work explores the transformation of painting’s surface into spatial and material experimentation. A pivotal moment in his career was an exhibition in Oulu in 2023, where he presented works that merged image transfer techniques with mixed media. This experience marked a turning point, leading him to reconsider painting not only as a flat surface but as a site of sculptural intervention.

During his Master’s studies at the University of the Arts Helsinki, Hyvärinen increasingly focused on recyclable materials, with polystyrene emerging as a central medium. He examines the material both aesthetically and conceptually, drawing on philosopher Timothy Morton’s notion of the “hyperobject.” In his practice, polystyrene functions as a paradoxical substance: ubiquitous yet invisible in its long-term environmental impact, persisting for millennia while disintegrating into micro- and nano-particles that infiltrate ecosystems and the human body alike.

Hyvärinen’s graduation work, Muovikko (lat. plastea telluris), exemplifies this line of inquiry. The installation evokes a rocky terrain (kivikko in Finnish), yet its brittle, creaking surfaces reveal themselves as synthetic. Here, polystyrene is reimagined as a geological formation—a return of the man-made to the natural realm, a speculative landscape where organic and synthetic matter converge. His works thus open a dialogue between material presence, environmental consciousness, and the expanded field of painting.