Northern Lights artist is making her UK debut

FINNISH abstract artist Marjaana Vaataja makes her UK debut at the Old Fire Station Gallery next week.

Her “Lights in the Window” exhibition is running from Thursday (January 16) to Tuesday, January 21.

Vaataja has spent most of her life living by the Baltic Sea on the edges of the Arctic Circle, where the winter months bring biting cold and a seemingly endless darkness, but also the amazing and mysterious Aurora Borealis — better known to most of us as the Northern Lights.

The Finnish summer brings almost constant sunlight and an explosion of new life in the forests and countryside but this ever-present light also presents unique challenges. It is this environment and these extremes of light and dark that have formed Vaataja and find expression in her work reflecting the drama of the Nordic seasons.

There’s something in this work that draws the viewer into the paradox of light found in darkness and the darkness that emerges in light.

In the abstract Vaataja tells a very human story of what it’s like for all of us to live with hope, disappointment, love and loss, light and dark.

We tend to respond to stories of hope in adversity and know too of the difficulties that often lie behind a well presented public face.

“Lights in the Window” promises to be not just a great exhibition but an experience where all of us on our own journey can take a moment to contemplate and perhaps walk away with our own unique piece of Finland.

Opening hours are 10am to 6.30pm daily.