About

Colour and gesture run through every aspect of Alexandra Raita’s work. The Helsinki-based artist creates large scale abstract, expressionistic paintings defined by bold, unrestrained brushstrokes and densely layered surfaces.

Working with acrylic, oil pastel, and spray paint, Raita draws from impulses that are direct and unfiltered. Her works hold onto the rawness of their starting point, becoming less about depiction and more about presence, sensation, and immediacy.

Time spent in Somero, in the quiet of the Finnish countryside, alongside living seven months in Paris, have informed her practice, shaping her sensitivity to light, atmosphere, and shifting spatial rhythms.

Raita comes from a family of artists and architects and was immersed in visual practice from an early age. Taught by her grandmother, an artist, who was constantly sketching, embedding a natural rhythm of drawing into everyday life. Early exposure to a range of painterly traditions informs her approach to line: gestures that shift in pressure, speed, and continuity, moving from fine, searching traces to more forceful, sweeping marks.

Raita’s works are large and bold, often unfolding across entire walls. Her largest commission to date, created for a bistro in Tampere, spans a 10-metre surface, turning painting into an immersive environment rather than a contained image.