After graduating from high school, I spent a few years trying to become an architect and a doctor, failing at both. Eventually realizing that my strengths probably lay elsewhere, I applied to film school.
After graduating in 2011, I became one of the founding members of Mutant Koala Pictures, a film production company based in Oulu, Finland. I spent the following years working as a director, screenwriter and cinematographer, eventually co-directing and co-writing the feature films Heavy Trip (2018) and Heavier Trip (2024).
After graduating from high school, Laatio spent a few years trying to become an architect and a doctor but failed at both. Realizing his strengths lay elsewhere, he applied to film school. Graduating in 2011, Laatio became a founding member of Mutant Koala Pictures, a film production company based in Oulu, Finland.
After completing the second Heavy Trip film, I shifted my focus towards painting. After years of filmmaking, I wanted to return to something smaller and more immediate — making things with my own hands, without a large production between the original idea and the finished work.
My paintings tend to circle around things I find difficult to put into words: loneliness, uncertainty, memory, emotional distance and the less comfortable parts of being human. Sometimes they take the form of a face or a figure, sometimes an imagined place that feels strangely familiar.
I’m drawn to roughness and imperfection. I build paintings through layers, stains, washes and damaged surfaces, often painting something only to partially destroy or cover it again. I don’t want the process to disappear from the finished image. The mistakes, changes and traces are part of it.
I’m not particularly interested in explaining what a painting means. I would rather create something that feels familiar without necessarily knowing why. I like the thought that someone might recognize something of their own experience in a painting, even if neither of us could quite put it into words.
My years in film still influence the way I approach images, particularly through atmosphere, composition, light and the suggestion of something existing beyond the frame. Painting is now at the center of my practice, alongside occasional sculpture, installation and collaborative projects.
ART EXHIBITIONS
2026 | Kaupunki ikkunan takana, Oulu, Finland
2026 | Väliaine II, Oulu, Finland
2025 | Art Shopping Paris, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France
2025 | Väliaine, Oulu, Finland
2025 | Next Step, Galleria Kookos, Helsinki, Finland
2024 | Darker Layers, Pakana Festival, Dipoli, Espoo, Finland (Solo Exhibition)