Experience the Jazz-Infused Paintings of Roy Aurinko
Following Roy Aurinko on Instagram, it’s hard to not get inspired by the Finnish painter’s productivity. There’s a buzz of excitement in the photos he shares of his studio. Multiple canvases are laid out on the floor, some tacked to the wall, some on stretchers, some not, all are worked on simultaneously, as if his ideas kept flowing from a tap he is unable to switch off.
The paintings themselves are capital “P” painterly. Thick smears of paint, brushy lines suggesting different forms, layers of colours that never quite cancel each other out. Sometimes Roy’s swirling paint marks float on uniform colour backgrounds - a rich green, or a deep red. Other times the background is just plain canvas. And yet, all of his paintings are united by a careful consideration of space, meaning the spaces between the chaotic marks are just as crucial as the marks themselves in the final compositions.
To my eyes, there was also a decidedly musical energy to Roy’s paintings that I knew I wanted to go deeper into. So when I got the chance to ask him some questions, I had to start with Roy’s love of jazz.
Hey Roy. You’ve described your work in the past as a jazz improvisation. Can you describe the similarities between jazz and your painting?
I think jazz is a great example of how intelligence meets intuition in a creative framework. By intelligence I mean mastering the instrument, theory and composition which are all fuel for improvisation in a live situation: musicians throw themselves into the moment, which leads the music to unknown, once-in-a-lifetime territory. As a painter I can relate to this, because for me painting as an event is a collision between pre-planned concepts and intuitive working.
With that in mind, I was curious if you listened to a lot of music when you paint?
When I paint, I listen to jazz, mostly free or spiritual jazz from the 60s to the present. When I find a good track or album, I might listen to it repeatedly for hours. Lately I've been listening to a lot of drummer Tom Skinner's live album, John Zorn's Electric Masada is one of my all-time favourites, and Finnish contemporary jazz is also worth mentioning - the scene here is really good.
I see you’re using a lot of mixed media - oil, pastel, graphite, cement, etc. How do you decide what tools to use, and do those variables change much when you’re playing in the studio?
For two decades I used only acrylic paints. That was until ten years ago when my sister bought me a bag of cheap and probably toxic oil paints from St. Petersburg, and I gave oils a go for the first time since art school.
Today, oil paints and pastels are my main materials, although I sometimes use acrylics for first layers. Cement is my secret ingredient, which I use to prime the canvas. The roughness of cement is very suitable for working with oil pastels and oil sticks.
Can you talk about the spaces in your work? I’m looking at the spaces around the paint marks, which feel just as important as the marks themselves in the composition.
Someone wise said that music is the silence between the notes, and I approach painting in the same way. Even though my way of painting is crowded and frantic, its foundation is built on a quiet, negative surface. The use of space is also a result of my liking for two-dimensional, flat-like surface. I avoid creating the impression of depth, it feels tacky to me. It’s one of those qualities that I can appreciate in the work of others but cannot tolerate in my own paintings.
It looks like there’s a lot of painting over details, and layers that build over time. Do you work quite slowly and make decisions over longer periods of time as paint dries, or is it all a rapid execution?
I consider myself a relatively fast painter, but the process can be anything from a few days up to six months or so. When I get stuck (composition doesn’t work, colour palette sucks and so on) I have to be patient and just sit and stare at the painting. Sometimes it takes a long time to realise how to continue or get back in the right mood. I usually work on three to five large paintings at a time and a few smaller ones in parallel. Doing several paintings at the same time reduces the risk of overworking a piece. Having too many ideas is dangerous.
Can you describe the thrill you get from painting, in terms of what keeps you going, what keeps you wanting to make the next painting? And is it like an addiction for you?
It’s very much an addiction! I get withdrawal symptoms immediately when I am not in the studio. I started my two week summer vacation last Monday and on Tuesday I was already writing down ideas. Generally, painting in itself is the best inspiration. Of course, literature, poetry, music, and life around serve as one too. For me starting is always easy, no fear of tabula rasa whatsoever.
It looks like you have a great studio space. What’s your routine like there? Do you have any interesting habits in terms of when you work best, or how you get started generally?
Yes, I’ve been lucky studio wise. My studio is located in an old brewery built in the late 60s, whose architecture is influenced by the concrete brutalism of the era. And I absolutely love it. The space was originally a brewery’s monitoring room, and huge four-meter high windows open onto the courtyard letting in all the possible daylight there is. So it’s very nice for nine to ten months a year, but during the darkest winter months - November and December - I would rather stay at home.
As a family guy I work between nine and five, five-six days a week. First I put the kettle on and choose music to paint by. I paint for two to three hours a day trying to follow Hemingway’s advice: stop working when you're still going good and know what's going to happen next and it will be easier to continue the next day.
Lastly, any shows coming up you want to plug?
My next show will be at Jarilager Gallery in Cologne - it’s my second show with them and it opens in February 2026. I think we have some good things going on in Finland painting-wise. It is worth checking out www.finnishpainters.fi where you can find a good selection of kick-ass Finnish painters!
Follow Roy on Instagram: @royaurinko
The Best Painting Shows in London This Month
Joe Bradley at David Zwirner (ends 1 August)
Francesca Mollett at Modern Art EC1 (ends 19 July)
Megan Rooney at Thaddaeus Ropac (ends 2 August)
Rudolf Stingel at Gagosian Grosvenor Hill (ends 20 September)
The ‘Elective Affinities’ group show at Vardaxoglou Gallery (ends this weekend!)
Thanks for reading, see you next time!
Oliver & Kezia xx
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