Maikki Toivanen

Maikki Toivanen (b. Finland) is a Brisbane-based contemporary artist working in ceramics, printmaking and painting. The current focus of Toivanen’s practice is ceramics imbued with her passion for the environment; respect for and nurturement of nature plays a fundamental, multifaceted, and deeply personal role in her Finnish cultural background and identity.

For Toivanen the act of collecting and the process of making are intrinsically linked. Inspired by walking around the East Coast’s headlands, she creates ceramic vessels and sculptures informed by gathering natural objects and examining the rockpool formations encountered along her path. The resulting ceramic forms – with textured surface, subtle detailing and pale, limited colour palate – evoke stillness, curiosity and memory.

Not just inviting to the eye, but also to the hands, Toivanen’s imperfect organic forms encourage haptic perception; thus enhancing their capacity to evoke through materiality the viewers’ memories of, and connection to, the natural and the handmade. In this way, Toivanen’s practice aligns with new materialism approaches that suggest that a profound, felt connection, rather than abstract knowledge or visual consumption, is key to developing a sustainable and respectful relationship with the natural world. 

After a professional career in commercial interior design, Toivanen successfully pivoted to visual arts. As a 2024 graduate of the University of Canberra’s Bachelor of Arts and Design (Honours) program at South Bank campus in Brisbane, her studies focused on ceramics and sculpture investigating the sense of touch. She also holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (double major in Painting and Print Media) from the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane, in 2015, and a Diploma of Visual Art from the Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE, in 2011.

Toivanen is a founding member of See Saw Collective with regular exhibitions such as Re-collect at Webb Gallery,  Seeing Stillness and Tie, Tether & Tangle at Impress Gallery. During her studies at TAFE South Bank campus Toivanen was actively involved in curating art exhibitions to showcase the disciplines taught – drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking - utilising both Block E Gallery  and The Fishtank. In 2024 Toivanen organised and curated the Deep Listening exhibition for seven artists at Impress Gallery with works informed by the landscape and its connection to Wünderkammer and the art of collecting from nature for inspiration. 

Toivanen has established Maikki Studio in 2025 at Here Space studios located at 38 Fisher Street, East Brisbane, where her current works in progress reflect the impact of bushfires on everyday objects.