About the Artist

"The fun of travelling through time in inner space" 
- by Tarmo Muttonen

Tarmo Kari Muttonen was born on December 30 1953 in Joutseno, Itä-Suomi Finland.

His father worked most of his life at the pulp factory nearby the family home. Perhaps then, it is no surprise that after years of making sculpture and paintings, Tarmo started to make paper collages around the turn of the century. Since that time, he turned his work with this technique into his own, unique style.

But that is not when Tarmo started to make art. He has been an artist since he was just a kid.

"I started drawing as soon as I could hold a pen and I have been drawing all my life. My mother brought me paper and I got a pile of paper to draw as much as I wanted. I never took a pause from it and I have been drawing constantly since the late 50's."

In 1971, he hitchhiked from his hometown in Finland to Copenhagen, Denmark, and spent time at Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania, a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood of about 850 residents, covering 34 hectares (84 acres) in the borough of Christianshavn in the Danish capital. 

He also spent approximately 3/4 years in Stockholm, Sweden, from 1976 onwards, and spent also time in the Netherlands, where he slept under the open sky of the Vondelpark in Amsterdam.
 
"Around 1984 I started to make statues out of recycled paper, and since 2007 I started experimenting with paper collages".

On this website are works made by Tarmo Muttonen spanning a period starting from 1977 to the present, a period spanning over 40 years.

Still, only part of the artworks that Tarmo has made are shown on this website. There must be many more statues, paintings, collages and drawings hanging in living-rooms across Finland and across many countries. 

Indeed, the intricate works in Tarmo's own recognisable style and unique self-developed technique(s) are currently more than ever finding their way to new audiences around the world.

Tarmo is father to one son: talented up and coming young Finnish artist Kasper Muttonen.