Juhani Halkomäki is a Finnish digital artist who codes vivid, expressive illustrations that blur the line between digital art and more classical, painterly practices. Born in Southern Finland, he practices in Helsinki, generating work through creative coding in an expressionistic style reminiscent of Van Gogh.
Halkomäki began writing simple graphics programs in QBasic as a child, and later studied media engineering before working as a front-end web developer. A colleague's suggestion led him to apply to the New Media program at Aalto University, where he began studying in 2017, rediscovering the interest in creative coding and generative art he had set aside for a more conventional career. He cites Aleksandra Jovanić, Kwame Bruce Busia, Melissa Wiederrecht, Erik Swahn and Zach Lieberman among his influences.
His pieces typically begin from a simple question: for Kratta, he wondered how to create something resembling Japanese sand raking, while Sun Scribbles grew out of an asemic-writing experiment that evolved, through testing line densities and a blue gradient, into an image evoking the sea and a setting sun.He has also programmed soft-body physics and blob simulations, and one such sketch inspired the coder Daniel Schiffman to make a video exploring the underlying technique.In 2023 his work was shown in a series of pop-up exhibitions in Japan organized by 3XHIBITION, and he released generative work through the EditART platform.,In April 2024 he released Resting Place For Wild Pigeons, a 200-piece collection on the Alba.Art platform, as part of the group show “Let It Flow” presented with Dawn Contemporary Gallery.
