Robertino Gio

Observe. Construct. Disrupt.

Original abstract and symbolic paintings by Robertino Gio, an emerging self-taught artist based in Helsinki.

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Walk through the work

My paintings grow in series: each one starts with a question I cannot stop asking, and follows it from canvas to canvas.

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Is the grass really greener on the other side?

A growing series that started with Rooted in black, blooming in gold. Do we really want what we do not have because it is better? Or simply because we do not have it? Experimenting with stretched canvas, wood panels, wire...
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Small formats

Intimate canvases where texture, heat and shadow do the talking. These small works are part of the very start of my journey as a painter, each one an original, acrylic on canvas.
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From my private collection

Rebirth of the sky

Diptych, 50 × 118 cm, and eye, 78 × 118 cm. Acrylic and mixed media, 2025.

Originally this was an IKEA triptych I had at home. But it wasn’t just an ordinary print: I instinctively hung it upside down. I didn’t realise at all that it was the sea and the sky. For me it had always been the salt flats, the Salar in the north of Argentina. I had been there in 2023, so it was a fresh image for me.

The original IKEA triptych print of sea, sky and birds, shown upside down — Where it all started: the original print, the way I hung it at home. Upside down.

Then my friends started coming home and asking why the painting was upside down. I realised two things. First, it was a great conversation starter. Second, we all have a different point of view, all of them can be valid, and certain things act like an emotional anchorage. And yes, some people simply can’t get out of them and their way of seeing the world.

I started painting in 2025, after losing my job, and this huge triptych was just lying there. It felt like the perfect way to experiment with a big canvas. From that, Rebirth of the sky was born.

Not for sale. My work is painted over a printed canvas, so I can’t guarantee the quality of the materials. It stays in my private collection, shared here with you. At least for now.

Artist statement

I paint a mirror so that others can see what they haven’t yet been able to see by themselves.

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Meet Robertino

Born and raised in Argentina in an Italian-descended family, I left home at 30 to find my place in the world: from a corporate job in Buenos Aires to a bar counter in Copenhagen and boardrooms in Finland. When my world crumbled in 2025, painting became a vocation. Today I fly as cabin crew from Helsinki, and I paint to turn feelings, fears and ideas into something you can see.

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