Puolakka’s career is defined by a series of conceptual shifts.
Beginning in Oulu in 2012, his early work used watercolor to navigate personal upheaval, later evolving into a study of human centric perspectives through local cityscapes featuring giant animals in the Pispala district of Tampere. A pivotal period of recovery following lung surgery transitioned his focus toward oil self-portraiture and an ethical exploration of the “other,” establishing a framework for representing figures from local subcultures.

Today, Puolakka utilizes microcontrollers and robotics to interrogate the boundaries between the living and the non-living.
His work explores the friction between human experience and the arbitrary social, historical, and normative narratives. Puolakka’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and curated group
exhibitions, including FEM4 (2019) and Rhythms of Form (2026), and he has held a residency at theVuonislahti Artists’ House.