Maaretta Jaukkuri studied English philology and art history at the University of Helsinki 1964−70. In 1970−83, she worked as exhibitions and information secretary at the Artists’ Association of Finland, between 1983 and 1989 she was Head of exhibitions at The Nordic Arts Centre, Suomenlinna, Helsinki. During the years 1990-2007, Jaukkuri was the chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (from 1998 Kiasma) where she was in charge of the exhibitions program. 2007−2010 she was working as artistic director of Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo.

During 1989−98, 2007−2015 curator of the international sculpture programme Artscape Nordland. The project consists of 36 permanent site-specific sculptures by international artists in the communes in the County of Nordland in North Norway.

Maaretta Jaukkuri has freelanced as curator for the Nordic pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1988, the European section of the Saõ Paulo Biennale in 1998 (together with Bart de Baere), and the ARS Baltica Prologue exhibition in Kiel in 1991. She was a member of the international curatorial team for the “Lebt und arbeitet in Wien” exhibition in Vienna in 2000 and curated the international Lofoten biennale “To See the world, to feel with your eyes” in 2006. 2010 she curated jointly with Marita Muukkonen the exhibition “Snapshors of tourism” in the Gallery Augusta in Helsinki and 2011 the summer exhibition at Fiskars and 2015 an exhibition of Chinese women video artists “Here Out There” in the auspices of Helsinki Festival.
She worked as professor of the Art and Common Space program for art and architecture students at the Faculty for Art and Architecture/University of Trondheim (NTNU); full time 2004 2006, part time 2006-2013. She was a member of the international evaluation team of the art programs at the Aalto University in 2012. 2012-2014 she has been professor of the new Praxis program at the Helsinki University of the Arts/Fine Arts Academy of Finland. It is a joint program for art and curator students. She has also curated exhibitions in the academies where she has been teaching,

She has had several commissions of trust in Finland and other countries, for instance as a board member of Manifesta, the European biennale, 2001−07, member of the jury of Carnegie Art Award 2002−07, member of the expert committee for the future museum of Contemporary Art in Riga, Latvia 2005-. Since 2016 she is the member of the Advisory Board of the art program Checkpoint Helsinki. She has also written articles and books on contemporary artists and art as well as organized international seminars in Finland and Norway.

Lives in Helsinki.