Sanna Kannisto
Photo: Veikko Kähkönen
Sanna Kannisto’s oeuvre combines powerful personal narrative with the idea of photography as objective documentation. Her recent photographs relate to the current topic of the terrain that separates the sciences from the arts. Kannisto observes natural phenomena, but also her own individual position as an actor, experiencer or explorer in producing and interpreting the data. She has worked in rain forests and, most recently, in Finland. She investigates not just the curious species of the rainforests and the more familiar Finnish birds, but also metaphors for seeing, and the codes of scientific visualization. Kannisto’s photographs can be viewed as a performance: she creates field studios that function as both a laboratory and a stage for the photographic process. The images focus on plants and animals that we can rarely hope to see in their natural habitats, while the theatrical presentation distances us from the actual subject matter.
Sanna Kannisto (b. 1974, Hämeenlinna) graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 2002. She received the Finnish State Prize for Photographic Art in 2015. In recent years, she has become one of the most successful young photographic artists from Finland. Her most recent solo exhibitions include A Song System in 2018 at the Metronom gallery in Modena, Italy, and Wanderer, Observer and Conveyor, seen as part of the EMOP photofestival 2018 in Berlin. Her solo exhibition at Helsinki Contemporary, Local Vernacular, was also seen in Paris, at Galerie la Ferronnerie in 2015. Kannisto has exhibited around the world for over ten years, in Europe, the USA and South America, e.g.: at the Aperture Gallery, New York, 2011; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2013; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, 2013; Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway, 2017 and Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, 2017–2018. Her work is represented in several public collections abroad, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, and in numerous collections in Finland. In spring 2019, Kannisto will have an extensive solo exhibition at the Centro de la Imagen photography centre in Lima, Peru, and in the summer 2019, she will take part in a group exhibition of Finnish contemporary art at the Busan Museum of Art in South Korea.
Exhibitions
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Apr 2022
09
Jul 2020
10
Jun 2020
Sanna Kannisto's solo exhibition at the Finnish Museum of Photography
Sanna Kannisto's most extensive museum solo to date, Sense of Wonder, is on view at the Finnish Museum of Photography until September 13. A monograph on the artist's work is published in conjunction with the exhibition.Sense of Wonder is a...
28
May 2019
18
Mar 2018
Helsinki Contemporary presents Eeva-Riitta Eerola and Sanna Kannisto at Market 2018
Sanna Kannisto, Papilio machaon (2017) Market Art Fair 2018 Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm 13-15 April, 2018 Preview 12 April Find us in the Main section at Booth 12.Helsinki Contemporary is pleased to present a selection...
24
Oct 2017
Sanna Kannisto in the exhibition of the von Wright Brothers in Ateneum
Sanna Kannisto: Motacilla flava, 2017, pigment ink print 61 x 98 cm | 116 x 185 cmAteneum Art Museum presents the exhibition The von Wright Brothers 27 October, 2017 – 25 February, 2018. The artist brothers Magnus, Wilhelm and...
01
Oct 2016
Sanna Kannisto in exhibition in Tierantomisches Theater Berlin
Sanna Kannisto: Chlorophanes spiza (2010)Sanna Kannisto participates in a group exhibition called Longing of Landscape – Photography in the Anthropocene in Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin. The exhibition features contemporary photographs of...
20
Sep 2016
31
May 2016
Hannaleena Heiska and Sanna Kannisto in Summer exhibition in Galerie La Feronnerie
Sanna Kannisto: Days of Departure 3 (2015), pigment ink print, 55,5 x 96 cm / 78 x 135 cmHannaleena Heiska and Sanna Kannisto participate in the Summer exhibition Rencontres d’été in Galerie La Feronnerie in Paris, France,...
26
May 2016
14
May 2016
Ville Andersson and Sanna Kannisto in screening at Xidan Cultural Square in Beijing
To celebrate 10 years of sister-city relationships the cities of Helsinki and Beijing bring Finnish Culture to Beijing in form of the Moi Helsinki event. The event includes among others a screening with photographic and video art at Xidan Cultural...
02
Dec 2015
Sanna Kannisto awarded with State Prize for Photographic Art
Sanna Kannisto: Mineral Spring (2014), pigment ink -print, 103 x 135 cm.Sanna Kannisto is granted the State Prize for Photographic Art for her artistic work. The National Arts Council for Photographic Art motivates granting the prize as follows:...
11
Mar 2015
Sanna Kannisto and Janne Räisänen nominated for the Fine Arts Academy of Finland art prize
Gallery artists Sanna Kannisto and Janne Räisänen are nominated for the Fine Arts Academy of Finland art prize, now given for the second time. The third nominee is painter Camilla Vuorenmaa.The aim of the prize is to support a...
17
Oct 2012
Sanna Kannisto, Tuomas A. Laitinen & Perttu Saksa in Kiasma’s new collection exhibition
The Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma’s new collection exhibition Tosi Kyseessä (Reality Bites) explores the use of documentarism in contemporary art and the changes of documentarism in different media and their impact on the content of...
05
Apr 2013
23
Oct 2013
16
Apr 2019
04
Apr 2019
12
Apr 2018
18
Oct 2015
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