Mari Sunna

Servant, 2020
oil on canvas
41 x 41 cm

In private collection

MARI SUNNA is a completely distinctive artist, who invariably manages to evoke a sense of familiarity while remaining enigmatic at the same time, fluctuating somewhere between our shared reality and spiritualised hallucinations. Sunna’s sensitivity, vigour, and confidence that borders on sleepwalking are qualities that are impossible to miss. The soft surface of the works glows with colour and dim light, shapes become bodies, limbs, organs, faces. The subtle, breathing intensity characteristic to the artist is accompanied by an independent, freely mutating form. Employing visual references from sexual and scientific imageries, Sunna distils them into impactful and lucidly focused images in which shapes stretch, become abstract, coalesce, unfold.

Mari Sunna (b. 1972) has held numerous solo exhibitions and taken part in group exhibitions at venues such as The Hole, New York; CLC Gallery Venture, Beijing; EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art; Galerie Burster, Berlin; Museum of Art and History, Brussels; Palfrey Space, London; Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; and Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan. Sunna’s works are part of several important art collections, such as M WOODS Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Aspen Collection, Deutsche Bank, the Nordic Watercolor Museum, the Saatchi Collection, and the UBS Art Collection. She was shortlisted for the Art Fennica Prize in 2005.

Untitled, 2023
pencil on paper, framed
14,5 x 11 cm / 31 x 28,5 cm

In private collection

Mari Sunna
8 Feb – 3 Mar 2024
Installation view

Photo: Jussi Tiainen

Untitled, 2023-24
oil on canvas
85,5 x 81 cm

Eremites, 2021
oil on canvas
80 x 100 cm

In private collection

Paintings
28 Oct – 21 Nov 2021

exhibition view

Pigeon Man, 2021
oil on canvas
65 x 65 cm

In Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma Collection

White Shadow, 2018
oil on canvas
40 x 40 cm

In Saastamoinen Foundation collection

Remnant
7 Feb – 3 Mar 2019

exhibition view

Bloody Mary, 2019
oil on canvas
110 x 91 cm

In Miettinen Collection

Silent Singer, 2016
oil on canvas
90 x 85 cm

In private collection

Erase, 2018
oil on canvas
70,5 x 65,5 cm

Protected, 2016
oil on canvas
100 x 80 cm

In Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma Collection

Selection of available works. For the full list, please contact galerie(at)anhava.com

Untitled, 2023
oil on canvas
100 x 90 cm

Untitled, 2022
pencil on paper
15,5, x 12 cm
framed: 31 x 28 cm

Untitled, 2023
oil on canvas
110 x 79,5 cm

Paradise, 2021
oil on canvas
71 x 80,5 cm

Care, 2021
oil on canvas
85,5 x 80,5 cm

Nefer, 2021
oil on canvas
40,5 x 40,5 cm

Light Angles, 2019
oil on canvas
110 x 80 cm

Captive, 2018
oil on canvas
105 x 110,5 cm

Dawn, 2004
Inkwash on paper
21,5 X 29 cm

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BioCVExhibitions

Exhibitions

Bio

MARI SUNNA (born 1972) is a completely distinctive artist. Every work by her reveals immediately from whose thinking, mind and brush it comes. The mark of her hand and the simultaneous power, sensitivity and precision of her painting are easy to recognise.

And yet she is in a continuous process of renewal. Time and again she surprises viewers with new subjects, new ways of painting and new emotions. What endures and remains recognisable is the somnambulistic assurance and sensuousness of her touch and the instinctive feel for what each painting needs in order to be completely itself.

Examples of Sunna’s previous works include paintings of faceless girls and faces that are almost terrifying to behold. Stylised portraits joined together by compact colour surfaces and characters with multiple arms and legs that express a multiplicity of motion. Portraits composed of small, cell-like structures and abstract compositions. Spiritualised, almost incorporeal female figures.

A characteristic of Sunna is how she instinctively applies all the knowhow and skills that she has gained from painting. In this sense, the paintings do not have any conceptual point of departure, of claiming something beyond the painting itself, bearing witness to something else than themselves. They just exist, breathing at the boundary of the material – which is what a painting is necessarily at all times – and the immaterial. It is easy to see traces of Sunna’s longstanding interest in the boundary between figurative and abstract art in the paintings. The reality portrayed in her works fluctuates somewhere between the magic of Tarot cards, our shared reality, and spiritualised hallucinations. They evoke in the viewer a sense of perplexity, and joy.

CV

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MARI SUNNA

Born 1972, Espoo, Finland

STUDIES
1999–2000 Chelsea College of Art and Design, MA Fine Art, London
1994–1998 Free Art School, Helsinki
1989–1994 Lahti Design Institute, Lahti

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2024
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2021
    • Paintings, Galerie Anhava, Finland
    • Passed, Galerie Burster, Karlsruhe
  • 2020
    • Passed, Galerie Burster, Berlin
  • 2019
    • Remnant, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2016
    • Before Whisper, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2013
    • Between the Two, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2011
    • Maladies of Innocence, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2008
    • Winter Pictures, The Approach W1, London
    • Ichduersiees, Otto Dix House, Gera
  • 2007
    • Everynoanysomeone, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art; Turku Art Museum; Eskilstuna Art Museum
  • 2005
    • Intermission, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2004
    • The Approach Gallery, London
  • 2002
    • Finsk-Norsk Kulturinstitutt, Oslo
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2001
    • Galerie Anhava, Project Room, Helsinki
    • The Approach, London
  • 2000
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 1999
    • Gallery of the Finnish Institute, Stockholm
    • A Scent More Mature Than Childhood, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 1998
    • Gestures, Cable Gallery, Helsinki

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

  • 2023
    • The Way We Are, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen
    • Control group, CLC Gallery Venture, Beijing
    • Yrjö Kukkapuro – Magic Room, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo
  • 2022
    • Universes 5, The Hole, New York
    • Touch Me: Nudes from the Miettinen Collection, Kunstraum Potsdam, Potsdam
  • 2018
    • Another World Charity Postcard Sale, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management/Frieze, London
    • No Dream of Islands, Palfrey Space, London
    • From Tiepolo to Richter, Museum of Art & History, Brussels
    • People in Focus – works from the collection of the Heino Art Foundation, Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa
  • 2017–18
    • State of the Art – Contemporary Art from the State Deposit Art Collection, Riihimäki glass factory, Riihimäki; Kemi Art Museum, Kemi; The Aine Art Museum, Tornio
    • Stripped, Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki
    • Somewhere, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta
  • 2016
    • From Heino with Love, HAM Helsinki Art Museum
    • Touch – Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art
  • 2015–16
    • Dark Days, Bright Nights, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City
    • Women’s Weapons: Lipstick & Tears? Sara Hilden Art Museum, Tampere
  • 2015
    • Icons, Maison Particulière, Brussels
    • Don’t Shoot the Painter, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan
    • The Milky Way 2, La Fondazione Pianoterra Onlus, Roma
  • 2011
    • Kind of Nice, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
    • Silmäniloja, Imatra Art Museum, Imatra
    • Silent Wishes, Oksasenkatu 11, Helsinki
  • 2010
    • The Head, The Approach Gallery, London
  • 2009
    • Annorlunda Verkligheter, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm
    • Modern Classics and New Acquisitions, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere
  • 2008
    • Re-Reading the Future, The International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Prague
  • 2007
    • Haava, Gallen-Kallela Museum, Espoo; Rauma Art Museum, Rauma
  • 2006
    • Contemporary Finnish Painting, Galerie Christian Roellin, St. Gallen
    • Motion on Paper, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London
    • 25th Anniversary of Deutsche Bank Collection, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
  • 2005
    • Ultimate Indoors, 3 Colts Lane, London
    • 25th Anniversary of Deutsche Bank Collection, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin
    • No Painting, Tallinn Kunsthalle, Tallinn
    • Labyrintti, Fiskars
  • 2004
    • The Hare, MOT, London
    • How Would You Light Heaven?, Carlier-Gebauer, Berlin
    • On Reason and Emotion, Sydney Biennale, Sydney
    • Peinture Fraiche, Le Triage, Nanterre
  • 2003
    • Inside Out, Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes
    • Dirty Paintings, The Approach, London
  • 2002
    • S.1972, Kunsthalle Helsinki
    • Chamois, MOT, London
    • Kultur-Raume Norden: An der Schwelle des Unbekanten, Bayer, Leverkusen
  • 2002
    • Contemporary Art in London, Royal Academy, London
    • Nausea: Encounters with Ugliness, Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham; London Print Studio, London
  • 2001
    • Brighton Icons, THE CAP, Brighton
    • Art in St Magdalene Church and Crypt, CAP, London
    • Baltic Painting Biennale, Väsby Art Exhibition Hall, Sweden
    • Polarflex, Aroma Project Space, Berlin
  • 2000
    • MA Fine Art Show, Chelsea College A & D, London
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 1999
    • Many Ways of Painting, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
    • Brainstorm, Goldsmith College of Art, London
    • Cable Gallery, Helsinki
    • Borey Art Gallery, St Petersburg
  • 1998
    • Maarja Gallery, Tallinn
    • 10 m2, BA Fine Art Show of the Free Art School, Cable Factory, Helsinki

ART FAIRS
2017 Market/Anhava, ARCOmadrid/Anhava
2016 CHART/Anhava
2014 CHART/Anhava
2013 The Armory Show/Anhava, Market/Anhava
2011 Art Basel/Anhava
2010 Hong Kong Art Fair/Anhava, Art Copenhagen/Anhava
2008 Market/Anhava
2006 Frieze Art Fair
2005 Art Basel Miami Beach/Anhava, Art Basel/Anhava
2004 Brussels Art Fair/Anhava, The Armory Show/The Approach, Stockholm Art Fair/Anhava
2003 Frieze Art Fair/The Approach, Berlin Art Forum/Anhava, The Armory Show/The Approach, Stockholm Art Fair/Anhava
2002 Liste-Young Art Basel/The Approach, The Armory Show/The Approach, Stockholm Art Fair/Anhava
2001 Stockholm Art Fair/Anhava

WORKS IN COLLECTIONS
Amos Anderson Museum, Finland
Apoteksbolagets Konstförening, Sweden
Aspen Collection, UK
Deutsche Bank, Germany
Franche-Comté, France
Frank Cohen Collection, UK
HAM Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland
Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Finland
KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland
Finland The Nelimarkka Foundation, Finland
M Woods, China
Nordisk Akvarellmuseet, Sweden
Paulo Foundation, Finland
Sanders Collection, Netherlands
Sara Hildén Art Museum, Finland
The Saastamoinen Foundation, Finland
Saatchi Collection, UK
SOK, Finland
State Art Deposit Collection, Finland
Tampere City, Finland
Tradeka, Finland
Turku Art Museum, Finland
Wihuri Collection/Rovaniemi Art Museum, Finland
UBS Art Collection, Switzerland