Mari Sunna

White Shadow, 2018
oil on canvas
40 x 40 cm

MARI SUNNA (b. 1972) has an extremely broad expressive range, from delicate and dream-like paintings to funny and strange works which can be both subtle and uncanny at the same time. The figures in her paintings express something profoundly essential about the human condition.

Levitation, 2019
oil on canvas
120 x 90 cm

Folded, 2019
oil on canvas
115 x 80 cm

Point, 2018
oil on canvas
60 x 60

Bloody Mary, 2019
oil on canvas
110 x 91 cm

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

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

Intrusion, 2018
oil on canvas
110,5 x 90,5 cm

Last Dance, 2016
oil on board
20 x 20 cm
photo Gerhard Kassner

Yet, 2017
oil on canvas
30 x 35 cm

Just Happy, 2017
oil on canvas
65 x 50 cm

Gardener, 2016
öljy levylle
30 x 30 cm

Vertigo, 2011
oil on board
18 x 13 cm

Painter's Dream, 2013
oil on canvas
80 x 120 cm

Opera, 2013
oil on canvas
55 x 50 cm

Hunger, 2013
oil on canvas
80 x 110 cm

Before Whisper
28 Apr – 22 May 2016
exhibition view at Galerie Anhava

Silent Singer, 2016
oil on canvas
90 x 85 cm

Omen, 2013
oil on canvas
120 x 110 cm

Protected, 2016
oil on canvas
100 x 80 cm

textsCVexhibitions

Exhibitions

Texts

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.

Mari Sunna has previously painted young faceless girls in a charmingly rough manner. Disfigured, almost frightening faces. Stylised portraits combined from compact planes of colour. Multiarmed and multilegged figures expressing repeated movement. Depictions of figures and abstract formations made of small cellular units. Compositions of strong contrasts of colour balancing on the borderlines of the abstract and the figurative.

Her newest paintings are more immaterial and spiritual than Sunna’s earlier works. They seem to slip somewhere beyond language and therefore it is difficult to write about them. 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. The extremely thin layers of paint in the works lead at least me to think of innocence, nirvana, and wonderment at the human condition and the beauty of existence. And feeling a connection with something greater to which words cannot build a bridge.

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

  • 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, OsloGalerie 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

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

  • 2018
    • Another World Charity Postcard Sale, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management/Frieze, Lontoo
    • No Dream of Islands, Palfrey Space, Lontoo
    • From Tiepolo to Richter, Museum of Art&History, Brysseli
    • 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, old 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 2012 Öster om solen, vaster om månen, Växjö Konsthall
  • 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 2005 Labyrintti, Fiskars
  • 2004
    • The Hare, MOT, London
    • How Would You Light Heaven? Carlier-Gebauer, Berlin
    • On Reason and Emotion, Sydney Biennale, Sydney
    • Peinture Fraiche – Vasta Maalattu, 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
      Galleries Show
  • 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
    • Homes for Broken Mind Campaign, various venues in Finland
    • Boxing, Myyrmäki House, Vantaa
  • 1998
    • Maarja Gallery, Tallinn
    • 10 m2, BA Fine Art Show of the Free Art School, Cable Factory, Helsinki

ART FAIRS:
2017 Market/Galerie Anhava
Arco/Galerie Anhava
2016 Chart/Galerie Anhava
2014 Chart/Galerie Anhava
2013 The Armory show/Anhava
The Market/Anhava
2011 Art Basel/Anhava
2010 Hong Kong Art Fair/Anhava
Art Copenhagen/Anhava 2008 Market/Anhava
2006 Frieze Art Fair/Lontoo
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, Helsinki, Finland Apoteksbolagets Konstförening, Sweden
Aspen Re Collection
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, Helsinki, Finland The Nelimarkka Foundation, Helsinki, Finland
Nordisk Akvarellmuseet, Sweden
Paulo Foundation, Helsinki
Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland
The Saastamoinen Foundation, Espoo, Finland Saatchi Collection, UK
SOK, Finland
State Art Deposit Collection, Finland
Tampere City, Finland
Tradeka, Finland
Turku Art Museum
Wihuri Collection, Rovaniemi Art Museum, Finland UBS