Anni Kinnunen (1978) is a visual artist whose most important instrument is photograph, but she also works with video art and installations.
Kinnunen is settled in a strong line of Finnish artists that use performing art in pictures, but her photographs are not self-portraits. The characters in the images represent people in their role-plays, reflecting the atmosphere of our time and the moods of the artist.
Kinnunen uses her body as part of her working method, in which the body and its memory become part of the works. The movement seen in the pictures is created through the movements of the artist’s body, adding the element of chance to the carefully prepared shooting situations.
Kinnunen's photographs are shot in actual situations. She succeeds in avoiding the imagery usually used to imitate naturalness so totally that her photographs could never be considered true. They are, in the end, very true, although they often look like surrealistic games.
During the past two decades, Kinnunen’s works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Japan, China, Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Italy, Iceland, Denmark, Luxembourg, USA and Canada. In Finland, she has participated in events such as the Young Artists exhibition of Kunsthalle Helsinki (2009), the Snowball Effect Northern Finland Biennale (2012, 2014, 2016) and Mänttä Art Festival (2013, 2018). Her works are included in the collections of the Oulu Museum of Art, the Finnish State Art collection.
