Essi Maaria Orpana is a visual artist currently based in Helsinki, Finland. At the moment Orpana works mainly with photography and video and recently the artist has started adopting more installation-driven approach to her artistic work. Her themes deal with body and presence interrelated to time, space and identity. Characteristic to Orpana's work is to perform to or with a camera. Her approach to artistic work is personal, often with an uncanny twist.
Born in 1988, Orpana holds a BA from visual arts from Turku University of Applied Science Art Academy and is currently finishing her MA studies in photography at Aalto University, School of Arts. Orpana has also studied fine arts at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain.
Lately her works have been exhibited in a solo show in Turku Kunsthalle, Turku, Finland (2020), curated group show in Latvian Museum of photography, Riga, Latvia (2019) and in Gallery Lapinlahti in Helsinki, Finland (2018).
