Anna Nykyri

Basic information

b. 1981, Kaustinen
Visual artist, film director, screenwriter
Residence: Helsinki

Contact information

Artist’s Statement

Anna Nykyri (b.1981, Finland)

Visual artist, film director and screenwriter. Lives and works in Helsinki.

Nykyri holds an MFA from the Finnish Academy of Fine Art in 2011 and an MA in Choreography from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London in 2017. Nykyri uses moving image to create short films, video installations, and choreographic environments.

Her works often explore political, environmental and corporeal themes, covering questions of gender, power and control.

Nykyri has participated in a number of residencies such as ISCP, New York; Barbican Center, London; SIM, Reykjavik; Citè des Arts, Paris.

Nykyri's cinematic works have been screened at over hundred international film festivals, galleries and museums, such as the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russia, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland, Belgrade City Museum, Serbia and Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival, Toronto, Canada
where her film "Five Fragments of the Extinct Empathy" won the main prize in short documentary film category in 2012.

Nykyri has also worked in collaboration with NGO’s such as Amnesty International and UN Women.
Show biography

Current information

Currently I am working in SIM Residency, Reykjavik (June 2023).

Video installation Turquoise (Kaisu Koivisto & Anna Nykyri, 2023) is part of the Unknown Baltic Sea exhibition by John Nurminen Foundation in the sea fortress of Suomenlinna from 17 May to 15 September 2023.

The exhibition is an art-based operation by the John Nurminen Foundation to save the Baltic, bringing together a diverse group of artists for a joint exhibition.

https://johnnurmisensaatio.fi/en/the-unknown-baltic-sea/

 

Bio

As a visual artist and documentary film director (MFA, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts & MA Choreography, Trinity Laban), I work with moving image in the fields of visual arts, film industry, contemporary dance and theatre. I use film and found footage to create documentary films and cinematic video installations.

The themes of my works are often social but also corporeal, for example covering questions of freedom, gender, power and control. I often work in creative collaboration, especially with contemporary dancers and co-operate with institutions and NGO’s, previously worked in collaboration f.e. with Amnesty International and UN Women.

My film works have been screened in over hundred international film festivals, galleries and art museums, i.a. Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Belgrade City Museum, Serbia, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Tampere and Porvoo, Finland, and Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, where my short documentary film (produced by Finnish film production company Oktober) won the Best Short Documentary Film Award in 2012.

I graduated from Finnish Academy of Fine Arts (MFA, 2011) and from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (MA Choreography, 2017). I have also been studying in Slade School of Fine Arts, London (ERASMUS exchange student, 2010) and Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences (BA, 2007). My professors and mentors in Finnish Academy of Fine Arts were Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Salla Tykkä, Liisa Roberts and Veli Granö.

Currently I am continuing my artistic and academic approach in relation to choreographic environment.