Sanna Koskimäki
Basic information
b. 1993, Lappeenranta
Fine artist
Residence: Helsinki
Contact information
Phone number: +358504107271
Email: sannakoskimaki.studio@gmail.com
Artist’s Statement
When I’m asked why I became an artist, I answer: I was already an artist when I came out of my mother’s womb. In other words, I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t making art.
However, I didn’t discover oil painting until my studies at Aalto University, and since graduating with a Master’s degree in Art, I have been working as an artist, mainly painting with acrylic and oil on canvas.
At the university, I explored the posthumanist aspects of art, which led me to create works where animals take center stage, while humans are left in the background as the creators—or destroyers—of the surrounding environments.
In painting, I am fascinated by how I can use inanimate pigments to create living worlds on the surface of the canvas. I paint vistas of posthumanist utopias—places I can gaze upon and, for a moment, forget my own human troubles. Art has an extraordinary ability to reflect the viewer’s inner world, acting like a mirror through which they can see themselves more clearly. The most important aspect of my work is to evoke warm feelings in the viewer—towards themselves and towards the world around them.
My process often begins with a mental image, a feeling, a place, or a subject. As I begin painting on canvas, I always search for a sense of aliveness. A painting is only complete when I feel I could step inside it, or when the animals within it begin to live their own lives before my eyes. A painting can come alive in many ways: through a twinkle in an animal’s eye, the motion of a wave, or a glint of light in just the right place. It is, in essence, a way of telling a story about life.
However, I didn’t discover oil painting until my studies at Aalto University, and since graduating with a Master’s degree in Art, I have been working as an artist, mainly painting with acrylic and oil on canvas.
At the university, I explored the posthumanist aspects of art, which led me to create works where animals take center stage, while humans are left in the background as the creators—or destroyers—of the surrounding environments.
In painting, I am fascinated by how I can use inanimate pigments to create living worlds on the surface of the canvas. I paint vistas of posthumanist utopias—places I can gaze upon and, for a moment, forget my own human troubles. Art has an extraordinary ability to reflect the viewer’s inner world, acting like a mirror through which they can see themselves more clearly. The most important aspect of my work is to evoke warm feelings in the viewer—towards themselves and towards the world around them.
My process often begins with a mental image, a feeling, a place, or a subject. As I begin painting on canvas, I always search for a sense of aliveness. A painting is only complete when I feel I could step inside it, or when the animals within it begin to live their own lives before my eyes. A painting can come alive in many ways: through a twinkle in an animal’s eye, the motion of a wave, or a glint of light in just the right place. It is, in essence, a way of telling a story about life.
