Liisa Kanerva

Basic information

b. 1955, Tornio
Visual Artist
Residence: Helsinki

Contact information

Artist’s Statement

I grew up in Northern Finland, luckily in an environment in which art was highly respected. Therefore I was involved in art from a young age. My early attempts with paints and canvas were encouraged and as a teenager I participated in several important exhibitions of Northern art. Consequently, a career in the field of art was a natural choice.

Currently I live in Helsinki and work mainly as an artist and sometimes as a historian of architecture.

The body of my art works consists of different objects, paintings and drawings. I am an experimentalist, eager to learn new methods of representation, keen to work with varying materials. A common feature of my works is narrativeness, either real or faux. The objects and the pictures often appear like fragments or scenes of some stories. In some cases such stories really do exist but often they don’t.

Thanks for my grounding in architecture and the history art I have become acquainted with many forms of classical and renaissance art and also with classical literature. Often the first ideas for my artistic works spring from there, although I always feel free to develop them without any rules or limits.
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Bio

Liisa Kanerva née Lehto, was born in Tornio, Finland 1955. She grew up in Northern Finland and was involved in art from a young age. Already as a teenager she participated in several important exhibitions of Northern art: (1973) View of the North touring exhibition arranged by Finnish Academy of Art and Ars Arctica, Rovaniemi Art Museum, Finland; (1974) Nordkalott –[Cap of the North] –exhibition, Luleå, Sweden and Art of Lapland Exhibition of the Lappi Province Art Commission at Wäinö Aaltonen Museum in Turku, Finland

Kanerva currently lives in Helsinki and works mainly as an artist and sometimes as a historian of architecture. (She is a docent of the history of architecture in Aalto University and has the Degree in Architecture at the Oulu University and PhD at Helsinki University of Technology, Department of Architecture. Also she had studied history of art and architecture in Italy, at the University of Florence.)

The body of Kanerva’s art works consists of different objects, paintings and drawings. She uses various methods and combines different materials. She delights experimental work, prefers strong lines, vivid colors and hidden meanings.
Her solo exhibitions have been in the Brinkkala Gallery, Turku, Finland (2012) in the Salo Art Museum , Salo Finland. (2010, 2007) in the Galleria Taidepiste, Helsinki Finland (2000), in Barberino val d’Elsa Art Museum, Florence, Italy (1988) and in the Kemi Art Museum, Kemi Finland (1976, 1974, 1972)