Martti Kukkonen
Basic information
b. 1958, Kontiolahti
Visual Artist, Painter, Environmental Artist
Residence: Helsinki
Contact information
Phone number: +358451200958
Email: marttikuk@gmail.com
Bio
Martti Kukkonen is a visual artist, born in Kontiolahti in 1958. He completed the Academy of Fine Arts of Finland in 1983. After that he has worked as a freelance artist and as an art teacher. Martti Kukkonen has been doing environmental art since 2000. He uses many kinds of materials in his work from natural materials to recycled ones, depending on the nature of the work. The working process always starts from the idea of the art work, which he tries to realize with the most suitable material. Martti Kukkonen has often used light as a material, too and he has also done public light works.Martti Kukkonen`s production is characterized by collective activities and the study of Finnish roots, which has been extended outside his artistic work, too. As a teacher of Art School MAA in the1990s Martti Kukkonen was developing the period-formed education culture, in which the environmental art education played a significant role. He was developing the concept of community art and its cultural activities when he worked as a community artist at the Cultural Office of the City of Helsinki in the 2000s. Furthermore he has worked as a producer of several environmental art happenings.