I am a Helsinki-based visual artist (MA). In my paintings, I focus on urban nature, plants, and gardens—everyday environments that invite us to pause, observe, and reconsider our relationship with the natural world. Plants and gardening are also a long-standing passion and an important part of my daily life. I work primarily with painting, using acrylics, watercolours, and tempera.
My process often begins with an observation made on site, a photograph I have taken, or an archival image. These serve as a framework for the subject matter and atmosphere of the painting, while colour plays a central role from the outset. At the same time, chance, shifting plans, and the merging of figurative, abstract, and fictional elements are essential to my practice. My work situates itself within the continuum of Finnish landscape and nature painting, while approaching these themes from a contemporary, lived perspective.
Along with observing my current environment, I am interested in archival photographs and what they reveal about past relationships with the environment in comparison to the present. I have worked with images from the Helsinki City Museum’s archive, among others, using them as a starting point for large-scale paintings that reinterpret monochrome photographs through my own sense of colour and mood.
Contact: harkonen.sanna[at]gmail.com, https://www.instagram.com/sanna_harkonen
EDUCATION
- 2017 BA-Degree program in Social Services. Metropolia UAS. Helsinki, Finland.
- 2014 Master’s Degree program in Fine Arts. University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland
- 2007 BA–Degree program in Fine Arts. École supérieure d’arts de Rueil-Malmaison, France
ARTISTIC WORK – SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 04/2026 Solo exhibition, Toinen Silmä Gallery, Helsinki (forthcoming)
- 02/2026 Kaupunki Luonnossa / Urban Nature, Galleria Kajava, Helsinki
- 2025 Look! Do you remember this? Gallery of Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden
- 2014 Familiar Strangers. Huuto Jätkäsaari Project Space. Helsinki.
- 2012 Inside upside-down. Galleria Alkovi, Helsinki
- 2011 House of day, house of night. Kalasatama Container square, Helsinki
- 2010 Living Room – Camera Obscura. Galleria 3h+k, Pori, Finland
- 2009 Living Room. Galleria Rajatila, Tampere, Finland
- 2009 Danube fell down the bridge. With Catherine Bürki. Liget Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
- 2008 The passers-by. Finnagora, The Finnish cultural institute in Budapest.
- 2008 The weight of lightness. With Ninni Wager. Liget Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
ARTISTIC WORK – GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- 2025 Kukoistus. Galleria Blossom Point, Helsinki
- 2025 Rituals – Group exhibition. Toinen Silmä Gallery, Helsinki.
- 2019 Invited artist in Catherine Burki´s exhibition Retour de résidence, Urban Gallery, Marseille, France.
- 2018 Different Feeling. Namsan Gallery, Soul, Korea.
- 2013 Mutsit Metsossa. Gallery of Metso library, Tampere comic festival.
- 2012 Away and Here. Aralis gallery, Helsinki
- 2012 Mum’s – comics and drawings. Arabianranta library, Helsinki
- 2011 Tightrope walking. Kalleria Galleria, Helsinki
- 2010 Crossing Tracks. Nordiska Travmuseet, Årjäng, Sweden
- 2010 Koti (Home). Haihara Art Center, Tampere, Finland
- 2009 Revolutionary Decadence–Foreign Artists in Budapest since 1989. Museum Kiscell, Hungary
- 2008 Dedans. Galerie Sycomore Art, Paris, France
- 2008 Art of Basware. Sanomatalo. Helsinki, Finland.
- 2008 Draw In. 00130Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
- 2008 Exhibition of new members. FKSE´s Studio Gallery. Budapest, Hungary