Essi Kuokkanen: Holding a Cloud

Essi Kuokkanen lends shape to emotions and experiences that stir quietly beneath the surface. In her works, uncertainty crouches behind a fragile shell; spiders spinning their webs evoke the relentless passage of time; and other people appear elusive, like translucent ghosts.

Many of the works in the exhibition revolve around themes of growth and transformation. Beneath the inviting surfaces of her paintings runs a muted undercurrent of melancholy and solitude.

Like in a fable, Kuokkanen reflects on what it means to be human by drawing parallels with other life forms. Dogs appear as recurring figures—creatures bound to the rules and rituals of human life, whether by choice or not. Her more recent works celebrate birds as beings free to follow their own logic, untethered by the rules of human existence.

Essi Kuokkanen (b. 1991, Pieksämäki) is a visual artist based in Helsinki. Her work has been exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as the Turku Art Museum, Rovaniemi Art Museum (Korundi House of Culture), EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, and Galerie Anhava. In 2022, her work was featured in ARS22, a major contemporary art exhibition hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.

Kuokkanen’s works are held in prominent public and private collections, including those of the Finnish National Gallery, the State Art Deposit Collection, the Saastamoinen Foundation, the Turku Art Museum, and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation. In 2019, she received the prestigious Ducat Prize from the Finnish Art Society.