BIO

Leena Mertanen (b. 1986, Finland) is a multidisciplinary artist who examines ethics, culture, sexual roles and what it is to be in her distinctive works that often lack the context of time. She uses analogue cameras in her more conceptual series and herself as a model in the absurd, dark, humorist, emotional self-portraits making personal universal, combining often unexpected technical elements and purist experimental approach to modern photography. Drawing inspiration from all kinds of cultural history including fashion, music, films and literature, her visual style is filled with popular cultural references and intellectual psychological analysis on the human condition. Her works are in private collections worldwide. She lives and works in Finland. Mertanen is sponsored by KD Fine Art Solutions (London, UK)

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ARTIST STATEMENT

There are things that no one can say but at least I try. How could I ever be specific and the truth

about existence when I am not even sure am I real? My attempts to decapitate being into tangible or

abstraction have lead me having almost 1000 signed-off works, many in private collections, and I

would like to consider myself as multidisciplinary artist but in reality I just learn and explore new

medias and mediums because I am driven and utterly curious about how to present my inner visions

in new, maybe experimental ways.

I have studied art since I was 15, later academically in Finland at the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki

(Kuvataideakatemia). The process is on-going and after 20 years I think I may have managed to

scratch the surface. Pursuing my need to tell stories has resulted bodies of works about loneliness, happiness, isolation,

heartbreak and the fundamental feeling of the human condition which hit me pretty hard during my

trauma-victim years later becoming trauma-survivor me. Having experienced the brutality of evil in

us, it became sadly an inspiration to express the war in myself and I always ended up losing it, even

when I won.

I don’t consider myself ”talented”. I consider myself lucky, that I can always find something new to

express and angles to get a great spin from; and hard-working because I want to honor the time I

have dedicated to art each time I turn a new page in my studio. Being an artist is quite close to being

a researcher (which was a gold-medalist as a career choice until high school) as I have discovered;

it really is about failing long enough in something, until I find the factor that prevents the successful

outcome. It just really thrills me and although I haven’t exhibited often, my processes are hard,

heavy, sometimes beautiful to watch - hear - see - sense - or witness. Some could say that the

isolation I have felt so deeply because of my trauma-related health condition may have created the

constructional architect in me who builds bridges everywhere instead of walls.

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