In her works, Hanna Kanto has dealt with the processes and changes taking place in the northern nature, often from a scientific point of view. Recently, however, her work has focused on human presence and agency, and the paintings have depicted how figures busy themselves in the woods or with logging as a physical, often amusing, and laborious performance. From berry pickers and crazed mushroom foragers pestered by mosquitoes, the gaze is now drawn to the trees of the forest, and the busy hands that collect and saw them. Wood is present both as a motif and as a material, as the different connections, networks and agencies of the forest are depicted through the means of contemporary painting.
In Kanto’s works, the natural environment familiar to Finns emerges as both functional and complex. She approaches her theme from a personal perspective, while highlighting the forest’s ecological, economic, utilitarian and mythical layers of meaning. The combination gives the situations and phenomena a playful and occasionally surreal atmosphere. Organic and industrial motifs, abstract elements and tools whose aesthetics borrow from the natural sciences refer in a multifaceted way to our relationship with nature and to the exploration, collection, organisation and exploitation of natural resources, which are such typical behaviours of our species. The themes are also extended to posthumanist reflections on the importance of perceiving and appreciating nature.
Hanna Kanto (born 1981) is a visual artist from Tornio, who now lives and works in Helsinki. She works mainly with painting, but also uses other techniques, such as ceramics, either in independent works or as a part of her paintings. Since completing her master’s degree in art at the University of Lapland in 2007 and her master’s degree in visual art at the Academy of Fine Arts in 2022, Kanto has had several solo and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad. In the spring of 2025, her works will be seen at the Turku Art Museum and at Havremagasinet Länskonsthall Boden.
The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency. The artist’s work has been supported by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation.
