ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Penni Vasama is a Helsinki/Finnish-born artist, also based in Paris. Vasama is a doctoral candidate in art, at the University of Lapland. She holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University for the Creative Arts, UK, and a Bachelor's degree in Theoretical Philosophy from Helsinki University. Vasama's paintings have been exhibited in Finland, Switzerland, and France, and are held in private collections across Europe and the UK.
Vasama’s work is experimental in terms of media and mediums, yet rooted in large-scale, abstract-leaning, and expressive painting. She creates layers of mixed mediums that range from self-made natural paints to fine arts materials, allowing her to form a unique, tangible sense of texture. Vasama’s canvases are openly emotive, and redefine the perception of vulnerability through the transmission of energy and raw power. She combines her expressive work with intellectual research, with projects ranging from her own experiences with homelessness to her current research on conventional gendered subject-object relationships in fine art and media.
Vasama was formerly also a professional snowboarder, worked as a writer, film director, and cinematographer, and was deeply involved in the realm of experimental, extreme sports journalism and documentary filmmaking.
Photo copyright Oona Österman