Artist, art journalist & curator
BIO
Athanasía Aarniosuo (b. 1981) is an artist, curator, and art journalist, currently living and working in Vantaa, Finland. She holds an MA in visual cultures, curating, and contemporary art (ViCCA) from Aalto University, an MA in art history from the University of Helsinki and a BA (Hons) in fine art printmaking from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Aarniosuo’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Finland, Scotland, Greece, Estonia, Canada, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and the United States. She has worked at artist residencies in Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Finland, and Canada.
As her most recent curatorial project, Decadence 4ever, Aarniosuo compiled an art publication in which various artists present their memories of the now closed Club Decadence in Athens.
In addition, Aarniosuo has worked in several museums, galleries, and art organisations with managing, production, communications, and coordinating responsibilities since 2003. She has written extensively for magazines and art organisations. In January 2019, she founded the culture communications and printmaking tradename Bucolic Press.
Aarniosuo is a member of the Oksasenkatu 11 collective, the Association of Finnish Printmakers ( a board representative and second vice chair of the board between 2020 – 2022), a frequent contributor and board representative of cultural magazine Mustekala, and a member of Grafia (the association of visual communication designers in Finland), Vantaa Artists’ Association, and the Finnish Society for Curators SKY ry. Since 2022, she has held the dual position of executive director of the Finnish Comics Society and artistic director of Helsinki Comics Festival.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My artistic and curatorial practice appreciates the beauty of human experience through creating and sharing subjective stories.
In my own artistic practice, I work in a variety of media, always telling and re-telling stories. Works on paper illustrate the often unrealistic beauty of each shared experience, while a textual approach investigates the narrative that I wish to create for myself and for others. The places and events I portray are factual as well as fictional, combining memories with dreams, representation, and interpretation. In my recent art, I use nostalgic memories of my youth in Athens in the 1990s. The memories are entangled with teenage emotions, music, bands, and the streets and clubs of the city.
In my curatorial work, I focus on working together and experiencing collaboratively, collecting and combining reactions to and interpretations of shared memories. I fall in love with every person I meet who shares with me a part of their story. With every chance meeting, with every connection, with every secret told, more stories are created.
The stories I share and collect are personal and emotional. I am overly dramatic and much too sensitive. I sometimes try to hide this part of my personality, but I believe it shouldn’t have to be this way – for me or for anyone.
presentations
AN ARTICLE ABOUT “THE NOSTALGIA EP” AND “UNORIGINAL SCORE” PROJECTS IN UUMEN MAGAZINE (IN FINNISH)
A SHORT STORY FROM “THE NOSTALGIA EP” GRAPHIC NOVEL PUBLISHED IN MUSTEKALA MAGAZINE
BLOG POST ABOUT THE “SILKKIUIKKU” PROJECT (IN FINNISH)
ARTICLE BY NOORA VILEN (IN FINNISH)
DIALOGUE WITH KATI LESKINEN ABOUT THE WORK “MEMORY MEADOW” (IN FINNISH)
INTERVIEW BY NELLA HEISKANEN IN KOTKAVIESTI MAGAZINE (IN FINNISH)
ARTICLE ON FEMINIST PRACTICES BY SELINA OAKES
PRESENTATION OF THE WAITING ROOM (PRACTISING BUILDING A NEST)
