Artist Profile

Grönlund-Nisunen

Portrait of Grönlund-Nisunen

Tommi Grönlund was born 1967 in Turku, Finland. Grönlund attended the Tampere University of Technology, School of Architecture.

 

Petteri Nisunen was born 1962 in Helsinki, Finland. Nisunen attended Tampere University of Technology, School of Architecture, University of Art and Design, Department of Industrial Design, and had previously studied English Philology at the University of Helsinki.

 

Both artists live and work in Helsinki.

 

Employing relatively simple but sophisticated means, often using magnetism, electric currents, or simple gravitational forces, Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen create quietly evocative and formally striking works.

 

On occasion of awarding the two artists the 2013 Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts, The World Cultural Council wrote: “Their interdisciplinary approach brings together art, design, architecture and science. Their large-scale spatial interventions and public as well as gallery installations involve a variety of materials and technologies, from the use of objects to light and sound. Grönlund and Nisunen deal with space, be it physical, ethereal or sonic. Works tend to change or reshape space and stimulate sensory perception through direct intervention, often with complex technical installations. The artists are not committed to one medium only, but are endlessly curious, capable of moving between disciplines and changing approaches.”

 

Selected solo exhibitions include: Flow With Matter, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2020); Imminence / Time Slip, MMSU, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (2019); Grey Area, Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa (2018) and Helsingin Taidehalli, Helsinki (2017); Grönlund / Nisunen, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee (2004); Grönlund / Nisunen, Centre d’Art Contemporain la Synagogue de Delme (2004); Grönlund / Nisunen, Wäinö Aaltosen Museo, Turku (2004); Tommi Grönlund & Petteri Nisunen. Sound Installation, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2002).

 

Selected group exhibitions include: Art in Space, Space in Art, Sara Hilden Art Museum, Tampere (2023); Wavelength: At the Moment, Times Art Museum, Beijing (2021); With the Eyes of My Mind, Pori Art Museum, Pori (2019); Nine Tomorrows, Powerlong Art Center, Hangzhou (2018); Ghost in the Machine, Stiftung Federkiel, Munich (2017); Freq_Out 11, TBA21–Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2016); Tampere Biennale (2016); Eppur Si Muove, Mudam, Luxembourg (2015); Myth/History II: Shanghai Galaxy, Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2015); Parallax, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City (2014); Matters of Time – Artists from Finland, Frankfurter Kunstverein (2014); The 7th Wave, Kunsthalle Helsinki (2012); Camouflage, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2012); Cage 100 – Opening Spaces for Action, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig (2012); 3rd Moscow Bienniale of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2009); How To Live Together, São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo (2006); The 1st at Moderna Museet, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2004), and 49th Venice Biennale (curated the Nordic Pavillion) (2001).

 

Their work is held in the following public collections: Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation Collection, Rovaniemi Art Museum, Rovaniemi; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; Pori Art Museum, Pori; Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo; Tampere Art Museum, Tampere; Wäinö Aaltonen Art Museum, Turku; Penn State University; Yuz Foundation, Jakarta/Shanghai.