Biography
Nanna Susi is a Finnish artist. She was born in 1967 in Asikkala, Finland. Susi graduated as Master of Arts in 1999 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. She has also studied painting at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.
In 1998 she painted the altarpiece for the St. Andrew’s Church in Rekola,Vantaa. Susi has had exhibitions in several countries around the world. In 2000 she was chosen as a Young Artist of the Year in Finland. After that and the related exhibition at the Tampere Art Museum her works became known nationwide. The Beato Angelico Prize was awarded for her in Rome 2005.
In 2012-2013 she had a large private exhibition at the Helsinki City Art Museum/HAM. In 2014 Susi was awarded a golden Helsinki-Medal which is the highest acknowledgment given for actions benefiting the city of Helsinki.
Susi is the co-founder of the Blue&Red Art project whose goal is to deepen the intercultural understanding and networking between China and Finland.
In 2018-2023 Susi has had eight private art museum exhibitions: in TangBo Art Museum and X’ian Art Museum, China and in Salo Art Museum Veturitalli, Jyväskylä Art Museum, Joensuu Art Museum Onni, Finland, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Rovaniemi Art Museum Korundi, and Lahti Museum of Visual Arts MALVA. In the Olympic summer of 2024, Susi had an almost half-year-long solo exhibition, All the colors of the world – Toutes les couleurs du monde, at the Finnish Institute in France, Paris.
Nanna Susi has lived in Rome and in Helsinki since 1999. She works both in Rome and in the Kallio district of Helsinki. Kallio is also the location of her studio and art event room nanna susi studio. She has an Italian-Finnish son Raffaello who was born in 2004.
Susi is Finnish for wolf. The roots of Nanna Susi are in Karelia where old surnames are often the names of animals.