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Ville Kansanen (b.1984) is a Finnish multidisciplinary artist based in California.

He works with photography, video, installation- and land art.

Ville is an autodidact whose work has been featured in several print and online publications, such as American Photo Magazine, GUP Magazine, SFAQ and Diffusion Magazine. His awards include a Lucie Award and IPA Fine Art Photographer of the Year. Datz Press published his first monograph in 2022; titled "Numen" after a series of work spanning from 2016 to 2021. He has exhibited in solo- and group shows internationally.

Ville employs the traditions and techniques of photography, land– and installation art to create work that exists and functions within photographic space. Most of his work is made in the desert where geologic time is made visible; where habitable landscape reaches its terminal state; and where cultural memories of ancient religions remain tangible. It is within those conditions that Ville constructs his images, often from several exposures and over long spans of time. He returns to the same desolate locations year-after-year for weeks at a time. Living and working out of his work truck, he constructs installations from wood, boards, native rocks, and soil. Often, he will revive and recycle materials from weathered installations, left on-site from previous months and years. Eventually all the materials are collected – leaving no trace of his presence. For Ville, photography presents a space to form a more profound relationship with Nature.

Solo Exhibitions


2020
Datz Museum

Seoul, South Korea

3-person show

2017
Center for Fine Art Photography

Fort Collins, CO

2016
Galerie Hiltawsky

Berlin, Germany

Group Exhibitions


2022
Space-Be Gallery

Seoul, S. Korea

 
Center for Photographic Art

Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA

2021
Focus PhotoLA

Los Angeles, CA

2017
Griffin Museum

Winchester, MA

2016
In Focus Galerie

Cologne, Germany

 
Gelerie 19

Paderborn, Germany

 
Asmith Gallery

Johnson City, TX

 
Paul Collins Gallery

Grand Rapids, MI

 
Mt. Rokko Photo Festival

Kobe, Japan

 
Galerie Hiltawsky

Berlin, Germany

2015
Center for Fine Art Photography

Fort Collins, CO

2013
Kat Kiernan Gallery

Lexington, VA

 
The Darkroom

New Orleans, LA

2008
Los Angeles Center for Digital Art

Los Angeles, CA

 
OXFAM Charity Exhibition

London, UK

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Awards


2021
Focus PhotoLA

Top 20

Runner-up

2015
Lucie Award

Discovery of the Year

2015
International Photography Awards

Fine Art Photographer of the Year

2014
Kontinent Awards

Fine Art Photographer of the Year

Publications


2022
L’Oeil de la Photographie

Numen

June

2020
Dodho Magazine

Natural Phenomena: Numen

October

2016
Diffusion Magazine

Volume VIII

 
Brennpunkt Magazin für Fotografie

Procession of Spectres at Galerie Hiltawsky

March

 
Art at Berlin

Procession of Spectres at Galerie Hiltawsky

March

2015
The World Weekly

Procession of Spectres

December

 
Pixel Magazine

Chronicling Depression

November

 
American Photo Mag

Photographs of the 2015 Lucie Award Winners

October

 
GUP Magazine

Procession of Spectres

September

 
SFAQ

Damage Control: A Conversation Between Kim Anno & Ville Kansanen

August

 
Dodho Magazine

February 2015

 
L’Oeil de la Photographie

Procession of Spectre

February

Monographs


2022
NUMEN

Datz Press

Edition of 300

Talks & Lectures


2021
Open Show LA #64

September